debauchery n. excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures
decadence n. moral or cultural decline, especially after a peak or culmination of achievement
Decadence usually leads to debauchery, and debauchery leads to further decadence.
THE BEST DEBAUCHERY (according to the Penguin List)
I, Claudius
Robert Graves
Hangover Square
Patrick Hamilton
The Beggar’s Opera
John Gay
The Twelve Caesars
Suetonius
Guys and Dolls
Damon Runyon
THE BEST DECADENCE (according to the Penguin List)
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Vile Bodies
Evelyn Waugh
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
The Beautiful and Damned
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Against Nature
J. K. Huysmans
I’m combining these two categories into one because I think the editors at Penguin were a little too obsessed with decadence, debauchery, sexual perversion, and sin. There are other important themes in literature. Combining the categories also leaves room for one of my own devising, which I shall reveal at the appointed time.
The Best Decadence and Debauchery according to Semicolon:
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
The good thing about all these books is that they show the attraction of decadence and debauchery and also the degradation and despair that results from indulging in these pursuits. For the wages of sin is death . . .
I had I Claudius as no.1 and Dorian Gray as no 2 as well. Don;t know if you saw the I Caludius tv series. Very well done – John Hurt played Caligula – and if ever there was a programme that highlighted the connection between idolatry and depravity it was that one.
Very interesting posts in this series of yours Sherry.
I would suggest Aphrodite, by the french Pierre Louÿs, but I would add that I would recommend its reading for women only. For us men is just too overboard in its explicitness and its… debauchery.