The Story of Venus and Tannhauser (1907)

This is what you get when you cross a piece of Victorian erotica with a Decadent's imagination and a rather better quality of writing.

I have a pretty big vocabulary, but I had to look up dozens of words to get through this. My favorite new word: susurrus. I love the way Beardsley plays with language. ( )

Beardsley is more of an artist than a writer apparently, the drawings in this are quite odd looking. Its about a man who goes to a party under the hill much like the opera above, except Venus is referred to as Helen in this instance.
After the party the protagonist does a sort of list of his favorite erotic pictures and novels and then its pretty much over.
I don't really get it, its supposed to be filth and i got the occasional hint of that with women wearing false-mustaches and certain suggestive elements at the end between Helen and her pet unicorn Adolphe... but it felt pointless. ( )

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. ( )