Although cofounder of the Parnasse movement and one of the prominent Decadent writers of the nineteenth century, Catulle Mendès is not well known today. Literary critics often pass over him in favor of other Parnassian poets, such as Charles Leconte de Lisle, José-Maria de Heredia, Théodore de Banville and François Coppée. In fact, Mendès discovered Coppée and influenced other poets, including Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Valéry, Léon Dierx, and Philippe-Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. Since Mendès was somewhat successful in both idioms, Parnasse and Decadent, it is more than likely he perceived himself as a link between the two and thus was exceptionally well qualified to present these sophisticated forms of poetic art to the public. Mendès is mostly remembered for his critical essays on...