A cogent portrait of Beardsley and his work. "Twenty-five years was the terrifyingly brief span of Beardsley's life. For him the world ceased on 16 March 1898. But the world he had created - in just a handful of years - survives in all its economy and wit. It is a major and still potent influence on 'modern' art and design; and it deeply affects our view of the 1890s, a decade rich in revolutionary talents - and savage reactions to them. In Beardsley's own sheer black and white world late Victorianism is stripped of its grossness, gaudiness and hypocrisy. The result is naked art that is still shocking..."