Bohemians

Since the early nineteenth century, the Bohemian has played the lead character in the story the West has wanted to hear about its artists: a story of genius, glamour and doom. Elizabeth Wilson's quest for the many shifting meanings that constitute bohemianism follows the artists, intellectuals, radicals and hangers-on from Paris to London, New York to West Coast America. She explores their eccentric dress-sense, the place of women wives and mistresses, muses lesbians and independent artists in the Bohemian myth, and the role of sex and erotic love in their lives. She looks deep into the Bohemians' search for excess and their intransigent politics and shows that far from disappearing, Bohemia is at the core of the most heated cultural debates today.'intricately informative, expertly researched and highly entertaining' - Literary Review