The dramatic and sadly short life of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) is as intriguing to the modern reader as it was to the fin-de-siecle society within which the artist achieved such notoriety. Born of humble origins, the young Beardsley was quick to reject the genteel prospects of the surveyor's office to embark upon a life of artistic brilliance and public infamy.

In her study 'Aubrey Beardsley as Performer; fin-de-siecle or entracte?' Bridget Elliott pays tribute to the artist's status as icon and aesthetic visionary by examining his work within a modern, sociological framework.

Elliott brings to the fore the social implications of the headstrong artistic stance that Beardsley took against conservatism, while also evaluating Beardsley's meteoric success in terms of the fortuitous social and technological developments in the 1890s, which enabled artists and authors to reach more readily a mass market of readers, hungry for the latest publications.