Books in the Dedalus Anthologies series

The Decadence Movement which flourished in the 1890s produced some of Europe's most striking and exotic works of literature The Decadents, convinced that civilization was in a state of terminal decline, refused to rebel as the Romantics had, but set forth instead to cultivate the pleasures of calculated perversity and to seek the artificial paradise of drug-induced hallucination. "The Dedalus Book of Decadence looks south to sample the essence of fine French decadent writing. It succeeds in delivering a range of writers either searching vigorously for the thrill of a healthy crime or lamenting their impuissance from a sickly stupor." --Andrew St George in The Independent

Take Six: Six Spanish Women Writers is an anthology of short stories by six outstanding Spanish women writers: Emilia Pardo Bazán (1851-1921), Carmen de Burgos (1867-1932), Carmen Laforet (1921-2004), Cristina Fernández Cubas (born 1945), Soledad Puértolas (born 1947) and Patricia Erlés (born 1972). The stories span over one hundred years, starting with the indomitable Emilia Pardo Bazán, whose casual and often humorous protrayal of brutal domestic violence set a paradigm for the writers who followed her to explore every aspect of the roles imposed on women by a male-dominated society, delving into subjects ranging from love and betrayal to bereavement, arson and murder, without losing touch with the humorous side of seemingly impossible situations.