The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Decadents, The

DECADENTS, The, a school of artists and writers, the followers of which delight in the more or less morbid refinements of feeling and style, and pride themselves upon this perversion of taste. The decadent is fond of the products of declining civilization corrupted by many centuries of culture, of works too highly seasoned and vitiated, which presage the final dissolution of a social order fallen into decrepitude, and shuns the simple, the natural, the healthful, clinging only to the artificial and the complicated in life and character. The name of decadents may rightly be given to those who make a subtile virtuosity out of art. Among French writers Baudelaire was the first theorist of this school, and his influence was felt by many writers of the “end of the century,” such as the Goncourts and Maurice Barrès. The decadents’ school of poetry is best represented by Stephane Mallarmé and Verlaine, and its disciples are numerous, including many men of undoubted talent who have combatted the stiffness and dryness of the Parnassians, not without success. They are often termed deliquescents and symbolists; the latter term is well chosen as indicating their aims and manner.