Whilst Murray does not reject readings of decadence as a tool of resistance, he provides a salutary reminder that writers and artists linked to decadence often held elitist and exclusionary political views that may now seem unpalatable.
...
Decadent Conservatism does not resolve the 'notorious' difficulties of defining decadence, but it ably opens up those complexities to critical scrutiny and represents an important contribution to the expanding field of decadence studies.

Matthew Creasy, University of Glasgow, Forum for Modern Language Studies

One of Murray's most important contributions is his sensitive consideration of nineteenth-century conservatism as a set of not only political views but also social and historical ones that were often not well aligned with each other. ... Murray's entire book will be read and discussed by literary and cultural scholars for years to come.

Dennis Denisoff, University of Tulsa, Victorian Studies

Murray's introduction does an amazing amount of heavy lifting, moving through a thoughtful summary of key works that powerfully shaped more recent attitudes towards Decadence, including the high modernists and other critics who formulated it as a backward-looking, ineffectual (or, with equal derogation, effeminate), and dandiacal display of tired Victorian manners. Murray offers an important new reading that qualifies this modernist perspective, observing that "conservative Decadence very often involves a withdrawal from the world, the embrace of refinement, solitude, and the past as an antidote to the march of modernity" .

Dennis Denisoff, Victorian Studies