David Weir is Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Cooper Union in New York City. He has published ten books, two on film directors (Jean Vigo and Ernst Lubitsch), two on James Joyce, and several on such topics as orientalism, anarchism, and decadence, including Decadence: A Very Short Introduction. He also co-edited, with Jane Desmarais, Decadence and Literature and The Oxford Handbook of Decadence.