This comprehensive critical biography of John Evelyn Barlas (1860-1914) draws heavily on unpublished materials. He produced some distinguished verse in the Aesthetic and Decadent modes, emphasizing withdrawal, contemplation, and the life of the imagination. Yet in seeming contradiction, he also engaged actively in radical politics. And he spent the last 20 years of his life in a mental institution. Although this book stresses Barlas's literary output and associations, his political thought and activities are also discussed in the context of late-Victorian radicalism. And the author addresses the legal aspects of mental illness in late-Victorian Britain, as well as its diagnosis and treatment at the time. Against this background, he discusses Barlas's illness, based on extensive case records.