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 […]
Category: Personae
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 […]
A Nero Of Our Time
Cold, elegant and aloof, Boris Lermontov is the “attractive brute” at the center of “The Red Shoes,” the 1948 cinematic masterpiece by Powell & Pressburger. […]
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 […]
The Amateur Of Fashion
The Amateur of Fashion By SC Hall The St. James’s Magazine, 1862 Towards the conclusion of the first decade of the present century, a young […]
The Very Model Of A Modern Major Minor
All dandies have their rituals. On a typical morning in the years just after the Second World War, Osbert Lancaster would rise about nine to […]
The Prince Of Chic
It’s not often one happens upon a gem in the papers, especially one with something poignant and propitious to say about the body dandiacal. Well, […]
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, […]
Born To Be Wilde
Oscar Wilde was controversial almost from the start. The languid pose he struck during his days at Magdelen College, Oxford in the 1870s would become […]
Dapper Fellows
In the spring of 1934, a gentleman with a neatly trimmed mustache casts an eye in the direction of the door to an office waiting […]
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 […]
Blackwood’s On Brummell
Beau Brummell From Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 1844 Article unsigned Minor edits by Moonstone Research and Publications Image: Richard Mansfield as Beau Brummell, 1907 All things […]
Hazlitt’s Brummelliana
Brummelliana By William Hazlitt, 1828 Image: Detail from 1924 movie poster We look upon Beau Brummell as the greatest of small wits. Indeed, he may […]
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 […]
King Of Fashion
Beau Brummell From “Miscellaneou Works Vol 1: Habits And Men” By John Doran, 1857 The Distinction of Nash was his impertinence; the characteristic of Orlando […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Beau Of Our Times
The Beau of Our Times From Apparel Arts, Spring 1933 Article unsigned “If there were no God,” said Voltaire some little time before he embraced […]
Overrated Hero
Book Review of “The Life of George Brummell, Esq.” By Captain Jesse Littell’s Living Age, 1844 Article unsigned Why on earth was such a subject […]
Radical Wolfe
Tom Wolfe has been gone long enough to warrant a documentary. “Radical Wolfe” debuted last week. Below, the trailer; above, portrait by Everett Raymond Kinstler.
Romeo & Internet
Romeo Coates By Max Beerbohm, 1896 Even now Bath glories in his legend, not idly, for he was the most fantastic animal that ever stepped upon […]