Delineating Decadence: The Influence of J.-K. Huysmans on Arthur Symons

Abstract

Argues that reading Huysmans’ A Rebours turned Symons into a Francophile and student of Continental literature, later influencing his delineation of Decadence, which he modified and labeled Symbolism. Claims Symons helped this novel become a kind of guidebook for young, impressionable British poets. Symons combines comments in “The Decadent Movement in Literature,” an astute reaction to the epoch of decadence created by A Rebours, with critical responses to Huysmans’ En Route and La Cathédrale into a chapter in The Symbolist Movement in Literature, now widely considered one of the most significant volumes of modern criticism on the movement’s genesis.