Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898)

An effervescent amuse-bouche (recipe within!) for anyone with a palate for Firbank, Pasti, Wilmot, Wittkop, Petronius, Aretino, Suetonius. Not for the burger and fries crowd. Clearly.

Most people consider Salome as Beardsley's pinnacle of artistic expression, but I'm hard pressed to consider anything but the Rape of the Lock as his most intense work. His characterization is perfection - from the period clothing to the livid facial expressions - and the variance of detail is nothing less than superb.

The rest of the collection is a bit of a let-down though. Beardsley's skill doesn't diminish, but I found the abundance of decorative work (covers, bookplates, etc) to be a show more touch blasé. show less

This is the heavily edited version of Beardsley's bawdy novelette, Venus and Tannhauser. This version first appeared serialized in Leonard Smither's journal, The Savoy. The full/very naughty version was published by Smithers in 1907, without the illustrations, ten years after Beardsley's death and against his dying wishes. Smithers may be forgiven, as he at least seemed genuinely to have cared for Beardsley, giving him hope - and work - in his few remaining years (Smithers was also at death show more and destitution's door at the time of publication).

This edition, also neutered, is an example of timid John Lane's feeding off the bounty of the dead artist he fired from The Yellow Book staff two years before his death. Both Smithers and Beardsley were dead when Lane published Under the Hill. show less

Just didn't do much for me. High-brow erotica? What's the point? To me, it was too formalized to be erotic and just came across as slightly silly.