Decadents

Group of young French writers who were active from 1880 to about 1890. The movement ‘L'Esprit décadent’ may be considered as an early stage of Symbolism. The Decadents were characterized by a rejection of conventional values and a continual striving for new and more intense sensations of every kind.

In England, the movement influenced such writers as Oscar Wilde and Arthur Symons, and shared some similarities with the Aesthetic Movement.

The spirit of the movement is well illustrated in the person of Des Esseintes, the main character in J K Huysmans's novel A Rebours/Against Nature (1884). Paul Verlaine was one of the earliest writers to be described in this way, and among their number the Decadents included Charles Baudelaire and Stéphane Mallarmé.