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The stories in
The Angels of Perversity are key examples of early Symbolist prose shaped and inspired by the French Decadent consciousness and must rank among the best short stories of the 1890s.The tone of the stories is unique, with an unusual mixture of decadence and eroticism, balanced by an ironic and sentimental view of the world.
"Anatole France called Remy de Gourmont (1858-1915) the 'greatest living French writer'. The stories Francis Amery has collected and translated under the not inappropriate title
The Angels of Perversity are from the first half of Gourmont's career, when, as a writer of short fictions he established himself as a significant figure in the Symbolist movement." --Adrian Tahourdin in
The Times Literary Supplement
About the author
Remy de Gourmont (1858-1915) came from an aristocratic Normandy family which had fallen on hard times. He abandoned his law studies & obtained a badly paid job at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris in 1884 which he lost in 1891 for writing an article
Le Joujou-Patriotisme (Patriotism, a toy) for the magazine
Mercure de France & became a full-time writer. He is considered as one of the finest critics associated with the Symbolist movement. The stories collected together under the title
The Angels of Perversity are case studies of sexual attraction.
