170×240 (70×100/16), hard cover, ill., 640 pp., 2006
ISBN 5-86793-417-9

To this day, the dandy is perceived as an eccentric aesthete – a capricious, whimsical creature, yet full of mysterious charm and brilliance. Who are the dandies of today? How did the modern canon of male elegance develop? And why did dandies favour ‘taking the air’ with tortoises? The answers to these important, and sometimes amusing questions can be found in Olga Vainshtein’s Dandy.
The main characters in this entertaining book are, of course, the famous British dandy George Brummell, the French beaux Count d’Orsay, Barbey d’Aurevilly and Charles Baudelaire, and the decadents Oscar Wilde and Count Robert de Montesquiou. For the first time, dandyism in Europe is presented as a distinct cultural tradition. Vainshtein’s dandy is not only a dedicated follower of fashion, but an adherent of a particular lifestyle possessing elegant manners, special body language and a subtle charisma. Dandy reveals the secrets of English clubs and gentlemen’s sport, city flaneurs and ‘optical duels’, society receptions and virtual aristocratism. A special section is devoted to the history of dandyism in Russia and famous Russian swells.

World rights available