Literary Rogues (35 page)

72
I am truly glad
: Charles Baudelaire,
The Letters of Charles Baudelaire to His Mother
(New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1928), p. 45.

72
had some qualities
: Ibid., pp. 44–45.

73
Her legs were spread out
: Charles Baudelaire,
The Flowers of Evil
, trans. Jonathan Culler (London: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 59.

73
the way to rejuvenate Romanticism
: Margaret Gilman,
The Idea of Poetry in France
(Boston: Harvard University Press, 1958), p. 246.

73
refinements of excessive civilization
: Benjamin R. Barber,
The Artist and Political Vision
(New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1982), p. 32.

73
carcass literature
: Charles Baudelaire,
The Flowers of Evil
, p. xix.

73
Never, in the space of so few pages
: Enid Starkie,
Baudelaire
(London: Faber and Faber, 1971), p. 313.

74
in mourning for
Les fleurs du mal
: Hemmings,
Baudelaire the Damned
, Kindle edition: location 3177.

74
It is impossible to scan any newspaper
: Charles Baudelaire,
The Essence of Laughter and Other Essays, Journals, and Letters
, trans. Peter Quennell (New York: Meridian Books, 1956), p. 195.

74
Always you join with the mob
: Hemmings,
Baudelaire the Damned
, Kindle location 3801.

75
I detest Paris
: Ibid., location 3622.

75
an inner weight of woe
: Jay Parini,
Theodore Roethke, An American Romantic
(Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 1979), p. 150.

75
One must always be intoxicated
: Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine,
Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine
:
Selected Verse and Prose Poems
, ed. Joseph M. Bernstein (New York: Citadel Press, 1947), p. 131.

76
Here in this world
: Edward K. Kaplan,
Baudelaire's Prose Poems
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2009), p. 32.

76
poisonous stimulants seem to me
: Charles Baudelaire,
On Wine and Hashish
, trans. Andrew Brown (London: Hesperus, 2002), p. 66.

76
Hashish, like all other solitary delights
: Baudelaire,
The Essence of Laughter and Other Essays, Journals, and Letters
, p. 104.

77
a dandy of the brothel
: Clarence R. Decker,
The Victorian Conscience
(New York: Twayne Publishers, 1977), p. 68.

77
to blow out his brains
: Hemmings,
Baudelaire the Damned
, Kindle location 3716.

78
now you can get dressed again
: Ibid., location 4192.

78
won himself a name in literature
: Ibid., location 725.

9: THE FRENCH DECADENTS

81
preposterously French
: Victor Plarr,
Ernest Dowson 1888–1897
(New York: Laurence J. Gomme, 1919), p. 22.

81
disregard everything our parents have taught us
: Compton Mackenzie,
Robert Louis Stevenson
(London: Chapman and Hall, 1950), p. 11.

81
my whole life a failure
: Ernest Mehew, ed.,
Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), p. 29.

81
the heaviest affliction
: Ibid., p. 29.

82
bewilder the middle classes
: Holbrook Jackson,
The Eighteen Nineties
(London: Kennerly, 1914), p. 161.

82
an infant Shakespeare
:
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
38 (1911): p. 371.

82
You have caused my misfortune
: Arthur Rimbaud,
A Season in Hell
, trans. Oliver Bernard (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), p. 19.

83
the sufferings are enormous
: Richard Ellman,
The Modern Tradition: Backgrounds in Modern Literature
(London: Oxford University Press, 1965), p. 203.

83
Come, dear great soul
: Stefan Zweig,
Paul Verlaine
, trans. O. F. Theis (Boston: Luce, 1913), p. 39.

83
It was upon absinthe that I threw myself
: Barnaby Conrad,
Absinthe: History in a Bottle
(San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996), p. 25.

84
The first stage of absinthe
: Ibid., p. viii.

84
in very respectable places
: Phil Baker,
The Book of Absinthe: A Cultural History
(New York: Grove Press, 2003), p. 72.

84
diabolical powers of seduction
: Ibid., p. 67.

85
People are saying I'm a pederast
: Graham Robb,
Rimbaud
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), p. 210.

85
Have you any idea how ridiculous you look
: Ibid., p. 213.

85
I retaliated, because I can assure you
: Ibid.

86
London, Friday afternoon
: Ibid., p. 214.

86
blow his brains out
: Joanna Richardson,
Verlaine
(New York: Viking Press, 1971), p. 116.

86
you have disgraced yourself with Arthur
: Robb,
Rimbaud
, p. 217.

87
It's for you, for me
: Jean Marie Carré,
A Season in Hell: The Life of Arthur Rimbaud
(New York: Macaulay, 1931), p. 138.

87
He was still trying to prevent me
: Robb,
Rimbaud
, p. 220.

88
penis is short
: Ibid., p. 224.

88
my heart, which beats only for you
: Paul Verlaine, “Green,”
Topic
, no. 35 (Washington, PA: Washington and Jefferson College, 1981), p. 31.

90
prince of poets
:
The Contemporary Review
, Vol. 74 (London: Ibister, 1898), p. 892.

10: THE ENGLISH DECADENTS

91
alcohol taken in sufficient quantity
: Richard Ellman,
Oscar Wilde
(New York: Knopf, 1988), p. 562.

91
I never could quite accustom myself
: Ellman,
Oscar Wilde
, p. 40.

91
Dowson is very talented
: Jad Adams,
Madder Music, Stronger Wine: The Life of Ernest Dowson, Poet and Decadent
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2000), p. 145.

92
Whisky and beer for fools
: Desmond Flower and Henry Maas, eds.,
The Letters of Ernest Dowson
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1967), p. 441.

92
The sight of young Englishmen
: Plarr,
Ernest Dowson 1888–1897
, p. 23.

92
We will cut a long story short
: Ibid., p. 103.

93
Absinthe has the power of the magicians
: Flower and Maas, eds.,
The Letters of Ernest Dowson
, p. 441.

93
exceedingly violent poison
: Gustave Flaubert,
The Dictionary of Accepted Ideas
, trans. Jacques Barzun (New York: New Directions, 1967), p. 13.

93
conquered my neuralgia
: Flower and Maas, eds.,
The Letters of Ernest Dowson
, p. 175.

93
you here again, Mr. Dowson
: Adams,
Madder Music, Stronger Wine
, p. 102.

93
sober, he was the most gentle
: Arthur Symons,
Studies in Prose and Verse
(New York: E. P. Dutton, 1922), p. 267.

93
to be always a little drunk
: Adams,
Madder Music, Stronger Wine
, p. 23.

94
I tighten my belt
: Ibid., p. 117.

94
so persistently and perversely wonderful
: Ibid., p. 144.

94
one of the high priests
: H. Montgomery Hyde, ed.,
The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
(London: University Press, 1948), p. 12.

95
Nothing but my genius
: H. Montgomery Hyde,
Oscar Wilde: A Biography
(London: Methuen, 1975), p. 63.

95
We spend our days
: Oscar Wilde,
The Complete Writings of Oscar Wilde: What Never Dies
, trans. Henry Zick (New York: Pearson, 1909), p. 88.

95
He dressed as probably no grown man
: Harry Paul Jeffers,
Diamond Jim Brady: Prince of the Gilded Age
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001), p. 50.

95
caricature is the tribute
: Robert Andrews, ed.,
The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), p. 39.

96
the power of my affection for Oscar Wilde
: Hyde,
Oscar Wilde: A Biography
, p. 213.

96
posing as somdomite
: Ibid., p. 252.

97
blackmailers and male prostitutes
: Neil McKenna,
The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
(New York: Basic Books, 2006), p. 381

97
a particularly plain boy
: Gustaaf Johannes Renier,
Oscar Wilde
(Edinburgh: P. Davies Ltd., 1933), p. 115.

97
no such thing as a moral
: Hyde, ed.,
The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
, p. 109.

97
the train has gone
: Ibid., p. 152.

98
the love that dare not speak its name
: Ibid., p. 209.

98
procurer of young men
: Ibid., p. 123.

98
there is not a man or woman
: Gary Schmidgall,
The Stranger Wilde
(New York: Dutton, 1994), p. 273.

99
We are not Realists, or Romanticists
: Arthur Symons, “Editorial Note,”
The Savoy
, no. 1 (London: Leonard Smithers, 1896), unnumbered page.

99
it was like cold mutton
: Hyde, ed.,
The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
, p. 311.

100
The Morgue yawns for me
: Oscar Wilde,
The Letters of Oscar Wilde
, trans. Rupert Hart-Davis (London: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962), p. 708.

100
You'll kill yourself, Oscar
: Frank Harris,
Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions
, Vol. 2 (New York: Frank Harris, 1918), p. 538.

100
Literature has failed for me
: Adams,
Madder Music, Stronger Wine
, p. 166.

101
I have no lungs left to speak of
: Plarr,
Ernest Dowson 1888–1897
, p. 23.

101
supremely unhappy
:
The Book Lover: A Magazine of Book Lore
, Vol. 2 (San Francisco: Book-Lover Press, 1901), p. 88.

11: THE LOST GENERATION

103
I was drunk for many years
: F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Crack-Up
(New York: New Directions Publishing, 2009), p. 191.

103
All gods dead
: F. Scott Fitzgerald,
This Side of Paradise
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921), p. 304.

104
to human happiness
: Thomas C. Rowe,
Federal Narcotics Laws and the War on Drugs: Money Down a Rat Hole
(New York: Haworth Press, 2006), p. 14–15.

104
Prohibition was a personal affront
: Elizabeth Anderson and Gerald R. Kelly,
Miss Elizabeth
(New York: Little, Brown, 1969), p. 90.

105
You are all a lost generation
: Jeffrey Meyers,
Ernest Hemingway: The Critical Heritage
(London: Psychology Press, 1997), p. 360.

105
dead within two
: Andrew Turnbull, ed.,
The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald
(New York: Charles Scribner's and Sons, 1963), p. 457.

105
He wasn't popular with his schoolmates
:
Atlantic Monthly
186 (1950): 70.

105
one complete birthday cake
: Arthur Mizener,
The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald
(New York: Avon Books, 1974), p. 34.

106
an outbreak of new heroines
: Matthew Joseph Bruccoli,
F. Scott Fitzgerald in His Time: A Miscellany
(Kent State, OH: Kent State University Press, 1971), p. 264.

106
The uncertainties of 1919
: Fitzgerald,
The Crack-Up
, p. 87.

107
after a few moments of inane conversation
: Bruccoli,
F. Scott Fitzgerald in His Time
, p. 266.

107
the most attractive type in America
: Matthew Joseph Bruccoli and Judith Baughman, eds.,
Conversations with F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004), p. 31.

107
tried to drink myself to death
: Fitzgerald,
The Crack-Up
, p. 253.

107
a rather pleasant picture
: Bruccoli and Baughman, eds.,
Conversations with F. Scott Fitzgerald
, p. 59.

108
We were married and we've lived
: Ibid., p. 34.

108
too ostentatious for words
: Leslie Frewin,
The Late Mrs. Dorothy Parker
(New York: Macmillan, 1986), p. 71.

108
That young man must be mad
: Mizener,
The Far Side of Paradise
, p. 155.

109
There's no great literary tradition
:
The Saturday Review
43 (1960): 54.

109
If I knew anything
: Bruccoli and Baughman, eds.,
Conversations With F. Scott Fitzgerald
, p. 8–9.

109
riding in a taxi one afternoon
: F. Scott Fitzgerald, “My Lost City,” in Alexander Klein, ed.,
The Empire City: A Treasury of New York
(New York: Ayer, 1971), p. 429.

110
because it seemed more fun
:
Atlantic Monthly
187 (1951): 66.