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Aubrey Vincent Beardsley's leap into notoriety, the fervor of curiosity excited by his audacious originality, invention, and creativity, along with the sheer puzzlement of his works never could have been, nor never were intended for a mass audience appeal. To a young and rising artist such disapprovals are as wholesome a nutrient as is praise. Beardsley had much of both, being both praised as a genius by some, and scorned by the exclamations of others. It is significant to note that, despite his many imitators, he has remained without true rival as not just the inventor, but also the master of his own methods. Born a master, and dead by the young age of twenty-four from tuberculosis, his art displays an uncanny intuition for such an untrained, boyish hand. When he was eighteen years old he came forth with his drawings that instantly began to make him famous. In the short six years of his artistic life. Beardsley, as most publishers knew, was fickle. If his work pleased him he was quick with it, if it bored him it was like pulling teeth to get it from him.
In April of 1893, when Beardsley was twenty, he was given his first public notice in the opening number of the Studio, which was accompanied by reproductions of some of his works. He entered into the undertaking of illustrating a two-volume edition of Malory's 'Morte Darthur' for J.M. Dent & Co. One of the things that discouraged Beardsley in the work was the required scale of reduction necessary for the book. He was also hired to work with the Pall Mall Budget and the Pall Mall Gazette, but it was in connection with The Yellow Book that he was first introduced to the majority of the public and for which he will mostly be remembered. In this period he also produced fifteen illustrations for 'Salome' as well as the long series of designs for the 'Keynotes' novels. Few artists have had such extraordinarily deep penetration into the hidden abysses of sin or such a lurid power of suggesting them.