Jan Opolsky has primarily been viewed as an undistinguished hanger-on in the era of Czech literary decadence. Through close reading and detailed analysis of Opolsky s prose, however, Peter Butler argues that, far from his reputation as a literary lackey, Opolsky is a master of sustained narrative irony and an accomplished writer in his own right.Beyond Decadenceevaluates archival sources and private correspondence between Opolsky and other literary figures, and includes a classified bibliography of Opolsky s work. Butler s introduction, meanwhile, offers an overview of the Czech...