The 1890s English Decadence was no mere polite response to French invention, but the hothouse blossoming of long indigenous researches into the perverse. Like Imperial Rome, England could hardly subdue and rule the globe withoutbecoming corrupt. The Romantics tried rebellion, but amidst Victorian industry,terminally fatigued Decadents concerned themselves with cultivating their addiction to luxury and sensation.In The Dedalus Book of English Decadence: Vile Emperors and Elegant Degenerates, avatars and acolytes such as Beckford, Byron, De Quincey, Dowson, Bosie and Wilde are all to be found at their unwholesome best.