During his stay in England in the 1870s, the young Cavafy was captivated by the Aesthetic movement in cosmopolitan London. During those years, he first came into contact with the Pre-Raphaelite painters and their work, among them Burne-Jones and Whistler, as well as with the work of the aesthetes, who revolutionized the British literary scene by introducing French influences and contributing to the creation of the international Decadent movement.

In The Framework of Decadence, Peter Jeffreys transports us to this defining period in Cavafy's life, highlighting his literary debts to the French and British pioneering aesthetes, whose influence on his poetry proves to be profound. He then proceeds to a critical reassessment of Cavafy, always in relation to Victorian aestheticism and the French Decadent movement.

Among the themes of decadence, Cavafy was primarily interested in the decline of the Roman Empire, the rise of Christianity, and the long twilight of Byzantium. The influence of Walter Pater on the way Cavafy views classical and late antiquity was immense, colored by a guilt-free homoerotic aesthetic that Cavafy also embraced, making Pater's fantastical portraits a cornerstone of his historico-poetic work.

Cavafy moved beyond Pater, exploring a more openly homoerotic sensuality, but never completely distanced himself from this rich Victorian heritage, which significantly contributed to his emergence as a world poet. The study concludes with an examination of Cavafy's current popularity as a gay poet and his particular relationship with kitsch as manifested through translations of his poetry and adaptations into visual media.

Cover image: Marie Spartali Stillman, Saint George, 1892, watercolor on paper, 46 x 30.7 cm.