Camp: The Lie that Tells the TruthCamp style, in behaviour, clothing, artistic output or emotions, has never been properly explored or defined. Jean Cocteau, as camp a figure as Paris has ever produced, said in Vanity Fair in 1922, 'I am a lie that tells the truth.' This paradox is the basis of Philip Core's personal definitions of camp, seen from the inside. His savagely witty depictions of more than two centuries of camp find it embodied in personalities and places, objects and artefacts. He has written a who's who and a what's what of camp, a deceptively descriptive and factual lexicon, allowing the reader to build up a kaleidoscopic picture of camp through the ages. It is complemented with 150 photographs and a vivacious foreword by England's foremost authority on surrealism, eccentric behaviour and hats, jazz singer George Melly.--From publisher description. |
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aesthetic American Art Nouveau artist ballet Beardsley Beardsley's beautiful became Beerbohm behaviour beneath Biography bizarre Brideshead Revisited Brummell camp personalities Cecil Beaton century classic Cocteau concealed costume Coward created dandy decade decorative depicted designer Diaghilev drag dress Edwardian elegance English erotic Erté Evelyn famous fantasy fashion female figure film Firbank French frivolity Gide glamour heterosexual Hockney Hollywood homosexual Jean Jean Cocteau John Jullian Lady lesbian London look lover luxury male Maugham modern Montesquiou Nancy Natalie Barney Noël Coward novel obsession Oscar Wilde paederastic painter painting Paris passion perhaps perversity photographs poems poet portrait Queen Radclyffe Hall revealing Rex Whistler Robert de Montesquiou romantic Sarah Sarah Bernhardt scandal sexual Sitwell snobbery social society star style Symbolist talent taste tion trans transvestism transvestite Vechten Victorian Violet Trefusis Vita Sackville-West Warhol Waugh Weidenfeld & Nicolson Whistler Wilde's woman women York young youth