WALTER PATER'S MARIUS THE EPICUREAN — THE IMAGINARY PORTRAIT AS CULTURAL HISTORY.

The article describes Walter Pater's distinctive approach to history in some detail by interpreting his book "Marius the Epicurean." The author also examines the sources of some of Pater's ideas, and explores his unusual employment of the imaginary portrait as the form for the work. The paper also discusses the bearing which Pater considered historical writing to have upon the present. It argues that book by Pater is not a concealed autobiography, except in the most trivial sense, but the most extended of his essays in cultural history.