Synthesis of genres in Aubrey Beardsley's essays ("The art of hoarding" and "Prospectus for Volpone")

The article discusses two prosaic works of the famous English graphic artist of the XIX century Aubrey Beardsley The Art of Hoadring and Prospectus for Volpone. A consecutive analysis of these works reveals some peculiarities of their composition and content: an amalgam of genre traits of an essay, a publicistic article and advertisement. Beardsley's synthetic mind shows in the way he addresses various literary genres and kinds of art. Involving a broad scientific, theatrical, poetic, national and linguistic context, Beardsley plays with numerous quotations, reminiscences, allusions. Bringing together professional criticism and subjective reflections, the propaganda of classical and contemporary art with his personal creative work, he expands genre boarders of the English essay, which allows to judge about its evolution on the verge of the XIX and XX centuries in the epoch of art nouveau.