In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Robert de Montesquiou, the poet of choice for the fin de siècle literati, was known for writing that was quintessentially à la mode. He was the darling of those who found avant-garde poetry too difficult and preferred light opera, noted Marcel Proust in dismay. The sobriquets that he had earned--"Prince of Decadence," and "Professor of Beauty"--had confirmed Montesquiou in the beau monde imagination as an aesthete and arbiter of fashion in the chic Parisian salons of the Faubourg Saint Germain. Proust considered this modish success beneath the count, even if it spoke volumes for the subject matter of his poetry. Montesquiou's themes were fashion, art, and beauty, and he had the proclivities of a confirmed dandy: exotic flowers, objets d'art, and Japanese silk prints. Proust was concerned that these eye-catching superficialities obscured the true values of...