London in the 1890s: A Cultural History

In London at the end of the 19th century, early cultural manifestations of modernism, marked by scientific advances and experimental expression in the arts, began to disturb the relative stability of the Victorian age. In this scholarly, extensively researched cultural history, Beckson ( Arthur Symons: A Life ) explores the ``arts for art's sake'' Aesthetic movement led by writer Oscar Wilde, the Naturalistic techniques of novelist Emile Zola and the mysticism in the poetry of William Butler Yeats. The growth of the industrial state, the new middle class and widespread urban poverty and prostitution sparked such reform movements as socialism and the battle for women's suffrage. Also reviewing writing that called for enlightened attitudes toward homosexuals, Beckson's chronicle should be of interest mainly to researchers and historians. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)