Caprices (1893) and Orchids (1896)

Wratislaw's verse from the decadent 1890s

Author

Theodore Wratislaw

Publisher

Woodstock, Oxford, 1994

Printing Details

First thus, hardback in dustwrapper. 18 × 11.5cm, [9], 48pp, vii + 55pp.

From the dustwrapper "Theodore Wratislaw (1871–1933) contributed to The Yellow Book and The Savoy, playing the role of '90s poet through the Wilde era then virtually ceasing to publish as the new century began. His poems reflect contradictory attitudes to the relationship of art to life: like Swinburne he believes in artifice, but like Symons and Davidson he reacts against refinement, celebrating for instance the erotic and unrefined pleasures of the music hall. And Caprices has its own place in the homosexual literature of the period. Wratislaw was obliged to omit two scandalous poems from the edition, but five copies are known in which they survive. [This] reprint is taken from one of these. Both volumes give a vivid and unmistakable flavour of the decade."

Condition

This copy is in very good condition, with just a little light wear to the wrapper's edges and there is an inoffensive previous owner's bookplate to the front pastedown.