Absinthe as a Cypher for Decadence and Catalyst of Degeneration in Marie Corelli’s Wormwood
A Drama of Paris
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21534039 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martina Allen (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Frankfurt Germany) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 143 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 444-462 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0340-5222 • E-ISSN: 1865-8938 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/ang-2025-0034 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
Marie Corelli’s 1890 novel Wormwood is set in late-nineteenth-century Paris and details the absinthe-fuelled demise of its narrator, the wealthy banker and writer Gaston Beauvais. Gaston is persuaded by the impoverished artistic genius Gessonex to seek solace in a glass of opaline absinthe, thus irrevocably setting in motion the kind of dramatic downward spiral that has since become a familiar script within addiction narratives. While Corelli’s novel has often been read as a Bourgeois critique of the Decadent movement which evoked what Kirsten MacLeod calls a “sensationalized image of Decadence”, this article seeks to show how and why absinthe came to serve as such a powerful cypher for Decadence by tracing key shifts in the consumption patterns and cultural representation of the apéritif. It then illustrates how Wormwood uses the figure of the absintheur to link moral-medical discussions of intoxication and addiction to fears of national decline and post-Darwinist anxieties of degeneration. It also explores Corelli’s critique at the level of narrative and imagery, analysing the symbolism of purity and corruption and the ideological implications of autodiegetic narration. Repeatedly invoking late-nineteenth-century poets and artists, the novel introduces an ambivalence that betrays a covert fascination with decadent subjects even as Corelli critiques the widespread misogyny found in fin-de-siècle high art and literature
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |