Brian M. Stableford – Moral Ruins

Brian M. Stableford (ed.) – Moral Ruins: The Dedalus Book of Decadence (Dedalus, 1993:  originally, 1990)

Gustave Moreau

Introduction – Brian M. Stableford

Charles Pierre Baudelaire – To the Reader (verse)
Jean Lorrain – The Glass of Blood
Paul Verlaine – Languor (verse)
Rachilde – The Grape-Gatherers of Sodom
Arthur Rimbaud – After the Deluge (verse)
Remy de Gourmont – Danaette
Charles Pierre Baudelaire – Litany to Satan (verse)
Catulle Mendès – The Black Nightgown
Charles Pierre Baudelaire – The Double Room (verse)
Jean Lorrain – The Possessed
Paul Verlaine – Spleen (verse)
Remy de Gourmont – The Faun
Arthur Rimbaud – The Drunken Boat (verse)
Rachilde – The Panther
Charles Pierre Baudelaire – Spleen (verse)
Catulle Mendès – Old Furniture
Charles Pierre Baudelaire – Don Juan in Hell (verse)
Remy de Gourmont – Don Juan’s Secret
Oscar Wilde – Theoretikos (verse)
Aubrey Beardsley – The Court of Venus
Algernon Charles Swinburne – Satia Te Sanguine (verse)
Ernest Dowson – The Dying of Francis Donne
Eugene Lee-Hamilton – Baudelaire – (verse)
Robert Murray Gilchrist – The Basilisk
Lionel Johnson – Magic (verse)
Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock – The Other Side
Ernest Dowson – Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae (verse)
John Davidson – A Somewhat Surprising Chapter
James Elroy Flecker – The Translator and the Children (verse)
Vernon Lee – Pope Jacynth
John Davidson – Insomnia (verse)
Oscar Wilde – The Nightingale and the Rose
Lionel Johnson – Vinum Daemonum (verse)
Ernest Dowson – Absinthia Taetra
Eugene Lee-Hamilton – The Ring of Faustus (verse)
James Elroy Flecker – The Last Generation

Blurb:

Every aspect of the first edition of the Dedalus Book of Decadence (Moral Ruins) received praise, from the cover (Times Higher Education Supplement), the introduction (The Independent), the choice of stories (City Limits), to the whole book (Time Out).
It was a critical and commercial success, which featured in the Alternative Bestsellers List.
A few comments about the first edition:
“The Dedalus Book of Decadence looks south to sample the essence of fine French decadent writing. It succeeds in delivering a range of writers either searching vigorously for the thrill of a healthy crime or lamenting their impuissance from a sickly stupor”.
Andrew St. George in the Independent.
“an invaluable sampler of spleen, everything from Baudelaire and Rimbaud to Dowson and Flecker. Let’s hear it for luxe, calme et volupte”
Anne Billson in Time Out
Also available from Brian Stableford: The Second Dedalus Book of Decadence: the Black Feast and The Dedalus Book of British Fantasy: the 19th Century.