Women and British Aestheticism. Edited by Talia Schaffer and Kathy Alexis Psomiades. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia. 2000. ix + 304 pp. $68.50 (paperbound $19.50). This timely and ably edited collection makes a welcome contribution to reconsideration of British aestheticism...

1. "Touch the very pulse of fire / With my bare unlidded eyes" I TAKE THE TITLE OF MY OPENING SECTION FROM KEATS'S "SONG OF FOUR Fairies," and specifically from its rhapsody on flame. While the spirits of air and water are...

Today's Post gives Cindy Adams a much-deserved page-one teaser: "WTC: Why I hate this lousy movie." Inside, on page 14, Cindy--self-nominated as "New York's watchdog" (motion seconded! And carried!)--touches all the critical bases: * Filmgoing experience? "Slow-moving and formulaic." * Commercial prospects? Oliver Stone's "handlers...

The American painter Arnold Friedman (1874-1946) once groused about the “cadging—pettifogging [and] lickspittling” typical of the art scene of his day. Some verities are eternal. Friedman liked to vent his spleen by writing on the backs of his canvases. One note reads: “Modern aestheticism with...

Examines aestheticism in the Oscar Wilde novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Describes how Wilde was widely considered the movement's leader. Provides biographical detail on the author.

An overview of the origin of aestheticism, which emerged out of artists' resistance to the utilitarian approach of the English bourgeoisie. Initiated by the French writer and poet Théophile Gautier, aestheticism was pushed forward by the noted critics Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde.