Against Nature

Huysmans, J.-K. (Joris-Karl), 1848-1907Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.7

Word count: 442K words
Chapters: 45

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A rebours by J.-K. HuysmansAuthor: Huysmans, J.-K. (Joris-Karl), 1848-1907,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Dec 8, 2017

Editor's review

A rebours is Huysmans's representative work, portraying a descendant of the nobility who retreats into a self-made aesthetic world, countering mediocre reality with sensory experiments and artificial tastes. The novel has almost no traditional plot progression; its focus is on the elaborate presentation of objects, smells, gemstones, and literary tastes, in refined and dense language. It is often regarded in literary history as a landmark text of decadentism and aestheticism, and it inspired later modernist writing. Its value in reading lies in experiencing an extreme aesthetic attitude and mode of narration, not in following a story. The French original is released by Project Gutenberg; it suits close reading alongside a translation and serves as a sample of late nineteenth-century French literature and aesthetic currents.

Who it's for

A good fit for

French literature students and researchers who need to study decadent texts
Readers interested in aestheticism and late nineteenth-century European literary and artistic currents
Literary lovers accustomed to slow reading and appreciative of description and verbal texture
French learners who need to read the original alongside a translation

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plots and fast-paced narrative
Readers with little patience for extensive descriptions of objects and sensory detail
Beginners with weak French and no translation to assist them

Reading tips

Read the introduction or literary-historical background first to understand the decadent context before entering the text.
Read slowly chapter by chapter, treating descriptions of objects and tastes as the subject itself rather than as decoration.
Read alongside a Chinese translation, consulting annotations for dense cultural allusions.
After reading, write a short commentary on the relationship between aesthetics and escape from reality to test your understanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Does this novel have a complete plot?

The plot is very weak. The book mainly follows the protagonist's solitary life and aesthetic experiments, lacking conflict and progression in the traditional sense. Readers expecting a story may be disappointed; its appeal lies in description, taste, and ideas.

Why is it important in literary history?

It is often regarded as a landmark work of decadentism and aestheticism, concentrating the late nineteenth-century pursuit of sensory experience, artificial taste, and aesthetic autonomy, and it inspired later modernist approaches to narrative and taste.

Is the French original difficult to read?

It has a rich vocabulary and dense description, requiring considerable French reading ability. Those with some French should read it alongside a translation and use annotations to understand cultural allusions, or they may get lost in the details.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Huysmans, J.-K. (Joris-Karl), 1848-1907 Author

Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848–1907) was a French novelist known for his meticulous, almost anatomical treatment of psychology and the senses. His best-known novel, A rebours (Against the Grain; German translation Gegen den Strich), centres on a reclusive aristocrat's extreme pursuit of art, sensation and artificial pleasures, and is regarded as a key text of late nineteenth-century European aestheticism and decadent literature. Another novel, Là-bas, explores questions of faith and mystical experience, while En Route and The Cathedral continue his engagement with religious themes. Eight of his works are held in the collection, including Sac-Au-Dos and Un dilemme. Public information is limited, so no conjectures are made about the details of his life.