On Dandyism and George Brummell
On Dandyism and George Brummell () is an 1845 biographical essay by the French writer Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly. It has also been published in English as Of Dandyism and of George Brummell and The Anatomy of Dandyism. It uses the English fashion icon Beau Brummell (1778–1840) as the starting point for a discussion on dandyism. The book is dedicated to the author's friend César Daly. Composition. Barbey d'Aurevilly had no intention to write an exhaustive biography on Brummel—such a book had been written by William Jesse and published in 1844. His aim was instead  to use Brummel's life to define what distinguishes the dandy. Brummel had lived in Calais and Caen in France, and Barbey d'Aurevilly met many of the people who had known Brummel during his time in the country. Barbey d’Aurevilly later revisits his ideas on dandyism in his short story "La veangeance d’une femme" (1874), exploring in literary form his theory that fashion is power. Publication. When the book was finished it was first distributed among Brummel's French friends before it was printed in Paris. An English translation by Douglas Ainslie was published in 1897 as "Of Dandyism and  of George Brummell". Wyndham Lewis made a second translation which was published in 1928 as "The Anatomy of Dandyism". A new translation by George Walden was published in 2002.