A Baedeker of Decadence: Charting a Literary Fashion, 1884-1927 by George C. Schoolfield Bohemia in London: The Social Scene of Early Modernism by Peter Brooker (review)

Abstract

214 Reviews of reference to Borges and his essay 'The Library of Babel': the microcosm mirrors the macrocosm, the book is a reflection of the entire library,while the library is both universe and labyrinth, infiniteand unknowable. These and related ideas provide the inspiration fortwo chapters, by Marie-Therese Garcia and Anne-Sophie Huguet, on the Spanish writer Perez-Reverte, whose novels are exceptionally rich in intertextual allusion and set multi-layered enigmas forthe reader to solve. For instance, Le Tableau du maitreflamand, 'une metaphore de l'ecriture et de l'exercice litteraire' (p. 61), pre? sents a complex detective story in which author, characters, and reader are all involved in attempting to solve a crime committed fivehundred years earlier and apparently re? vealed in a fifteenth-centurypainting by Van Huys featuring a symbolic chess game. Other chapters show, rather more straightforwardly, how the private libraries and early reading of Julien Green (Anne Cecile Pottier-Thoby) and Henri Troyat (Rai'ssa Telechova) play an important role in their writings, and how Zola (Tone Smolej) fleshes out some of his characters by describing their formative reading. A number of articles, placed somewhat randomly in the collection, bring a welcome historical perspective to the general theme. In discussing libraries in the Renaissance Francois Roudaut indicates the low levels of literacy and the existence in Paris of over two hundred private libraries of between one and three hundred books, with an average of twenty. Some larger libraries are also described, as are early methods of classification and cataloguing, made necessary by developments in book production. Francois Moureau discusses a typical 'homme-bibliotheque' of the eighteenth cen? tury,Abbe Jean-Joseph Rive, more interested in the books themselves than in their content. He provides an insight into the evolution of libraries, fromthose in the previ? ous century owned by aristocrats, interested in culture and tradition, to contemporary ones belonging to the 'nouveaux riches', who saw the possession of books as affording them social standing. Jocelyne Missud-Juramie's chapter regretting the modern neg? lect of troubadour literature, despite the revival of interest in these works in the Romantic era, constitutes a rather more tenuous link with the library theme. Two authors, Michel Mestre and Michel Tailland, discuss the interesting history of two important Alpine Club libraries, one in Munich, said to be the largest in the world, and the other in London, which claims to possess the largest collection of books on mountaineering . Finally, in a chapter in Italian, Cesare Vasoli considers the contribution of a great librarian, Pope Nicholas V, who had two passions, for books and architecture. The exceptional library he established in the fifteenthcentury formed the basis ofthe present Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, one of the great European libraries. As can be seen, this collection of articles is quite varied and has potentially a wide appeal, but it is probable that the more historical studies will be of greatest interest to the bibliophile or student of libraries. Although no mention is made of it here, a sequel, La Bibliotheque, z, is due to be published in Babel in 2006. It is to be hoped that far more care will be taken with editing in that volume than is the case here. Leeds Susan Dolamore A Baedeker of Decadence: Charting a Literary Fashion, i884-ig2j. By George C. Schoolfield. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2003. xvi + 4i5 PP- ?30- ISBN 0-300-04714-2. Bohemia in London: The Social Scene ofEarly Modernism. By Peter Brooker. Ba? singstoke and London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2004. xiii + 204 pp. ?45. ISBNo333 -98395-5. An elementary comparison of these two books, Brooker's which studies London, and Schoolfield's which, at twice the length, has astonishingly detailed discussion MLR, 101.1, 2006 215 of decadent writing in European country after country, could begin with the pricing policy. At ?45, no one who should will buy Brooker, and if Yale can afford to produce Schoolfield at ?30, then what are the publishers?or the accountants?for Brooker's book thinking of? The irony is compounded since Schoolfield looks aca? demic and Brooker's book, which has maps and photographs, appears as if it could break through from...