This book is the first comprehensive study of the reception of classical Greece among English aesthetic writers of the nineteenth century. By exploring this history of reception, it aims to give readers a new and fuller understanding of literary aestheticism, its intellectual contexts, and its challenges to mainstream Victorian culture.

Autorentext
STEFANO EVANGELISTA is Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford and Lecturer in English at the University of Oxford, UK. He has published a number of articles on nineteenth-century English and comparative literature, and is currently editing a volume on the reception of Oscar Wilde in Europe.

Inhalt
Contents Acknowledgements List of illustrations Introduction: The Origins Pater, 'Winckelmann', and the Aesthetic Life Vernon Lee and the Aesthetics of Doubt 'Two dear Greek Women': The Aesthetic Ecstasy of Michael Field The Greek Life of Oscar Wilde Afterword: The End of Aestheticism: A Dream, Three Trials, Two Ghosts Notes Bibliography Index