Isis

Here presented in English in a long-belated translation by Brian Stableford is Isis the first novel of the acclaimed author of Contes cruels Villiers de lIsle-Adam. Deserving to be reckoned as one of the foundation-stones of Decadent prose fiction redolent with echoes of Byron and Poe reconfigured in the Baudelairean manner and flamboyant with Gautieresque elements this book is a tour de force of extravagant implication and esthetic dexterity: a work of peculiar genius.In its vaulting ambitions its quirky mannerisms its philosophical posturing and its lush descriptions Isis is certainly a tale given to excess but that excess is the essence of the endeavor the wand of its enchantment.