Marius the Epicurean (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
This philosophical novel, published in 1885, uses the backdrop of Antonine Rome to elaborate Pater''s ideas about Aestheticism. His hero, Marius, is a young Italian employed as private secretary to the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Pater developed a style in this novel, and elaborated on it in his later Imaginary Portraits, which later influenced such writers as Oscar Wilde and James Joyce.
This philosophical novel, published in 1885, uses the backdrop of Antonine Rome to elaborate Pater''s ideas about Aestheticism. His hero, Marius, is a young Italian employed as private secretary to the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Pater developed a style in this novel, and elaborated on it in his later Imaginary Portraits, which later influenced such writers as Oscar Wilde and James Joyce.
