What do you think?
Rate this book
The Decadent Handbook: For the Modern Libertine
The ultimate lifestyle guide for the people who want to transform the spirit of the age, or failing that, ignore it altogether. Featuring contributions by the bad, dangerous and eccentric free spirits of contemporary society, The Decadent Handbook will become the bible for the modern libertine. Contributors include Hari Kunzru, Tom Holland, Salena Godden, Michael Bywater, Lisa Hilton, Helen Walsh, Michael Bywater, Vanora Bennett, Medlar Lucan, Andrew Crumey, Durian Gray, Nicholas Royle, Mark Mason, Alan Jenkins and Robert Irwin. Guest contributors include the J.K.Huysmans, Pieyre de Mandiargues, Octave Mirbeau and Sebastian Horsley. The contributors (that is those who are still alive by the time of publication) have chosen to be remunerated with La Fee Absin.
- GenresNonfiction
372 pages, Paperback
First published September 13, 2007
5 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Rowan Pelling
8 books8 followersBritish journalist and columnist for the Daily Telegraph. Pelling is also the former editor of the Erotic Review.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 18, 2007
It's ironic that I read this book in the holy city of Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran. Reading this book was the most decadent thing that I could do in the city of ayatollahs. This is not to say that nothing decadent is going on here. There are robed, turbaned, bearded mullahs here who bugger each other, and there are chador-clad married women who can put any girl anywhere in the world to shame with their promiscuity.
The book is a collection of essays, edited by a woman named Rowan Pelling. She's not an international icon of female decadence like Courtney Love. As one of the contributors says at the beginning and the end of the book, "What the fuck does a mommy living in Cambridge know about decadence?" The essays are mostly by English writers and about English decadence. With the reputation that the English have for being reserved and buttoned up, you may ask, What do the English know about decadence? From my experience of living in England, I would say to that: not as much the ancient Greeks and Romans, but more than contemporary Americans.
The essays cover a range of topics on decadent theory, anti-heroes, lifestyle, culture, travels, sex, eating, drinking, and death. I didn't like all of them, but I would describe most of them as good writing. Some were brilliant, some wicked and twisted, and there were some that could invoke revulsion in the faint of heart. I enjoyed reading this book -- as I imagine a lot of other wanna-be's like me would as well. For those of us who are too busy with the financial and/or domestic drudgery of life, or too tightly shackled to the accepted norms of conduct, it's always good to know that somewhere someone is lying blissfully in the gutter.
One thing to clarify here is that what they mean by decadence is different from what many others consider as signs of decadence. Weekend binge drinking, occasional pot smoking, watching dumb TV and reading mindless crap, or wanking to a porn flick is not decadence. Those are just being stupid and lazy, not decadent. Real decadence requires talent, aptitude, dedication, and considerable effort. It requires recklessness with life and the willingness to stop believing in the future and instead trade one's life in order to have a life. "Decadence is for heavyweights. You need to possess the resources of character, the resilience of mind and the physical stamina to make of decadence a kind of moral virtue and spiritual strength. It is not for silly lightweight school girls."
The book is a collection of essays, edited by a woman named Rowan Pelling. She's not an international icon of female decadence like Courtney Love. As one of the contributors says at the beginning and the end of the book, "What the fuck does a mommy living in Cambridge know about decadence?" The essays are mostly by English writers and about English decadence. With the reputation that the English have for being reserved and buttoned up, you may ask, What do the English know about decadence? From my experience of living in England, I would say to that: not as much the ancient Greeks and Romans, but more than contemporary Americans.
The essays cover a range of topics on decadent theory, anti-heroes, lifestyle, culture, travels, sex, eating, drinking, and death. I didn't like all of them, but I would describe most of them as good writing. Some were brilliant, some wicked and twisted, and there were some that could invoke revulsion in the faint of heart. I enjoyed reading this book -- as I imagine a lot of other wanna-be's like me would as well. For those of us who are too busy with the financial and/or domestic drudgery of life, or too tightly shackled to the accepted norms of conduct, it's always good to know that somewhere someone is lying blissfully in the gutter.
One thing to clarify here is that what they mean by decadence is different from what many others consider as signs of decadence. Weekend binge drinking, occasional pot smoking, watching dumb TV and reading mindless crap, or wanking to a porn flick is not decadence. Those are just being stupid and lazy, not decadent. Real decadence requires talent, aptitude, dedication, and considerable effort. It requires recklessness with life and the willingness to stop believing in the future and instead trade one's life in order to have a life. "Decadence is for heavyweights. You need to possess the resources of character, the resilience of mind and the physical stamina to make of decadence a kind of moral virtue and spiritual strength. It is not for silly lightweight school girls."
August 5, 2024
An exceptional book which, though some of it's writers miss the mark and it doesn't go far enough on a few choice topics, offers a wide range of views on the aesthetic of the Decadent movement and how to incorporate them into the readers Weltanschauung.
It is perhaps too humorous in places, which trivialises the vital and bleak notions which Decadence contends with as a philosophy, but I feel that is the writer as an individual lacking full comprehension of the movement.
It is perhaps too humorous in places, which trivialises the vital and bleak notions which Decadence contends with as a philosophy, but I feel that is the writer as an individual lacking full comprehension of the movement.
August 2, 2025
A treasure trove of the debauched and the depraved.
The dark circles around my eyes got worse just by reading this book.
The dark circles around my eyes got worse just by reading this book.
October 4, 2008
What the fuck does a mummy know about decadence? Doesn't anyone realise that not believing in the future is the essential mark of the decadent? That the worst of children is that they give you the greatest disadvantage of them all;hope?
Choking hope and being a nappy slave is not decadent. Smoking dope on Jim Morrison's grave is not decadent. Exploiting writers and their petty vanities is also, by the way, not decadent.
Decadence is for heavyweights. You need to posses the resources of character, the resilience of mind and the physical stamina to make of decadence, a kind of moral virtue and spiritual strength. It is not for silly.
His Royal Lowness.
Choking hope and being a nappy slave is not decadent. Smoking dope on Jim Morrison's grave is not decadent. Exploiting writers and their petty vanities is also, by the way, not decadent.
Decadence is for heavyweights. You need to posses the resources of character, the resilience of mind and the physical stamina to make of decadence, a kind of moral virtue and spiritual strength. It is not for silly.
His Royal Lowness.
wish-list
October 3, 2011Saw performance of this collection in Cambridge. UK, a few years ago and keep meaning to read the book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews