Marius the Epicurean (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

By Walter Pater

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Feb 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781411437869

Walter Pater

Walter Horatio Pater (August 4, 1839 – July 30, 1894) was an English essayist, literary and art critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His works on Renaissance subjects were popular but controversial, reflecting his lost belief in Christianity. Donald L. Hill (1914-1997) was was Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Michigan.