Abstract: At the end of the nineteenth century, a particular crisis of masculinity crystallised around the notion of decadence, evoked in literary texts through the stereotypical characters who are both its agents and objects. This study analyses attempts to define virility (triumphant or feeble) at the end of the nineteenth century in relation to two decadent novels : Les Invertis. Le Vice allemand (1896) by Armand Dubarry and L’Homme en amour (1897) by Camille Lemonnier.
