Description

Aubrey Beardsley and British Wagnerism in the 1890s is an interdisciplinary study of the influence of Richard Wagner on the work of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898). The study considers Beardsley’s pictorial and literary versions – or perversions – of Wagner’s operas. It explores the role of Wagnerism within British culture of the 1890s, in particular the relations between Wagnerism and the decadent movement.

CONTENTS

Introduction: Wagnerism in Britain in the 1890s
1 Decadents and Wagnerites: Beardsley and Wilde
2 The pathology of pleasure: decadent sensibility and affective art
3 Wagnerites en masse: the audience as spectacle
4 Commercialism and consumerism: Wagnerism in The Savoy
5 Antiquarianism and national identity: Under the Hill
6 Concluding the cycle: Das Rheingold
Epilogue: framing the decade
Select bibliography
Index