{"product_id":"decadence-and-catholicism-9780674194465","title":"Decadence and Catholicism","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe decadentsincluding Wilde, Baudelaire, Huysmans, Pater, and Verlainefound in the Catholic Church a peculiar language that gave them a means of artistic and sexual expression. Hanson shows how Catholicism offered both the hysterical symptom and the last hope for paganism amid the dullness of Victorian puritanism and bourgeois materialism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhoever comes to this book would do well to leave facile preconceptions behind...What is most refreshing about Hanson's approach is that he takes the spirituality [of the writers he examines] every bit as seriously as he does their aesthetic. Indeed he sees the two as inextricably bound...At a time when many people would rather be thought of as invalids than sinners, it is stimulating to read a work that takes seriously the notion that the urgings of the flesh can serve as a foundation for spiritual growth...That one makes the acquaintance, along the way, of Firbank's 'absurdly named Pope Tertius II' is only one among many added bonuses in a book as entertaining as it is learned. -- Frank Wilson * Philadelphia Inquirer *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eDecadence and Catholicism\u003c\/i\u003e examines the intersections of Catholic, aesthetic and erotic discourses, particularly in the works of J.K. Huysmans, Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. There is a long chapter devoted to each of these three 'decadents,' as they have been familiarly described, a representation with which Hanson has no quarrel. He then considers several lesser-known authors: John Francis Bloxam, John Gray, André Raffolovich, Frederick William Rolfe, Montague Summers and Ronald Firbank. Hanson's precise, vivacious and often witty style enhances the quality of his overall scholarship. In his treatment of each writer, he mingles biography and summary with full, varied and deeply textured interpretation. -- Paul C. Doherty * America *\u003cbr\u003eHanson examines 19th-century aesthetes who found in the Roman Catholic Church an outlet for artistic and sexual expression. Many writers, such as Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, and Walter Pater, have been attracted to the improbable mixture of chaste devotion and homoeroticism that exists in the materialistic Church...Hanson studies these writings of sexual pleasure as an important element of religious experience as well as a source of inspiration for the writers. -- Leo Vincent Kriz * Library Journal *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction    The Dialectic of Shame and Grace   Perfect Wagnerites   Christianity as Paradis Artificiel   Verlaine's Amour   In Praise of Shame      Huysmans Mysterique   Unconscious Unction   Conversion Hysteria   Christianity by the Back Door   Refined Thebaids    Pater Dolorosa   Pater Noster   Renaissance and Resurrection   Virgin Marius   Monkish Miracles    The Temptation of Saint Oscar   Christ for Christ's Sake   Ritualism and Dandyism   Seduction and the Scarlet Woman   The Confessional Unmasked    Priests and Acolytes   Fragrant Prayers   Father Silverpoints   Pio Corvo   Saint Oscar Redivivus    Conclusion    Notes   Index    Illustrations    The Wagnerites, by Aubrey Beardsley   The Ascension of Saint Rose of Lima, from Aubrey Beardsley's Under the Hill (1895)   Engraving of Charcot at the Salpêtrière   Drawing of Saint Philip, from Charcot and Richer's Les Demoniaques dans l'Art (1887)   The Crucifixion (1512-1516), by Matthias Grunewald (detail)   Salome Dancing before Herod (1876), by Gustave Moreau   \"Height of Fashion\" (1866), from Punch   \"Selling off!\" (1851), from Punch   John and Salomé by Aubrey Beardsley, from Oscar Wilde's Salomé (1892)   \"A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing\" (1877), from Punch","brand":"Harvard University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51359092310359,"sku":"9780674194465","price":35.06,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780674194465.jpg?v=1754123548","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/decadence-and-catholicism-9780674194465","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}