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The Yellow Book
"She's an adventuress. Yes, an adventuress, but an end-of-the-century one. She doesn't travel for profit, but for pleasure."
Offering an entertaining introduction to the fin-de-siècle, this selection from the notorious magazine The Yellow Book includes stories and poems by famous writers such as Arnold Bennett and John Buchan, brilliant pieces by lesser-known writers such as Ada Leverson and Ella D'Arcy, and illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley.
One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.
Offering an entertaining introduction to the fin-de-siècle, this selection from the notorious magazine The Yellow Book includes stories and poems by famous writers such as Arnold Bennett and John Buchan, brilliant pieces by lesser-known writers such as Ada Leverson and Ella D'Arcy, and illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley.
One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.
109 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1897
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438 people want to read
About the author
Ada Leverson
20 books15 followersAda Leverson (1862-1933), the devoted friend of Oscar Wilde (who called her the wittiest woman in the world), wrote six timeless novels, each a classic comedy of manners. Love’s Shadow, the first in the trilogy The Little Ottleys, is the perfect examples of her wit and style: no other English novelist has explored the world of marriage and married life with such feeling for its mysteries and absurdities.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 1, 2023
The first volume of the "illustrated quarterly" The Yellow Book went to print in 1894. The declared aim of its "Publishers and Editors" was to create a publication which would be not just a "magazine" but a collectable book - "a book with style, a book with finish". Aubrey Beardsley's appointment as arts editor also gave this publication the frisson of controversy. Beardsley's sojourn in France had brought him close to the "aesthetic movement" and his blank ink drawings, emphasizing the sexual and the grotesque, seemed to ooze a sense of fin-de-siecle decadence. Indeed, the choice of a "yellow cover" was itself a knowing reference to French racy magazines, whose yellow cover warned prospective buyers of their erotic content. The quarterly achieved its peak of notoriety in April 1895, when Oscar Wilde was arrested whilst allegedly carrying a copy. Beardsley, a collaborator of the author, was promptly sacked, but the magazine managed to continue until 1897.
In actual fact, the stories and poems featured in the periodical were rarely as shocking as the cover promised they would be. What was undisputed was their quality and variety - amongst the contributors were leading authors such as John Buchan, H.G. Wells and W.B. Yeats, writing in a variety of styles. Ample space was given to female writers, including Ella D'Arcy and Ethel Mayne (who also served as sub-editors).
A good indication of the "Yellow Book"'s range is given by this selection issued as part of the second wave of Penguin "Little Black Books" - it consists of four stories and four poems accompanied by a smattering of Beardsley drawings. Mrs Ernest Leverson's "Suggestion" is the closest we get to the world of Wilde - its barbed wit and cynical view of marriage and relationships is calculated to shock us with its amorality. It is immediately followed by Arthur Symons's poem "Stella Maris" - an explicit description of a night of love which must have raised several Victorian eyebrows and likely singed them in the process. None of the other pieces are as controversial. John Buchan's supernatural tale "A Journey of Little Profit" is a delightful piece of diablerie, Ella D'Arcy's "The Pleasure-Pilgrim" is a tragicomedy with a bittersweet taste to it, Arnold Bennett's "A Letter Home" is a Maupassant-like slice of realism with a crushingly cruel ending. The collection also includes poems by Katharine de Mattos, Edmund Gosse and a typically dense and metaphor-laden work by W.B.Yeats.
This is an enjoyable compilation which gives a tantalising taste of the cultural phenomenon that was "The Yellow Book". If I give it only three stars, it is because it is difficult to replicate, in a different format, a periodical which gave such great attention to its design and presentation.
In actual fact, the stories and poems featured in the periodical were rarely as shocking as the cover promised they would be. What was undisputed was their quality and variety - amongst the contributors were leading authors such as John Buchan, H.G. Wells and W.B. Yeats, writing in a variety of styles. Ample space was given to female writers, including Ella D'Arcy and Ethel Mayne (who also served as sub-editors).
A good indication of the "Yellow Book"'s range is given by this selection issued as part of the second wave of Penguin "Little Black Books" - it consists of four stories and four poems accompanied by a smattering of Beardsley drawings. Mrs Ernest Leverson's "Suggestion" is the closest we get to the world of Wilde - its barbed wit and cynical view of marriage and relationships is calculated to shock us with its amorality. It is immediately followed by Arthur Symons's poem "Stella Maris" - an explicit description of a night of love which must have raised several Victorian eyebrows and likely singed them in the process. None of the other pieces are as controversial. John Buchan's supernatural tale "A Journey of Little Profit" is a delightful piece of diablerie, Ella D'Arcy's "The Pleasure-Pilgrim" is a tragicomedy with a bittersweet taste to it, Arnold Bennett's "A Letter Home" is a Maupassant-like slice of realism with a crushingly cruel ending. The collection also includes poems by Katharine de Mattos, Edmund Gosse and a typically dense and metaphor-laden work by W.B.Yeats.
This is an enjoyable compilation which gives a tantalising taste of the cultural phenomenon that was "The Yellow Book". If I give it only three stars, it is because it is difficult to replicate, in a different format, a periodical which gave such great attention to its design and presentation.
July 29, 2020
I like that Penguin collected in these Little Black Classics a couple of collections which are not, strictly speaking, books. The Yellow Book is one of them, a quarterly magazine with a collection of prose and verse from around the fin-de-siecle.
It was the kind of thing that I would have never selected for myself, but it was a pleasant surprise. There is the struggle to break free of the Victorian period and with it being a collection it was much more fast paced than I anticipated.
Exactly the reason why I wanted to read the Little Black Classics in the first place.
~Little Black Classics #91~
Find this and other reviews on https://urlphantomhive.wordpress.com
It was the kind of thing that I would have never selected for myself, but it was a pleasant surprise. There is the struggle to break free of the Victorian period and with it being a collection it was much more fast paced than I anticipated.
Exactly the reason why I wanted to read the Little Black Classics in the first place.
~Little Black Classics #91~
Find this and other reviews on https://urlphantomhive.wordpress.com
September 9, 2016
Delightful!
December 9, 2018
Fun things happen when you pick a random book - back home you check on it and find out its content “scandalized the Victorians with its avant-garde decadence.
The stories themselves are elegant though no happy endings. Some fragments:
“the serious work of her life was paying visits; in her lighter moments she collected autographs”
“Why, one has to kiss all sorts of people one doesn’t care about”
“His had been one of those wasted lives of which he used to read in books. How strange! Almost amusing!”
My favorite piece was a poem “Stella Maris” which is just lovely. About meeting “the Juliet of a night” whose heart “holds mane a Romeo”
“Out of the empty night arise,
Child, you arise and smile to me
Out of the night, out of the sea,
The Nereid of a moment there,
And is it a seaweed in your hair?”
The stories themselves are elegant though no happy endings. Some fragments:
“the serious work of her life was paying visits; in her lighter moments she collected autographs”
“Why, one has to kiss all sorts of people one doesn’t care about”
“His had been one of those wasted lives of which he used to read in books. How strange! Almost amusing!”
My favorite piece was a poem “Stella Maris” which is just lovely. About meeting “the Juliet of a night” whose heart “holds mane a Romeo”
“Out of the empty night arise,
Child, you arise and smile to me
Out of the night, out of the sea,
The Nereid of a moment there,
And is it a seaweed in your hair?”
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November 22, 2025At the risk of stating the obvious: it's not even yellow. That I can forgive, when it's part of a uniform edition of affordable samplers, but there are other ways in which this doesn't feel like a fair representation of the notorious journal of the aesthetic movement. Yes, Ada Leverson is here, with a story which hindsight renders a Saki prototype, and so is Arthur Symons' yearning, bittersweet Stella Maris. There are also a few of the Beardsley illustrations which helped to yoke the magazine to Wilde in the public imagination, although he never contributed. But otherwise...I don't know, maybe that's not the only misconception, maybe the mix here really is representative. Sadly, I don't have a complete set of the original run handy to check (though I did once see a shelf of them in Hatchards, and longed). But the impression I get is that this selection was a deliberate one, a 'Grunt! Bam! Pow! The Yellow Book isn't just for dandies anymore!' move to pick the pieces furthest from the idea of the magazine but which nevertheless were published therein. So we get hearty John Buchan, and if it is at least one of his supernatural yarns, it's not even as decadent about that as others I've read. Worse by far is that the unbearable Arnold Bennett is here, depressing as ever, and still a man only worth slogging through once in your life, the better to appreciate just how brutally Max Beerbohm did him in the glorious pastiche Scruts. Of Beerbohm himself, alas, there is no sign, and it's hardly as if he's over-anthologised nowadays. I'm also unsure about the decision to fill nearly half the pagecount with Ella D'Arcy's The Pleasure-Pilgrim which, granted, does have a faintly decadent undercurrent that blossoms at the finale, but is nevertheless the shocking story of a stereotypically repressed late Victorian who meets a pretty young woman only to make the horrific discovery that she is – please prepare yourself – A Bit Flirty.
April 9, 2019
I hadn’t heard of The Yellow Book before picking this up, and its story is absolutely fascinating.
Launched in 1894, The Yellow Book was a literary magazine filled with prose, poetry, and illustrations from some seriously distinguished contributors such as Henry James and H.G. Wells. Its yellow cover was controversially chosen as a not so subtle nod to the yellow covers of French erotic fiction. Notably, Oscar Wilde was reported to have been arrested whilst carrying a copy of The Yellow Book, but unsurprisingly this turned out to be a copy of a yellow-covered illicit novel.
The notoriety attached to the quarterly doesn’t seem to be derived from its content (excepting the alluring and provoking illustrations from Beardsley), but rather its cover, its female writers, and its introduction of new ideas and movements.
Penguin have included some prose, poetry, and illustrations in this little glimpse into what The Yellow Book had to offer its readers. The prose detailed tragedy, machinations, and even the supernatural. Beardsley’s illustrations were gorgeous in their simplicity, and it was clear to see why they would have caused a few blushes in the 1890s. Even the poetry enthralled me - particularly Stella Maris by Arthur Symons - poetry evoking anything is me is an unheard of phenomenon.
Including some of The Yellow Book’s offerings in the Little Black Classics range has been a masterstroke by Penguin; it’s piqued my interest, taught me something, and has made me determined to read more from this infamous periodical. I can’t say every one of these little black books has intrigued me in such a way, but this was my main purpose of making my way through the range, so my faith has been somewhat restored. Perhaps I should move from black books to yellow ones.
Launched in 1894, The Yellow Book was a literary magazine filled with prose, poetry, and illustrations from some seriously distinguished contributors such as Henry James and H.G. Wells. Its yellow cover was controversially chosen as a not so subtle nod to the yellow covers of French erotic fiction. Notably, Oscar Wilde was reported to have been arrested whilst carrying a copy of The Yellow Book, but unsurprisingly this turned out to be a copy of a yellow-covered illicit novel.
The notoriety attached to the quarterly doesn’t seem to be derived from its content (excepting the alluring and provoking illustrations from Beardsley), but rather its cover, its female writers, and its introduction of new ideas and movements.
Penguin have included some prose, poetry, and illustrations in this little glimpse into what The Yellow Book had to offer its readers. The prose detailed tragedy, machinations, and even the supernatural. Beardsley’s illustrations were gorgeous in their simplicity, and it was clear to see why they would have caused a few blushes in the 1890s. Even the poetry enthralled me - particularly Stella Maris by Arthur Symons - poetry evoking anything is me is an unheard of phenomenon.
Including some of The Yellow Book’s offerings in the Little Black Classics range has been a masterstroke by Penguin; it’s piqued my interest, taught me something, and has made me determined to read more from this infamous periodical. I can’t say every one of these little black books has intrigued me in such a way, but this was my main purpose of making my way through the range, so my faith has been somewhat restored. Perhaps I should move from black books to yellow ones.
March 31, 2019
Book No. 91 in Penguins Collection is a collection of artwork, stories and extracts from stories and poems published in the notorious Victorian magazine, The Yellow Book.
The art is all by Aubrey Beardsley, the author and illustrator who was heavily influenced by Japanese woodcuts, and moved in the same circles as Oscar Wilde. If you know your Art Nouveau you will know who this man was.
The literature within this Little Black Classic varies – from the very odd and pompous Suggestion, to The Pleasure-Pilgrim – the latter of which I didn’t know whether to laugh at the character of Campbell or jump into the pages of the book and slap him across his face. He goes from being madly in love at first site to easily influenced by his friend’s opinion of his love interest. And at times you believe the friend and at other’s you think Campbell is weak minded. But ultimately, it seems the story is about the Victorian ideal of a woman – which Campbell’s love interest is not; confident, flirtatious, well-travelled and more than likely not a virgin.
My favourite story, however, would have to be A Journey of Little Profit by John Buchan – where the sheep herder Duncan Stewart tells his story of when he met Master Stewart, another cultural tale of a deal with the devil. I would read The Yellow Book just for this story, but The Pleasure-Pilgrim – no matter my feelings are mixed – is still a funny read.
Overall, this Little Black Classic is an insight into a magazine “associated with decadence, aestheticism and the heady, avant-garde”. And it only cost £2!
The art is all by Aubrey Beardsley, the author and illustrator who was heavily influenced by Japanese woodcuts, and moved in the same circles as Oscar Wilde. If you know your Art Nouveau you will know who this man was.
The literature within this Little Black Classic varies – from the very odd and pompous Suggestion, to The Pleasure-Pilgrim – the latter of which I didn’t know whether to laugh at the character of Campbell or jump into the pages of the book and slap him across his face. He goes from being madly in love at first site to easily influenced by his friend’s opinion of his love interest. And at times you believe the friend and at other’s you think Campbell is weak minded. But ultimately, it seems the story is about the Victorian ideal of a woman – which Campbell’s love interest is not; confident, flirtatious, well-travelled and more than likely not a virgin.
My favourite story, however, would have to be A Journey of Little Profit by John Buchan – where the sheep herder Duncan Stewart tells his story of when he met Master Stewart, another cultural tale of a deal with the devil. I would read The Yellow Book just for this story, but The Pleasure-Pilgrim – no matter my feelings are mixed – is still a funny read.
Overall, this Little Black Classic is an insight into a magazine “associated with decadence, aestheticism and the heady, avant-garde”. And it only cost £2!
September 16, 2022
I think I bought this book in 2017? I am absolutely PURGING my physical tbr at the moment. In saying that, I went into this book with absolutely no idea of what I was getting into and was quite pleased to find it to be somewhat of an archive of stories, poems and art from The Yellow Book, a magazine first published in 1894. The history behind the original publication was very intriguing as this magazine was considered very scandalous, hedonistic, overly-decadent and immoral. For me, this meant getting to see what things were considered wildly inappropriate and unprincipled for heightened society at the end of the 19th century.
All in all, this collection was pretty good. There were a couple of parts that were a little slow, but considering that most of the works were quite short, this never really lasted very long. I really loved the artworks in this lil book, I found them to be quite beautiful. The book is a product of it's time so there are a couple of instances of misogyny. However – and quite interestingly – the story that I found to present the most misogyny, which was The Pleasure-Pilgrim, was written by a woman: Ella D'Arcy. And although she may not have been, to me it particularly seemed as though she was using these instances to make comment on what the double standards between men and women were like at the time.
Definitely engaging to read to get a taste of what was hot at the turn of the so-called 'yellow nineties'. Solid three stars. Maybe even a bit more. Maybe like, 3.5 or something :)
All in all, this collection was pretty good. There were a couple of parts that were a little slow, but considering that most of the works were quite short, this never really lasted very long. I really loved the artworks in this lil book, I found them to be quite beautiful. The book is a product of it's time so there are a couple of instances of misogyny. However – and quite interestingly – the story that I found to present the most misogyny, which was The Pleasure-Pilgrim, was written by a woman: Ella D'Arcy. And although she may not have been, to me it particularly seemed as though she was using these instances to make comment on what the double standards between men and women were like at the time.
Definitely engaging to read to get a taste of what was hot at the turn of the so-called 'yellow nineties'. Solid three stars. Maybe even a bit more. Maybe like, 3.5 or something :)
February 17, 2019
Enjoyed every short story immensely. My appetite for fin-de-siecle or decadence writing has definitely been wet.
In short a little black classic that does what it's supposed to do: interest it readers in more similar work in the particular genre its paying hommage to.
To be continued in the future!
In short a little black classic that does what it's supposed to do: interest it readers in more similar work in the particular genre its paying hommage to.
To be continued in the future!
June 17, 2021
If you want to get an idea of what scandalised the more upright (prim) late Victorians, then look no further than this slim volume of poetry, art and prose collected from the (in)famous "Yellow Book".
True, there's very little in here that would scandalise most modern readers, but if you're interested in history and want to get a feel for the period it is invaluable.
True, there's very little in here that would scandalise most modern readers, but if you're interested in history and want to get a feel for the period it is invaluable.
June 6, 2017
great illustrations, and the short stories were lovely little appetizers about how terribly in their own heads men can live
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 27, 2019
Didn‘t like the book, so I stopped reading it.
April 14, 2020
Always wondered what the Yellow book would have been like, this gives a glimpse into the legendary magazine.
September 9, 2020
she’s an adventuress. yes, an adventuress, but an end-of-the-century one. she doesn’t travel for profit, but for pleasure.
January 1, 2022
Enjoyable collection of short stories.
June 27, 2021
I really liked some elements of this, but overall, it just didn't hold my interest that well. I was pleasantly surprised how many women were included.
March 27, 2017
Let us not go into great detail on this. Yes some of the stories and poetry may seem a tad off on the writing style offered, however these are a window to a past that would have been thrilling.
Some of todays writers feel that they are subversive, no. These chaps and chapettes were here first. To have been there when these little gems were published and see the reaction of the tightest victorians go to pieces at this would have been delightful.
It's immaterial if you like these or not, as I said before, these are a window to the past and long may it stay open!
Some of todays writers feel that they are subversive, no. These chaps and chapettes were here first. To have been there when these little gems were published and see the reaction of the tightest victorians go to pieces at this would have been delightful.
It's immaterial if you like these or not, as I said before, these are a window to the past and long may it stay open!
June 10, 2017
A little book of selected poems and short stories from a late (19th. periodical. The short stories were entertaining, the poems dated but ok, and there were some nice illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley.
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July 22, 2018This is not necessarily something that I can rate as it is just a compilation of various entries that appeared in The Yellow Book magazine during the 1890s. I read this largely for research purposes, as I studied The Picture of Dorian Gray this last term, a text that was massively impacted by this publication. It was interesting comparing the two texts, and I was definitely intrigued by the many figures who I did not know contributed to this, such as Yeats, but by its pithy nature I couldn't really engage that much with what I read.
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