Beauty and the beast: Christina Rossetti, Walter Pater, R.L. Stevenson and their contemporaries

Description

1994 marked the centenary of the deaths of Walter Pater, Christina Rossetti and Robert Louis Stevenson, andBeauty and the Beast is largely devoted to an exploration of aspects of their lives and their writings, and the role they played in the development of British literature. Both individually and as a group, these writers offer interesting opportunities to investigate a distinctive ambivalence in the literature of the last three decades of the nineteenth century. Thus we may observe how Pater as the founder of Aestheticism in British literature addressed the Victorian dilemma how to live inMarius the Epicurean; how Rossetti's poetry expresses both spiritual and erotic tendencies, while Stevenson'sThe Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is perhaps the epitome of the fin-de-siècle tension between good and evil, beauty and beast. Yet the scope of this book also includes an examination of the relationships between these three authors and their contemporaries, and of their setting, on the British Isles as well as on the Continent. Thus George Moore makes his appearance, next to Anton Chekhov, Arthur Schnitzler, Oscar Wilde, Alain Fournier and Louis Couperus. The various discussions of these French, German, Russian, Italian, Irish and Dutch connections in this book reflect the international setting of the European fin-de-siècle as a background against which the theme of Beauty and the Beast is discussed.Contributors are: Wim Tigges, C.C. Barfoot, Jan Marsh, Valeria Tinkler-Villani, Amanda Gilroy, Peter van de Kamp, Billie Andrew Inman, Laurel Brake, Peter Costello, Ans Kabel, Douglas S. Mack, Tim Youngs, Neil Cornwell, Sjef Houppermans, Jacques B.H. Alblas, John Stokes, Susan de Sola Rodstein. Title Page Copyright Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST CHRISTINA ROSSETTI IN AND OUT OF GRACE THE SPIDER'S SHADOW: CHRISTINA ROSSETTI AND THE DARK DOUBLE WITHIN CHRISTINA ROSSETTI'S ITALIAN POEMS CHRISTINA ROSSETTI: SISTERS, BROTHERS AND THE "OTHER WOMAN" WRAPPED IN A DREAM: KATHARINE TYNAN AND CHRISTINA ROSSETTI APPENDIX WALTER PATER'S VERSATILITY AS A CRITIC AFTER STUDIES: WALTER PATER'S CANCELLED BOOK, OR DIONYSUS AND GAY DISCOURSE IN THE 1870s WALTER PATER, GEORGE MOORE AND R.L. STEVENSON THE INFLUENCE OF WALTER PATER IN DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE AND THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY DR JEKYLL, MR HYDE, AND COUNT DRACULA STEVENSON'S MONKEY-BUSINESS: THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYU AND MR HYDE TWO VISIONARY STORYTELLERS OF 1894: R.L. STEVENSON AND ANTON CHEKHOV ROBERT, ALEXANDRE, MARCEL, HENRI, JEAN ET LES AUTRES: R.L. STEVENSON AND IDS "FRENCH CONNECTIONS" APPENDIX THE EARLY PRODUCTION AND RECEPTION OF STEVENSON'S WORK IN ENGLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS OSCAR WILDE: THE BEGINNING OF THE END KIPLING'S DECADENT EMPIRE: THE LIGHT THAT FAILED AND THE FIN-DE-SIÈCLE BRUTALITY UNDER THE MASK OF ELEGANCE: FIN-DE-SIÈCLE VIENNA IN ARTHUR SCHNITZLER'S DRAMA LOUIS COUPERUS, THE DUTCH OSCAR WILDE, ON BEAUTIES AND BEASTS FREDERIK VAN EEDEN ON STEVENSON AND PATER NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS