As Dr. Dowling demonstrates, literary Decadence in this linguistic and cultural context was to reveal itself as a mode of Romanticism demoralized by philology. Decadent writers like Paler and Wilde and Beardslcy sought to preserve a few precious fragments from what they imagined--and paradoxically welcomed--as England's imminent decline and fall. "Dowling produces a dazzling series of rereadings. . . . [Her] book is essential reading for anyone wanting to follow debates about decadence."---Bruce Gardiner, Victorian Studies