Portrait du noble fin de siècle en roi carnaval

In fin-de-siècle literature, noble characters presented in terms of their defects and perversions were opposed to the classical representation (the noble man incarnating a superior character; the persistence of historical values). The novels of authors like Jean Lorrain, Alphonse Daudet, and Élémir Bourges show degenerated nobles transformed into carnival kings who throw a new light on the social configurations of the time.