After 21 years, Dandyism.net founder Christian Chensvold has passed the role of editor and publisher to Nathaniel Adams, author of the “I Am Dandy” book […]
Category: Categories
Unemployed Hercules
What does the superior man — Julius Evola’s aristocrat of the soul, or man of Tradition — do in an age of mediocrity and machines, […]
Heroism In Times Of Decadence
Baudelaire’s 1863 essay on dandyism, after characterizing the tradition as a “strange sort of spirituality,” declares it “the last stroke of heroism in times of […]
King Of The Dandies
The magnificent creature you see above is Boson de Talleyrand-Périgord, prince de Sagan (1832-1910). Sagan is the Missing Link in the Dynasty of Dandies. Perhaps that’s […]
Robert de Montesquiou
Robert de Montesquiou: The Magnificent Dandy From “Elegant Wits And Grand Horizontals” By Cornelia Otis Skinner, 1962 In a charming book of memoirs Elisabeth de […]
Opposition & Revolt
The Dandy From “The Painter of Modern Life,” 1863 By Charles Baudelaire Translation by P.E. Charvet The wealthy man, who, blasé though he may be, […]
A Man For Times Of Decadence
From “Essai de psychologie contemporaine: Charles Baudelaire” by Paul Bourget La Nouvelle Revue 13, 1881 If a special nuance in the meaning of love and […]
New Regency: 20 Years Of Dandyism.net
When Christian Chensvold, Dandyism.net’s founder and guiding light for the past two decades, asked me to write a post commemorating the site’s twentieth anniversary, I […]
Treatise On Elegant Living
Every era has its particular expression of elegance. But while that expression is forever in flux, the principles that govern it are fixed and eternal. […]
The Joker’s Riled
“La chair est triste, helas, et j’ai lu tous les livres.” When I was younger, those lines of Mallarmé used to haunt me. This was back […]
Aristocratic By Nature
From “New Notes On Edgar Poe,” 1857 By Charles Baudelaire Decadent literature! Empty words which we often hear fall, with thes onority of a deep […]
I Lock The Door Upon Myself
In 1900 Fernand Khnopff had a house built according to his plans — a house with false windows. Silence and solitude were central themes in the […]
The Prophet Of Dandyism
If it weren’t for Barbey d’Aurevilly, you probably wouldn’t be reading this. What do we mean? That if he hadn’t been born this week in […]
Dandyism & Decadence
From “The Idea of Decadence in French Literature” By AE Carter, 1958 Dandy and decadent are fused in Baudelaire’s work and life. He affected an […]
Spleen On Me
Since 1863, a certain type of young man — talented perhaps, but not creative; spiritual and philosophic, yet with expensive tastes; dismissive of commercial success, […]
Wit & Wisdom
“Style is the dress of thought.” — Lord Chesterfield “A dandy does nothing. Can you imagine a dandy addressing the common herd except to make […]
The Canon
This list of canonical texts has not been updated since the belle epoque of Dandyism.net circa 2006, but perhaps it will be someday. Principal Texts […]
Beerbohm’s “Dandies & Dandies,” 1896
Dandies and Dandies By Max Beerbohm, 1896 Image: detail of a portrait by William Rothenstein, via Merton College How very delightful Grego’s drawings are! For […]
Symphony In Spite
Being accosted by a fellow American in London put Gilded Age painter and dandy James Abbot McNeill Whistler into a caustic funk. When the uppity […]
The Eccentric Mr. Brummell
Beau Brummell From “Eccentric Personages,” 1864 By W. Russell It is a solemn truth that every death-bed is the final scene of a great tragedy, […]
The Vice Of High Civilization
Beau Brummell From “Wits and Beaux of Society” By Grace and Philip Wharton, 1861 It is astonishing to what a number of insignificant things high […]