Matthew Potolsky is Associate Professor of English at the University of Utah.

• Introduction. "Workers of the Final Hour"Chapter 1. "Partisans Inconnus": Aesthetic Community and the Public Good in BaudelaireChapter 2. The Politics of Appreciation: Gautier and Swinburne on BaudelaireChapter 3. Golden Books: Pater, Huysmans, and Decadent CanonizationChapter 4. A Mirror for Teachers: Decadent Pedagogy and Public EducationChapter 5. A Republic of (Nothing but) Letters: Some Versions of Decadent CommunityPostscript. Public Works: StÉphane MallarmÉ's "Le Tombeau de Charles Baudelaire"NotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"A new understanding, full of fresh detail and local insight, and it will take an important and indeed essential place in the growing body of scholarly work in this field. . . . A welcome contribution to the understanding of the cultural politics of late nineteenth-century decadence." (Victorian Studies) "Potolsky offers a fresh and original contribution to the study of decadence and succeeds in showing how the movement is not a dusty relic of the nineteenth century, but a provocative and relevant intervention into contemporary issues. In true decadent manner, Potolsky approaches his subject perversely, arguing that we should look not at what decadence rejects but instead at what its proponents valorize. The result is a perspective that emphasizes engagement over withdrawal and renunciation. Decadence emerges from this analysis an exciting, revitalized ideology, one that suggests new ways of approaching contemporary debates." (Melanie Hawthorne, Texas A&M University)

Matthew Potolsky is Associate Professor of English at the University of Utah.

• Introduction. "Workers of the Final Hour"Chapter 1. "Partisans Inconnus": Aesthetic Community and the Public Good in BaudelaireChapter 2. The Politics of Appreciation: Gautier and Swinburne on BaudelaireChapter 3. Golden Books: Pater, Huysmans, and Decadent CanonizationChapter 4. A Mirror for Teachers: Decadent Pedagogy and Public EducationChapter 5. A Republic of (Nothing but) Letters: Some Versions of Decadent CommunityPostscript. Public Works: StÉphane MallarmÉ's "Le Tombeau de Charles Baudelaire"NotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"A new understanding, full of fresh detail and local insight, and it will take an important and indeed essential place in the growing body of scholarly work in this field. . . . A welcome contribution to the understanding of the cultural politics of late nineteenth-century decadence." (Victorian Studies) "Potolsky offers a fresh and original contribution to the study of decadence and succeeds in showing how the movement is not a dusty relic of the nineteenth century, but a provocative and relevant intervention into contemporary issues. In true decadent manner, Potolsky approaches his subject perversely, arguing that we should look not at what decadence rejects but instead at what its proponents valorize. The result is a perspective that emphasizes engagement over withdrawal and renunciation. Decadence emerges from this analysis an exciting, revitalized ideology, one that suggests new ways of approaching contemporary debates." (Melanie Hawthorne, Texas A&M University)

Matthew Potolsky is Associate Professor of English at the University of Utah.

• Introduction. "Workers of the Final Hour"Chapter 1. "Partisans Inconnus": Aesthetic Community and the Public Good in BaudelaireChapter 2. The Politics of Appreciation: Gautier and Swinburne on BaudelaireChapter 3. Golden Books: Pater, Huysmans, and Decadent CanonizationChapter 4. A Mirror for Teachers: Decadent Pedagogy and Public EducationChapter 5. A Republic of (Nothing but) Letters: Some Versions of Decadent CommunityPostscript. Public Works: StÉphane MallarmÉ's "Le Tombeau de Charles Baudelaire"NotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"A new understanding, full of fresh detail and local insight, and it will take an important and indeed essential place in the growing body of scholarly work in this field. . . . A welcome contribution to the understanding of the cultural politics of late nineteenth-century decadence." (Victorian Studies) "Potolsky offers a fresh and original contribution to the study of decadence and succeeds in showing how the movement is not a dusty relic of the nineteenth century, but a provocative and relevant intervention into contemporary issues. In true decadent manner, Potolsky approaches his subject perversely, arguing that we should look not at what decadence rejects but instead at what its proponents valorize. The result is a perspective that emphasizes engagement over withdrawal and renunciation. Decadence emerges from this analysis an exciting, revitalized ideology, one that suggests new ways of approaching contemporary debates." (Melanie Hawthorne, Texas A&M University)