On the Contrary

The externals of their lives could not have been more different. One was a celebrated wit and dramatist, the other a reclusive philosopher who, throughout his conscious life, lived and wrote in relative obscurity. Yet to varying extents, and with varying results, both thought of themselves as poets. Both, also in their way, concerned themselves with founding a philosophy grounded in the art of living, turning to antiquity (Ancient Greece) for their ideal, and considering contemporary France the accepted heir to their sensual sophistication. Natural provocateurs, they were incorrigible cultural agitators, and reserved some of their most withering criticism for their ’so called countrymen’. Ultimately, both were regarded as the premiere stylists of their time (late 1800s) and said as much. Although contemporaries, they were probably unaware of each other, yet came to embody in their flamboyant personae and utterances the tensions and antagonisms of fin de siecle Europe.