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Press review for The Decadent Handbook
"The Decadent Handbook is a jaunty introduction to the world of literary wickedness. There are interesting pieces on those English poets and essayists whose writing and behaviour had a massive on the rock star mentality. In a piece entitled Decadent Outcasts, Nick Broom discusses Chatterton, Coleridge and De Quincey, who specialised in debauched behaviour, copious drug and alcohol abuse and, of course, that most romantic of all activities, early death. If you are looking for actual examples of decadent writing, there is a wonderfully wicked poem by the wonderfully wicked, John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester. In the X-rated ditty, The Debauchee, the lusty Lord takes us through a typical day.
Wake up after snooze.
Grope floozy.
Gargle alcohol.
Fall unconscious.
Have wallet nabbed by floozy.
Wake in rage.
Whip servants.
Make sexual advances on page boy.
Not exactly the romantic life according to Mills& Boons, is it?
Best of all, though, is a selection of modern pieces from relatively unknown modern authors. Of course, decadent behaviour isn’t always connected to sexual shenanigans. Which is why the Handbook also has segments on drinking, eating, travel and the right and proper decadent death. This is an excellent book for anyone determined to say vamoose to the vacuum cleaner, kick over the iron board and slip free of suburbanite shackles. Clearly there is a nastier, niftier world out there, waiting to be gulped down like a devilish sip of absinthe. Which is why the Decadent Handbook will make an excellent stocking filler this Christmas."