At last a sympathetic study of the age of The Yellow Book and The Savoy has been written which deals comprehensively and on original lines with "the age of patchouli" in our literature. The writer attempts nothing beyond a direct survey of what he calls "the work of the men of the nineties proper." Among many interesting details of the age, this work deals with: The origin of the Yellow Book Group of Writers, Beardsley as the outstanding figure of this group, The Yellow Book and The Savoy, with
...their Editors, The Fiction of these writers who produced no great novel, but who brought the Short Story to England from France as an artistic production, including a study of Crackanthorpe. The profusion of its poetry, with vignettes of John Gray of "Silverpoints" fame, Ernest Dowson, John Davidson, Theodore Peters, and others. The essayists of the day - Lionel Johnson, Max Beerbohm, and others. To which is added a note on the Drama. The spirit of this age of nerves is then dealt with in a very interesting conclusion, and the majority of its work is described as "impressions of the abnormal by a group of Individualists." To all lovers of the dainty works of this period, which was killed by the Boer War, this book will come as a charming surprise, for it is intensely appreciative and illuminative.
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