Mid-19th century French intellectuals speculated on literary decadence and reevaluated it.
Periods of decadence are strong in criticism. Special interest in past periods of decadence and in periods of primitivism.
Ernest Renan saw this as two sides of same phenomenon.
First approving view of decadence as a style in 1868, he criticized it afterwards:
"Decadence is art arrived at extreme maturity ingenious, complicated style pushing back boundaries taking color from all palettes to translate passion grown depraved, obsession turning to madness..."
