Novel
Against Nature
À rebours
Joris-Karl Huysmans · 1884
Opening lines
PLUS de deux mois s'écoulèrent avant que des Esseintes pût s'immerger dans le silencieux repos de sa maison de Fontenay; des achats de toute sorte l'obligeaient à déambuler encore dans Paris, à battre la ville d'un bout à l'autre.
More than two months went by before des Esseintes could immerse himself in the silent repose of his house at Fontenay; purchases of every kind obliged him to keep wandering about Paris, scouring the city from one end to the other.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Jean des Esseintes, the last scion of an old aristocratic family, weary of Parisian society, withdraws to a house at Fontenay-aux-Roses, which he fits out solely to his own tastes. There he pursues rare sensations: he has the shell of a tortoise inlaid with precious stones, composes perfumes, grows exotic and poisonous flowers, and keeps in his library only the Latin authors of the decadence and a few poets of his own time, among them Mallarmé.
Context
The novel appeared in Paris in 1884. With almost no plot, it devotes each chapter to one of its hero's passions: Latin literature, flowers, perfumes, precious stones, painting. Its author, who came from naturalism, broke in it with Zola's school, and Zola reproached him for having dealt naturalism a terrible blow. The book was immediately regarded as the breviary of decadence.
Who it is for
A short novel with almost no plot, made up of thematic chapters that can be taken in any order.
Prizes and reception
It was translated into English under the title Against Nature, by Margaret Mauldon for Oxford and by Brendan King for Dedalus.