A look at the phenomenon of the dandy from Regency England to the contemporary Congolese Sapeurs, with stops at Wodehouse, Wilde, Grant, and more The dandy is not just an elaborately or even well-dressed man, nor is he an exclusively English phenomenon. He is something far more universal and intriguing, and this study explores his cultural significance. It starts with Beau Brummell, acknowledged as the very first dandy, a man whose ancestors had been servants, yet who invented a new paradigm of courtesy, wit, independence, and elegance to lord over the aristocrats of England. Brummell died in exile, forgotten and impoverished—the best dandies often die in debt. But his image lived on, to haunt and inspire generations around the world, from the boulevards of Paris and St. Petersburg in the 1830s to the studios of Hollywood a century later. Byron, Disraeli, Bulwer, Pushkin, Chopin, Delacroix, Balzac, Baudelaire, Wilde, Proust, Boni de Castellane, Hugo von Hofmannstahl, Beerbohm, Noël Coward, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Vladimir Nabokov, Ortega y Gassett, Mikhael Bulgakov, Evelyn Waugh, Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Wolfe, Nick Foulkes—all were bedazzled by the image of the dandy.
Industry Reviews
"Do we need another book about dandies? Having read 'The Dandy, Peacock or Enigma?', I think we do, or at least did. Although there have been countless books about dandies...not one of them is comprehensive enough to cover all the relevant historical periods...while also giving serious thought to the philosophical side of dandyism. This one does just that...If one wishes only to have a pair of tomes on dandyism in one's library, one of them should be Barbey D'Aurevilly's 'Du Dandyisme et de George Brummell; the other should be this one." - Gustav Temple, The Chap Magazine "A lively account of the dandy and his career...The elusive spirit of the dandy is netted here in a deft but fair account." - Alexandra Henton, The Field; "One of the best titles released on the subject." - Dandyism.net; "[An] absorbing book" - Roger Lewis, Daily Mail
