Famed for his singular prose style as much as for his controversial aestheticist principles, Walter Pater (1839-1894) was one of the great essayists in a century of great essayistic writing. His first book, Studies in the History of the Renaissance--one of the most original and influential texts of the Victorian Aesthetic Movement--was described by Arthur Symons as "the most beautiful book of prose in our literature," and his later work moved...