Petit Glossaire Pour Servir A L'Intelligence Des Auteurs Decadents Et Symbolistes

Published in 1888, this glossary is the only work of its kind produced by Decadent and Symbolist writers themselves, and is full of definitions as mystifiying as the words they claim to define. It offers both a scholarly and humorous examination of linguistic innovation, and shows how literary language remains subtler and more alive than any of the instruments designed to explain it. It includes such luminaries as Mallarme, Rimbaud, Laforgue and Verlaine, as well as such writers as Feneon, Moreas and Rene Ghil.