Ernest Dowson: Collected Shorter FictionMonica Borg, R. K. R. Thornton A&C Black, 2003 M06 30 - 192 pages Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867-1900) is best known as a the author of a number of exquisite lyrics which epitomise the mood and style of the English 1890s - verses like 'cynara' and 'They are not long'. Yet Arthur Symons was only repeating what Dowson often himself asserted when he said that 'Dowson was the only poet I ever knew who cared more for his prose than his verse'. Monica Borg's Introduction suggests for the first time what lay behind Dowson's opinion of the importance of his prose, seeing withing it a programme of aesthetic and cultural radicalism. She places him firmly in relation to the late-nineteenth-century crisis of values, self and representation which Dowson both expressed and sought to precipitate, and she indicates that it is in his stories rather than his verse that Dowson shows how deeply implicated he was in the politics of resistance and cultural change that characterized the decadent literary and artistic movement. This edition provides texts of all of Dowson's short stories, thoroughly corrected from the original editions and with detailed notes on their genesis and development. |
Contents
A Case of Conscience | 17 |
An Orchestral Violin | 31 |
Souvenirs of an Egoist | 51 |
The Statute of Limitations | 73 |
Apple Blossom in Brittany | 83 |
The Eyes of Pride | 101 |
Countess Marie of the Angels | 117 |
The Dying of Francis Donne | 133 |
Notes | 147 |
Further Reading | 161 |
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Common terms and phrases
Anton Arthur Moore Arthur Symons artist asked beautiful Breton Brittany Bruges Campion charming child Conscience Cremona Cristich dark dear Decadent Dilemmas Dowson's stories Egoist Elkin Mathews English Ernest Dowson Eyes of Pride face fancy Felix fiction fiddle fin-de-siècle forgotten Francis Donne gave hand happy heard Herbert Horne Hobby Horse hour instinctively intentionally left blank knew Lady Greville Leonora Letters little girl live London looked Lorimer Madame manuscript Marie-Ursule Marie-Yvonne Mark Longaker marriage Maurice Cristich memory Mitouard Monsieur never night Ninette Ninette's once Orchestral Violin Paris passion perhaps play Ploumariel Pontivy poor prose Rider Haggard Romanoff Rosalind Lingard Savaresse Savoy Sebastian Seefang seemed short stories silent smiled Souvenirs Stradivarius strange success sudden suddenly talk tell things to-night Tregellan vague verse Victor Plarr voice woman women wonder young girl youth