Infamous as the inspiration for the novel which slowly corrupts Oscar Wilde's "D
orian Gray", Joris-Karl Huysmans' "Against Nature" (A Rebours) is translated by
Robert Baldick with an introduction by Patrick McGuinness in "Penguin Classics".
A wildly original fin-de-siecle novel, "Against Nature" contains only one chara
cter. Des Esseintes is a decadent, ailing aristocrat who retreats to an isolated
villa where her indulges his taste for luxury and excess.
Veering between nerv
ous excitability and debilitating ennui, he gluts his aesthetic appetites with c
lassical literature and art, exotic jewels (with which he fatally encrusts the s
hell of his tortoise), rich perfumes and a kaleidoscope of sensual experiences.
"Against Nature", in the words of the author, exploded 'like a meteorite' and ha
s enjoyed a cult following to this day. This revised edition of Robert Baldick's
lucid translation features a new introduction and a chronology, and reproduces
Huysmans' original 1903 preface as well as a selection of reviews from writers i
ncluding Mallarme, Zola and Wilde.
Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907) is now rec
ognized as one of the most challenging and innovative figures in European litera
ture and an acknowledged principal architect of the fin-de-siecle imagination. H
e was a career civil servant who wrote ten novels, most notably "A Rebours and L
a-Bas". If you enjoyed "Against Nature", you might like Huysmans' "The Damned (L
a-Bas)", also available in "Penguin Classics".
