One challenging aspect of this blog will be posting reactions to works I’m currently reading, as well as attempting to retrace my path as I initially became interested in Decadent literature (with recommendations for good and not-so-good places to start). I’ll need to be clear which posts are which! I recently finished Robert Scheffer’s novella Prince Narcissus (1896). It’s an outstanding example of a recurring motif in Decadent literature: a fabulously wealthy, handsome, intellectual young man of high position alienated by the vulgarity and stupidity of contemporary human society. Scheffer’s protagonist, Prince Mitrophane Moreano, becomes fascinated by his own beauty and - not surprisingly if you’ve read much Decadent literature - fascination soon becomes neurotic obsession. As Moreano ages and tries to preserve his looks or delude himself about them, Prince Narcissus becomes a deliciously morbid gothic tale about the cruelty of mortality. Moreano is forever comparing his own d...