FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  
oeck, 'is a clothes-wearing man, a man whose trade, office, and existence consists in the wearing of clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, purse, and person is heroically consecrated to this one object, the wearing of clothes wisely and well.' Those are true words. They are, perhaps, the only true words in Sartor Resartus. And I speak with some authority. For I found the key to that empty book, long ago, in the lock of the author's empty wardrobe. His hat, that is still preserved in Chelsea, formed an important clue. But (behold!) as we repeat the true words of Teufelsdroeck, there comes Monsieur Barbey D'Aurevilly, that gentle moqueur, drawling, with a wave of his hand, 'Les esprits qui ne voient pas les choses que par leur plus petit cote, ont imagine que le Dandysme etait surtout l'art de la mise, une heureuse et audacieuse dictature en fait de toilette et d'elegance exterieure. Tres-certainement c'est cela aussi, mais c'est bien d'avantage. Le Dandysme est toute une maniere d'etre et l'on n'est pas que par la cote materiellement visible. C'est une maniere d'etre entierement composee de nuances, comme il arrive toujours dans les societes tres-vieilles et tres-civilisees.' It is a pleasure to argue with so suave a subtlist, and we say to him that this comprehensive definition does not please us. We say we think he errs. Not that Monsieur's analysis of the dandiacal mind is worthless by any means. Nor, when he declares that George Brummell was the supreme king of the dandies and fut le dandysme meme, can I but piously lay one hand upon the brim of my hat, the other upon my heart. But it is as an artist, and for his supremacy in the art of costume, and for all he did to gain the recognition of costume as in itself an art, and for that superb taste and subtle simplicity of mode whereby he was able to expel, at length, the Byzantine spirit of exuberance which had possessed St. James's and wherefore he is justly called the Father of Modern Costume, that I do most deeply revere him. It is not a little strange that Monsieur D'Aurevilly, the biographer who, in many ways, does seem most perfectly to have understood Mr. Brummell, should belittle to a mere phase that which was indeed the very core of his existence. To analyse the temperament of a great artist and then to declare that his art was but a part--a little part--of his temperament, is a foolish proceeding. It is as though a man should say that he finds, on ana
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Monsieur

 
wearing
 

clothes

 

Dandysme

 

temperament

 

Aurevilly

 
Brummell
 

costume

 

artist

 

maniere


existence

 

spirit

 

faculty

 
supremacy
 
subtle
 

simplicity

 

superb

 

recognition

 

worthless

 

analysis


dandiacal
 

declares

 
George
 

dandysme

 
person
 
dandies
 

consecrated

 

heroically

 

supreme

 
piously

length
 
belittle
 
perfectly
 
understood
 

analyse

 

proceeding

 

foolish

 

declare

 

possessed

 
wherefore

justly

 

consists

 

Byzantine

 
exuberance
 

called

 

Father

 

strange

 
biographer
 

office

 

revere