A decadent delight

Ian Simmons enjoys topless barmaids, coffin dining tables and human bone chandeliers

Cabarets of Death Death, Dance and Dining in Early 20th Century Paris Mel Gordon & Joanna Ebenstein Strange Attractor Press 2024 Pb, £25, 175pp, ISBN 9781907222269 In London and other British cities, the Dungeon chain of attractions has, for many years, cheerfully satisfied the public’s appetite for immersive horror, torture, gore and questionable taste. An obvious precursor is Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, but from the late 19th century, another ancestor thrived in Paris – the Cabarets of Death. While today the popular image of fin de siècle Paris is all sunny impressionist languor and Moulin Rouge jolliness, at the time, symbolist gloom and absinthe-fuelled decadence were at least as high profile. One manifestation was these cabarets. Situated across the street from each other in Montmartre and entered through flamboyantly…

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