The Men of the Nineties

The author surveys the artistic and literary ferment of the 1890s in England, tracing how French symbolist and impressionist currents, artists and journals, and figures such as Beardsley, Wilde, and George Moore helped shift tastes toward art for art’s sake and aesthetic rebellion against late-Victorian conventions. He charts personal relationships, cross-Channel influences, stylistic tendencies, and the movement’s social milieu, assessing successes and excesses while mapping connections between painting, poetry, and criticism across successive chapters that combine biographical sketches with cultural analysis.