PREFACE
“I love this word decadence all shimmering in purple and gold… the word suggests the most refined thoughts a civilation can produce… a noble soul capable of the most entense enjoyments… a soul capable of intense pleasures. It throws of bursts of fire and the sparkle of precious stones. It is the mixture of the voluptuous mind and wearied flesh… it is redolent of the rouge of courtesans the games of the cirus the panting of the gladiators the spring of wild beasts the consummation in flames of races exhausted by their capacity for sensation…” Pual Verlain quoted in Guy Ducrey (ed) Romans fin-de-siecle 1890-100 (Paris Laffont 1999, p.xxv1)