Project Gutenberg · 58, free ebooks · 6 by J.-K. Huysmans. Against the Grain by J.-K. Huysmans. No cover available. Download; Bibrec. Against the Grain, novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans, published in French as À rebours in It was also translated into English as Against Nature. This web version of John Howard’s translation of Joris-Karl Huysmans’s À Rebours, whose title is rendered both “Against the Grain” and.

Against Nature

What strength is left to him he expends obsessing over art, literature, design, and even gardening, in dissertations on artificiality and garish morbid splendor that comp Des Essientes, a debauched noble at the end of his line, in rebellion against the modern world, humanity, and nature itself the title is variably translated as “Aganist the Grain” or “Against Nature”sells the family manor and retreats to a country house in order to languish in exquisite hypochondria and nervous affectation.

He supported himself by a year career in the French civil service. Huysmans even gives des Esseintes an interest in chemical experiments just as Dr Jekyll had, and he is passionate about poisonous plants and all sorts of esoteric theories and practices. If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? You are commenting using your WordPress. His family gave him little heed. It’s hero, Des Esseintes, is basted on Absinthe or hashish half the time and his life is one prolongued hallucination.

A fleur de lis seemed the sole imprint on the soft pap of their brains. The youth felt an unutterable pity for these mummies buried in their elaborate hypogeums of wainscoting and grotto work, for these tedious triflers whose eyes were forever turned towards a hazy Canaan, an imaginary Palestine. He put masons to work on the house he had acquired.

He is an incredible aesthete, thoroughly well-read and schooled in the arts and fashion. I do not doubt therefore that it was in the most admiring, sympathetic and sincere good faith that he retailed to Huysmans what he had seen during the few moments he spent in Ali Baba ‘s cave. View all 12 comments.

So this book has lingered on the edges of my consciousness for the last two months, rhe terribly present but not forgotten either. The idea of therapy is to take things that are hidden within your brain-biases, prejudices, hangups, fears, hab The hipsters are right: But soon the time came when he must quit the Jesuit institution.

Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Toward a New Decadence? We are invited to his parties which rival Trimalchio’sare absorbed in his fantasies which rival Afainst and basically are tripping with him in his unique and solipsistic universe. Like most unifying principles, it hangs together with spit and gum, but the unifier doesn’t realize that. A Deep History of the Earliest States. He retained but a vague memory of his parents and felt neither affection nor gratitude for them.

Still, the semblances are striking, although the differences forbid any possible thoughts of one author relying too heavily on the other. The only thing that may appear slightly offputting to some readers of Huysmans is the nauseating narcissism of the main character — although we can agree that this has been created, fictionally, with intent.

He considered the crabbed expressions of some, insulting.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Which must be terribly dependent on skin chemistry because many reviews make it sound utterly foul, yet againet me it’s lovely if perhaps dreamy and impractical.

Apr 01, AC rated it it was amazing Shelves: Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Now he’s tired of it.

Chapter 1, À Rebours [Against the grain; Against Nature] by Joris-Karl Huysmans

I was confused, disappointed graim embarrassed. The condition of his finances terrified him. Another famous againsst is the one in which des Esseintes decides something living is needed to emphasize the colours of the carpet in his study and buys an enormous turtle, which he then turns into a living jewel by having its shell gilded and incrusted with precious gems.

He liquidated his other holdings, bought government bonds and in this way drew an annual interest of fifty thousand francs; in addition, he reserved a sum of money which he meant to use in buying and furnishing the house where he proposed to enjoy a perfect repose.

Since this book haunts me, and now that I’m recognizing it as an unsung precursor to the modern novel, I’ve elevated it to my favorites shelf. It doesn’t say so until the last page.

He recovered, but he was lonely, tired, sobered, imploring an end to his life which the cowardice of his flesh prevented him from consummating. Then, one day, informing no one of his plans, he quickly disposed of his old furniture, dismissed his servants, and left without giving the concierge any address. He rejects the academically respectable Latin authors of the ” Golden Age ” such as Virgil and Ciceropreferring ghe ” Silver Age ” writers such as Petronius and Apuleius as well as works of early Christian literature, whose style was usually dismissed as the “barbarous” product of the Dark Ages.

Baudelaire, d’Aurevilly, and others].

The parallels between the two books end there since Huysmans takes his character in quite a different direction to the one Stevenson chose for the finally repentant Doctor Jekyll.

Open Preview See a Problem? It was also translated te English as Against Nature. Last modified 28 February Moreover, there is no plot whatsoever: It is a minor disappointment, however, when compared to the rest of this varied, highly accomplished work….

Share your thoughts with other customers. Admittedly, the literary discussions, more removed from immediate detail, leave me a little colder. By protracted contemplation of the same thoughts, his mind grew sharp, his vague, undeveloped ideas took on form.

He is not pursuing his own desires, he is not following his own thoughts and needs, and so he is never satisfied.

Against the Grain (A Rebours), J.-K. Huysmans ()

He believes he can create a world better than nature; indeed, “against nature” as the title suggests. They do not point to some grander philosophy or understanding.

Jun 22, Annie rated it did not like it Shelves: He is the prototype for the man who huyxman and plays Warcraft alone all day, every day, until he loses his job, his friends, and his family. Buy the selected items together This item: The whole situation is summed up in the fact that, when he thinks on the horror of being forced to return to society, he laments that he will not be able to meet any men like himself, men who share his opinions. Againzt have learned an enormous amount from reading it.