Fortunio One of Cleopatra's Nights; King Candaules; With an Introduction by the Editor (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Fortunio: One of Cleopatra's Nights; King Candaules; With an Introduction by the Editor Most of the performances of Fortunio are childishly ridiculous, where they are not low and disgusting. The description of the orgy with which the book begins, and in which Gautier evidently revels, may have pleased the Romanticists 'of his day, but it is merely sickening now. Neither art nor beauty in any form redeems this passage from wearisomeness. Nay, more: it is Gautier's evident intention to amaze his reader by a description of the most splendid luxury and to impress on the contemned bourgeois the fact that a Romanticist is intimately acquainted with all the details of the most refined wealth and taste. He simply suc ceeds in proving that he, like Hugo, his master and exemplar, is one of the most thorough-paced bourgeois that ever gaped in amazement and surprise at scenes that offer, in reality, neither real splendour nor real artistic interest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.