A Comedy of Masks by Ernest Dowson, Fiction, Classics, Humor

Philip Rainham, last in a line of shipbuilders in the decaying and forlorn shipyards of London, has seen little of Eve Sylvester during the past two years. It is with a slight shock that he realizes how completely she has grown up. He remembers her in so many phases of childhood and little girlhood, up to the more recent occasions when he met her riding in the park with her brother -- and she had waved her whip to him, looking slim and pretty, in the trying costume that cruel fashion prescribes for girls who ride. For Rainham these are puzzling, wearying times -- although matters of interest keep appearing -- such as his new friendships with painters, the talented and brash Lightmark, and the rancorous but somehow magisterial Osywn. And with Lightmark interested in Eve . . . how disturbing some aspects of life are seeming! What are these emotions he is feeling -- and why are they tearing him apart? The co-author of this remarkable novel of love, betrayal and self-sacrifice, Ernest Dowson (1867-1900), achieved his greatest fame as a poet associated with the Aesthetic Movement in England.

About the Author :
Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867 - 1900) was an English poet, novelist and short-story writer, often associated with the Decadent movement. Ernest Dowson was born in Lee, London, in 1867. His great-uncle was Alfred Domett, a poet and politician who became Premier of New Zealand and had allegedly been the subject of Robert Browning's poem "Waring." Dowson attended The Queen's College, Oxford, but left in March 1888 before obtaining a degree. Dowson led an active social life, carousing with medical students and law pupils, going to music halls and taking the performers to dinner. He was also working assiduously at his writing during this time. He was a member of the Rhymers' Club, which included W. B. Yeats and Lionel Johnson. He was a contributor to such literary magazines as The Yellow Book and The Savoy. Dowson collaborated on two unsuccessful novels with Arthur Moore, worked on a novel of his own, Madame de Viole, and wrote reviews for The Critic. Later in his career, Dowson was a prolific translator of French fiction, including novels by Balzac and the Goncourt brothers, and Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos. In 1899, Robert Sherard found Dowson almost penniless in a wine bar and took him back to the cottage in Catford, where Sherard was living. Dowson spent the last six weeks of his life at Sherard's cottage where he died at age 32. He had become a Catholic in 1892 and was interred in the Roman Catholic section of nearby Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries. After Dowson's death, Oscar Wilde wrote: "Poor wounded wonderful fellow that he was, a tragic reproduction of all tragic poetry, like a symbol, or a scene. I hope bay leaves will be laid on his tomb and rue and myrtle too for he knew what love was."