Review: Arthur Symons, Spiritual Adventures, ed. by Nicholas Freeman (MHRA, 2017)

Abstract

It is probably safe to say that, with the exception of a few anthologized lyrical poems, Arthur Symons is best known for his critical rather than his creative work. And no wonder, for his criticism was instrumental in the theorization of that curious formation known as decadence: his 1893 essay ‘The Decadent Movement in Literature’, later expanded and retitled The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899), was among the first attempts to unify what he called those ‘little separate cliques [of] brainsick young people’ – mystical poets, naturalist fiction writers, painters in the style of Japonisme – into a coherent tradition. To the extent that he staked a claim for decadence as a serious movement worthy of critical study, Symons remains the unofficial patron saint for our research endeavours in Volupté and elsewhere.