THE DANDY

WHAT IS A DANDY?
A Dandy is a man whose trade, office and existence consist in wearing clothes. Every part of his soul, spirit and person is referred to wear dresses wisely and well. In fact as the others dress to live, he live to dress. Everything he does is designed to make his social presentation more elegant, as great care has to be taken not to appear too extravagant in his dress and never slovenly. The Dandy, through his life and dress style, enjoyed to surprise public with provocative attitude and motion. His whole life is dominated by a strong beauty desire. Refusing utilitarianism, he loves luxury and everything that is referred to it like chinese porcelains, antique furniture, silver plate, paintings collections, immense garden. But also perfumes, flowers, beautiful dresses, elegance, comfort, good manners, poetry and melodic music. His posture is royal, showing an apparent seriousness and a good boy look.

ETYMOLOGY
The term Dandy was used for the first time in the song “Yankee Daddle Dandy”, sang during the American revolution in 1770. The words of the song joked about the tawdry uniforms of American soldiers. The term Dandy was referred to a man that bragged of his appearance, in spite of he wore ordinary dresses.

HIS PERSONALITY
The Dandy wants to catch the eye of the false moralist with his attitude. He isn’t interested in everything that doesn’t concern his beauty ideal; for example money that is only seen as a way to obtain beauty, that is more precious. He wants to make himself a piece of art in every meaning. But in spite of his unusual attitude he doesn’t want to get himself noticed because he thinks that the real elegance has to make people pass unobserved. From the excessive care of his aspect we can note that the Dandy is the perfect narcissist. He is often homosexual; because of his exaggerated narcissism that pushes him to love himself so much to fall in love with everything that is identical to him, that is the other men. But it doesn’t mean that a Dandy couldn’t love a woman, that often arouses in him only sexual desire or is seen as a decorative object. Besides the Dandy dawdles places of vice, passions and frenzy as brothel and places where is played gambler. His connection with drugs is conflicting; in fact on one hand he shelters in it, on the other he doesn’t tolerate to be slaves of something; so he tend to eliminate every dependence. However this lifestyle has some limits. Dandy’s drama is to become old and lose the prestige and the consideration acquired in the youthful age. Besides Dandy is victim of a world that doesn’t understand him. This can lead Dandy to a depression that he will try to hide with a well-being attitude.

WEARING STYLE
Dandy’s wearing style is very refined and full of particulars. He wear coloured silk and velvet dresses, with stiff collars, velvet brands and coats, true or false waistcoats, peg-top trousers, yellow and pink gloves, turned-down collars, gilded sticks and violet boutonnières. And also tiny bowler, bright tweeds and comfortable trousers, waistcoats and jacket and often a drooping lily. Another frequent element in Dandy’s wearing is the following tie. Among the different types of necktie these are the most frequent. From the point of view of the colours he abhors extreme use of colours and, so, he chooses soft dyes like tan, pink, light blue and duck (that is a light yellow) but he dressed above all in black, grey and white. His habits of dress and fashion were much imitated, especially in France where became a trend, especially in bohemians quarters.

THE DANDY AND THE BOHEMIENNE
The Dandy was often associated to the bohémienne but this two figures are different between them. In Fact while the Bohemian allies himself to the masses, is a poor and is interested in society; the Dandy is a bourgeois man who lives outside the society and isn’t interested on its problems.

DANDYISM
Brummell, the first British Dandy, created the phenomenon of Dandyism during the 18th century as a lifestyle. This trend arrived in France where it was linked to the aestheticism and then it appeared again in England during the 19th century, with the figure of Oscar Wilde. This phenomenon exists also nowadays.

THE DANDY AND THE AESTHETE
This two figure, although they seem similar, are very much different. An aesthete is an artist who uses fashion to promote himself and his art; instead the Dandy is a man of society who uses fashions, manners and conversation to please, seduce and amuse everybody to permit him the access to the higher rungs of society.

THE MOST FAMOUS DANDIES
Among the famous dandies we observe Oscar Wilde who became a fashionable man for his way of dressing. He expressed his individuality with green and large boutonnieres, bright red waistcoats, diamond stud, exaggerated collar, thick tie knot, lots of shirt-cuffs, square handkerchiefs, and loud pin-stripe slacks. His clothes were anti-Victorian; in fact he didn’t bear the middle class hypocrisy that didn’t allow vice.

Art vs Life

The novel presents a contrast between ART and LIFE.
Art is the expression of BEAUTY and FORM, while the main characteristics of Life are UGLINESS and SHAPELESSNESS.

Lord Henry encourages Dorian to treat his own life as if it were a WORK OF ART and to live fully and completely but at the same time to remain detached from it.
Here's a paradox: he must be involved and uninvolved, take part and remain a spectator of the event of life in order to comìntemplate beauty.

This contrast is particularly evident when Dorian walks to the theatre where Sybil Vane performs (chapter 4)

According to Wilde the purpose of Art is to show BEAUTY and to have no purpose (look at the epigrams in the Preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray) and he stated that in a period when art was used as a tool for social education and moral enlightment by the victorian writers such as Dickens.
Instead, the Aesthetic movement sought to free art from this responsability.

The Trial of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was involved in a homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas.

Douglas was the son of the Marquess of Queensbury – the man who provided the rules for professional boxing. The Marquess was outraged that Wilde would lead his son ‘astray’ and became determined to ruin the world famous playwright. He had originally planned to ruin the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest but Wilde got to hear of this and Queensbury was banned from attending. Instead he decided to leave a calling card on the notice board at Wilde’s gentleman’s club. It read, “ To Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite.” Wilde swore out a warrant for arrest of the Marquess of Queensbury on the charge of libel.

The result of all of this was a trial. The Marquess of Queensbury was represented by Edward Carson. Carson set out to prove that Oscar Wilde was, in fact, a homosexual and therefore that his client was not guilty of libel. Carson soon came up with the names of ten boys who Wilde had allegedly solicited for sex. He also obtained letters that Wilde had written to Douglas, revealing his feelings towards the Marquess’ son.

On the first day of the trial, Wilde attempted to have the proceedings overshadowed by his quick wit. But, over time, the dogged attacks by Carson wore him down. His humour was wearing thin. At one point the forty year old Wilde remarked to Carson, “You sting me and insult me and try to unnerve me; and at times one says things flippantly when one ought to speak more seriously.” When the trial concluded it was obvious that Queensbury had not committed an act of libel – Oscar Wilde was a homosexual. And so it was. The judge completely exonerated Queensbury, going further to actually state that he had been justified in calling Wilde a sodomite in public. Wilde’s friends urged him to get out of the country to avoid arrest on what was then the crime of homosexuality. Wilde’s pride, however, would not allow him to flee. He awaited arrest at the Cadogen hotel, confident that he could win. Yet, on the 5th of April the police did, indeed, arrive to arrest the world’s most famous playwright.

Wilde now faced a second trial to prove the charge of homosexuality. Now the truly lurid stuff started to come out. Despite the evidence the jury could not reach a decision. A second trial was ordered. Wilde was released on 5000 pounds bail on May 7th.

The second trial began on May 22. This time the jury was unanimous. Oscar Wilde was found guilty and sentenced to two years of hard labor at Pentonville Prison. At Pentonville Wilde found the going tough, almost unbearable. He was required to walk a treadmill for six hours each day. He became increasingly morose and unkempt. Jail officials feared that he was suicidal. Finally he was moved to Reading Jail. On May 18, 1897 he was released. But he was a broken man. Two and a half years after his release, on November 30, 1900 Oscar Wilde died while exiled in France. He was 46 years of age.

Famous words from Wilde’s discourse: "'The Love that dare not speak its name' in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him.”

The preface to THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

Preface

The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming.
This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.
That is all.
The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.
The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.
No artist has ethical sympathies.
An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.
Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.
From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician.
From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type.
All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.

À rebours by J.K. Huysmans

À rebours (translated into English as "Against the Grain" or "Against Nature") (1884) is a novel written by the French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans.

It is a novel in which very little happens; its narrative concentrates almost entirely on its principal character, and is mostly a catalogue of the tastes and inner life of Jean Des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive aesthete and antihero, who loathes 19th century bourgeois society and tries to retreat into an ideal artistic world of his own creation.

À rebours contained many themes which became associated with the Symbolist aesthetic. In doing so, it broke from naturalism and became the ultimate example of "decadent" literature.

Plot Summary

Jean Des Esseintes is the last member of a powerful and once proud noble family. He has lived an extremely decadent life in Paris which has left him disgusted with human society. Without telling anyone, he absconds to a house in the countryside and decides to spend the rest of his life in intellectual and aesthetic contemplation.

He conducts a survey of French and Latin literature, rejecting the works approved by the mainstream critics of his day. Amongst French authors, he shows nothing but contempt for the Romantics but adores the poetry of Baudelaire and that of the nascent Symbolist movement of Paul Verlaine, Tristan Corbière and Stéphane Mallarmé as well as the decadent fiction of the unorthodox Catholic writers Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Barbey d'Aurevilly.

He rejects the academically respectable Latin authors of the "Golden Age" such as Virgil and Cicero, preferring later writers such as Petronius and Apuleius as well as works of early Christian literature, whose style was usually dismissed as the "barbarous" product of the Dark Ages. Schopenhauer, he exclaims, has seen the truth and he clearly expressed it in his philosophy.

He studies Moreau's paintings, he tries his hand at inventing perfumes, he creates a garden of poisonous flowers. In one of the book's most surreal episodes, he has gemstones set in the shell of a tortoise. The extra weight on the creature's back causes its death. In one of the book's more comic episodes, he spontaneously decides to visit London. When he reaches the train station, he overhears some English visitors, whom he finds disgusting. Feeling that he now knows what London would be like, he immediately returns home.

Victorian art

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