Variations of Decadence: Reflections on Julian Barnes’ The Man in the Red Coat

Abstract

Why are we drawn to decadence? The reasons would surely be self-evident, the volupté quality of decadence not being the least of them. Nevertheless, there is some value in asking the question. It prompts reconsideration of various assumptions on the allure of decadence. Additionally, it provokes reflection on why we might be drawn away from decadence. This article looks at those issues in the context of reference to variations of decadence, not overlooking the insights that might be derived from a more or less straightforward, vernacular understanding of the term. Among the writers referred to are Spenser, Pope, Johnson, Arnold and E. M. Forster, but the argument centres on discussion of Julian Barnes’s The Man in the Red Coat (2019). Possibly best described as an example of documentary essayism, The Man in the Red Coat is about the figure, previously largely overlooked, of Samuel Jean Pozzi: an eminent gynaecologist and ‘scientific rationalist’ who moved easily within the circles of Belle Epoque Paris and was well-acquainted with many of the celebrités within decadence and aestheticism. This article argues that in portraying the man and his complex relation with that tradition, the volume offers both finely researched and stylishly inventive ground for reappraisal of decadence and of the reasons why, like Pozzi, we might hold some distance from it even while being beguiled by it.