Dancing with Salom\u00e9 unmasks the occult aspects of Oscar Wilde\u2019s celebrated tome The Picture of Dorian Gray, whilst exploring how the unseen manifested not just in the famous author\u2019s life but in that of his love interest, Lord Alfred Douglas. The gilded backdrop to their ill-fated liaison was the Decadent movement, a literary and artistic feast of the divine and debauched which redefined the lines of male beauty. Curiously, Aubrey Beardsley, the most renowned illustrator of the Decadents, refused to keep any of Oscar Wilde\u2019s books in his home, as he believed, like many of his friends, that the playwright was accursed. Beardsley\u2019s theory is not as far-fetched as it seems if one takes into account the doomed lineages from which both Oscar and Lord Alfred Douglas were descended.<\/p>
Through a series of interlinking essays, Nina Antonia takes us to meet the Decadent demi-monde of the 1890\u2019s with whom Wilde and Douglas mingled. Whilst eroticism and mysticism were key themes of the Decadents, there was also a surge of interest in ritual magic, enabled by the flowering of the \u201cGolden Dawn\u201d \u2013 the most significant esoteric order in England\u2019s history. Wilde\u2019s wife, Constance, was a member, as was W.B. Yeats, alongside Aleister Crowley and Arthur Machen. All would play a part, directly or indirectly, in the drama of Oscar Wilde\u2019s enchanted & accursed life.<\/p>
142 pages, 5 x 8″. Available as paperback, hardback, and e-book. The e-book is available here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>