Beyond Decadence: Exposing the Narrative Irony in Jan Opolský's Prose

Jan Opolský has primarily been viewed as an undistinguished hanger-on in the era of Czech literary decadence. Through close reading and detailed analysis of Opolský’s prose, however, Peter Butler argues that, far from his reputation as a literary lackey, Opolský is a master of sustained narrative irony and an accomplished writer in his own right. Beyond Decadence evaluates archival sources and private correspondence between Opolský and other literary figures, and includes a classified bibliography of Opolský’s work. Butler’s introduction, meanwhile, offers an overview of the Czech decadent/symbolist literary and artistic movements, placing them within a larger European perspective. Redeeming a literary artist who has been nearly forgotten in the English-speaking world, Beyond Decadence will be of particular interest to students of Slavic and European literary history.