Vile emperors, reptiles and elegant degenerates of 1890s England surface as the Empire demonstrates that, like imperial Rome, the English could not run the world without becoming corrupt. In a response to the invention of the French, the English immersed themselves in luxury and decadence, documented by the likes of Byron, De Quincy and Wilde. This is an exploration of the perverse by acolytes and avatars at their most unwholesome.' DT in Buzz Magazine The Dedalus Book of English Decadence is a brilliant collection of hothouse prose including some names not usually associated with the fin de siecle. Independent on Sunday's Books of the Year