The first volume of the "illustrated quarterly" The Yellow Book went to print in 1894. The declared aim of its "Publishers and Editors" was to create a publication which would be not just a "magazine" but a collectable book - "a book with style, a book with finish". Aubrey Beardsley's appointment as arts editor also gave this publication the frisson of controversy. Beardsley's sojourn in France had brought him close to the "aesthetic movement" and his blank ink drawings, emphasizing the sexual and the grotesque, seemed to ooze a sense of fin-de-siecle decadence. Indeed, the choice of a "yellow cover" was itself a knowing reference to French racy magazines, whose yellow cover warned prospective buyers of their erotic content. The quarterly achieved its peak of notoriety in April 1895, when Oscar Wilde was arrested whilst allegedly carrying a copy. Beardsley, a collaborator of the author, was promptly sacked, but the magazine managed to continue until 1897.

In actual fact, the stories and poems featured in the periodical were rarely as shocking as the cover promised they would be. What was undisputed was their quality and variety - amongst the contributors were leading authors such as John Buchan, H.G. Wells and W.B. Yeats, writing in a variety of styles. Ample space was given to female writers, including Ella D'Arcy and Ethel Mayne (who also served as sub-editors).

A good indication of the "Yellow Book"'s range is given by this selection issued as part of the second wave of Penguin "Little Black Books" - it consists of four stories and four poems accompanied by a smattering of Beardsley drawings. Mrs Ernest Leverson's "Suggestion" is the closest we get to the world of Wilde - its barbed wit and cynical view of marriage and relationships is calculated to shock us with its amorality. It is immediately followed by Arthur Symons's poem "Stella Maris" - an explicit description of a night of love which must have raised several Victorian eyebrows and likely singed them in the process. None of the other pieces are as controversial. John Buchan's supernatural tale "A Journey of Little Profit" is a delightful piece of diablerie, Ella D'Arcy's "The Pleasure-Pilgrim" is a tragicomedy with a bittersweet taste to it, Arnold Bennett's "A Letter Home" is a Maupassant-like slice of realism with a crushingly cruel ending. The collection also includes poems by Katharine de Mattos, Edmund Gosse and a typically dense and metaphor-laden work by W.B.Yeats.

This is an enjoyable compilation which gives a tantalising taste of the cultural phenomenon that was "The Yellow Book". If I give it only three stars, it is because it is difficult to replicate, in a different format, a periodical which gave such great attention to its design and presentation. ( )

Enjoyed it immensly, now I want to read more fin-de-siecle works! ( )