“The difference between these two novellas is the difference between aestheticist despair and messianic hope.”
“A mania for things Asian raged in England then, in concert with the aestheticist movement — a reaction, exalting unalloyed beauty, against the moralistic constraints of Victorian taste.”
“He thinks Dewey has an idealized view of art that borrows from the very aestheticist theories he criticizes, and that Dewey does not sufficiently question the boundaries of art.”
“They underpin the allure that bulthaup kitchens and living spaces have worldwide for esthetes, bons viveurs and cookery enthusiasts.”
“Expression domains include esthetes and the ampullary system in polyplacophorans as well as the eyes of cephalopods.”
“The painter's orphic sleight of hand was abetted by arcane titles that conjure profligate aristocrats, sexual libertines, adepts of the dark arts and drugged esthetes.”