Böcker av Joris-Karl Huysmans

Against Nature centers on Jean des Esseintes, an eccentric ailing aesthete. The last scion of an aristocratic family, Des Esseintes loathes 19th century bourgeois society and tries to retreat into an artistic world of his own creation.

"... Seigneur, prenez pitié du chrétien qui doute, de l'incrédule qui voudrait croire, du forçat de la vie qui s'embarque seul, dans la nuit, sous un firmament que n'éclairent plus les consolants fanaux du vieil espoir !Voilà bien le cri de détresse de la pauvre âme abandonnée à elle-même et qui se tourne vers le ciel par une sorte de mouvement instinctif, parce qu'elle a expérimenté qu'il n'y avait plus aucune miséricorde ni aucune compassion pour elle sur la terre. Déjà dans À Vau-l'eau, Folantin, au beau milieu de son désarroi, constatait que ceux-là sont heureux qui acceptent comme une épreuve passagère toutes les traverses, toutes les souffrances, toutes les afflictions de la vie présente . Mais il exprimait ainsi, sans s'y attarder, un regret très vague de n'avoir pas la Foi ; et s'il est intéressant de savoir qu'avant sa conversion Huysmans rôde aux alentours de l'Église et voudrait avoir la force d'en franchir le seuil, afin d'échapper aux misères qui l'oppriment ; il importe de retenir ce fait d'un homme notoirement incrédule qui supplie Dieu d'avoir pitié de lui. La forme même de sa prière marque le désir qu'il a de ne plus se débattre dans les ténèbres où il gémit ; elle est une obsécration directe, un sanglot de douleur, l'appel désespéré d'un enfant perdu, qui jette aux échos le nom de sa mère..."

L'antihéros, Jean des Esseintes, après une vie agitée pendant laquelle il a fait l'expérience de tout ce que pouvait lui offrir la société de son temps, se retire dans un pavillon, à Fontenay-aux-Roses, dans lequel il réunit les ouvrages les plus précieux à ses yeux, les objets les plus rares, pour se consacrer à l'oisiveté et à l'étude. De l'ensemble de la littérature française et latine, il ne retient qu'un petit nombre d'auteurs qui le satisfont. Il admire les tableaux de Gustave Moreau, les oeuvres d'Odilon Redon, crée des parfums raffinés, un jardin de fleurs vénéneuses...L'anecdote de la tortue constitue à de nombreux égards une métaphore de la destinée du héros : il fait incruster dans la carapace de l'animal des pierres précieuses, mais celui-ci meurt sous le poids des joyaux.

This 1882 novella, a key work in Huysmans' literary development - prefiguring in its protagonist the figure of Jean des Esseintes, the hero of A rebours, written two years later - is accompanied here by another masterly study of human despair, 'M. Bougran's Retirement'.

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The cult novel of fin de siecle decadence that inspired Oscar Wilde

WORK IS IN FRENCH This book is a reproduction of a work published before 1920 and is part of a collection of books reprinted and edited by Hachette Livre, in the framework of a partnership with the National Library of France, providing the opportunity to access old and often rare books from the BnF's heritage funds.

WORK IS IN FRENCH This book is a reproduction of a work published before 1920 and is part of a collection of books reprinted and edited by Hachette Livre, in the framework of a partnership with the National Library of France, providing the opportunity to access old and often rare books from the BnF's heritage funds.

Durtal, a shy, censorious man, is writing a biography of Gilles de Rais, the monstrous fifteenth-century child-murderer thought to be the original for 'Bluebeard'. Bored and disgusted by the vulgarity of everyday life, Durtal seeks spiritual solace by immersing himself in another age.

The hero of this curious novel is des Esseintes, a neurasthenic aristocrat who has turned his back on the vulgarity of modern life and retreated to an isolated country villa. Here, accompanied only by a couple of silent servants, he pursues his obsessions with exotic flowers, rare gems, and complex perfumes and embarks on a series of increasingly strange aesthetic experiments, starting with the decision to give his giant pet tortoise a jewel-encrusted shell...