This, the first collection of essays on the aesthete and intellectual Vernon Lee, offers a wide range of critical writings by scholars. Key works are examined including Euphorion, Hauntings: Fantastic Stories and Music and Its Lovers . New light is shed on Lee's relationships with contemporaries such as Lee-Hamilton, Pater and Wilde.

List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors A Vernon Lee Chronology Introduction; C.Maxwell & P.Pulham CREATIVE CONNECTIONS Vernon Lee and Eugene Lee-Hamilton; C.Maxwell Vernon Lee and the Pater Circle; L.Brake DECADENT DISSOLUTIONS 'Warming Me Like a Cordial': The Ethos of the Body in Vernon Lee's Aesthetics; C.A.Wiley Vernon Lee, Decadent Contamination and the Productivist Ethos; D.Denisoff QUEER CONTEXTS Vernon Lee and the Gender of Aestheticism; S.Evangelista The Snake Lady and the Bruised Bodley Head: Vernon Lee and Oscar Wilde in the Yellow Book ; M.D.Stetz Duality and Desire in Louis Norbert ; P.Pulham ART AND ARGUMENT Performing Pacifism: The Battle between The Artist and Author in The Ballet of the Nations ; G.Brockington Plural Anomalies: Gender and Sexuality in Bio-Critical Readings of Vernon Lee; J.Briggs The Handling of Words : Reader Response Victorian Style; C.Zorn Bibliography Index