Abstract: In his essay Du Dandysme et de George Brummell, Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly attempts to define dandyism, while also demonstrating that this notion cannot be set in stone. While dandyism’s defining feature is that it evades all fixed rules, the text uses rhetorical, syntactic, and stylistic devices that are appropriate for representing the transience of the subject. Barbey’s stylistics of dandyism deploys numerous figures of speech in order to shift the boundaries and represent a notion that is constantly in flux.
