Against Nature: Joris-Karl Huysmans (Penguin Classics)

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Another important French writer of the period, Barbey d'Aurevilly, commented to Huysmans that the only thing left for a man after writing such a book was to choose between 'the muzzle of a pistol and the foot of the cross'. Huysmans, like Wilde and several other English Decadents after him, chose the cross Tersine, nihayet bitti dediğim kitaplardan biri oldu, bir daha da cebir ve şiddet altında dahi olsam dönüp yüzüne bakmam. Tersine ile aynı günlerde Karatani’nin Transkritik: Kant ve Marx üzerine adlı kallavi bir kitabına başlamıştım. Benim iki kitabı aynı anda okurken rutinim şudur; kuramsal eserden yorulduğumda romanın sıcak kollarına sığanır, orada dinlenirim biraz. Ancak bu sefer Tersine’den kaçıp kurama sığındım varın sıkıcılığı siz düşünün. Bu sıkıcılığın üstüne bir de Tahsin Yücel çevirememesini ekleyin. Bu öztürkçeci abimiz mesaisini kitap okunmasın diye harcamış sanki, sinirce kelimesini okurken bir yerden sonra buhranlar geçirmedim değil. Umarım bir gün başka bir çevirmen el atar da bu kitaba sıkılacak okur sadece yazarın derdiyle sıkılır, burjuvanın öztürkçe karşılığının kenter sınıfı olmasıyla falan uğraşmaz. It takes me two years to 'document' myself for a novel– two years of hard work. That is the trouble with the naturalistic novel– it requires so much documentary care. I never make, like Zola, a plan for a book. I know how it will begin and how it will end– that's all. When I finally get to writing it, it goes along rather fast– assez vite." [12] This promiscuity of admiration was one of the most distressing things in his life. Incomprehensible successes had permanently ruined books and paintings for him which he had previously held dear; faced with widespread public approbation, he ended up discovering imperceptible flaws in works, and rejecting them….] Esseintes is an ascetic of art, and ends up sacrificing his life by metamorphose it into a work of art, his masochistic devotion draws him to the brink of alienation, intensifying his neurosis.

On the flowers, what "blue cinder" means is not particularly clear, but occidental turquoise, also known as bone or fossil turquoise, does consist of bones buried near iron deposits which develop a blue hue. purified verb extracts, nouns that reek of incense, bizarre adjectives rough-hewn from gold, with the barbaric, charming appeal of Gothic jewels….] Sembra la madre di tutte le frasi di lancio, il re di tutti i blurb, su me ha fatto presa rapida e duratura come nessun’altra.But that summer day was a day for trying to get some much needed R and R. I sat in the shade with this book - a library loan. Barbaric in its profusion, violent in its emphasis, wearying in its splendor, it is– especially in regard to things seen– extraordinarily expressive, with all the shades of a painter's palette. Elaborately and deliberately perverse, it is in its very perversity that Huysmans's work - so fascinating, so repellent, so instinctively artificial - comes to represent, as the work of no other writer can be said to do, the main tendencies, the chief results, of the Decadent movement in literature." ( Arthur Symons, The Decadent Movement in Literature) Actually, I’m not sure if that point is intentional and the character ironic, or if Huysmans pretends it’s ironic to deflect personal criticism when actually he secretly wrote himself into the novel. Des Esseintes isn’t an unbelievable character. I know someone exactly like him. I’m betting Huysmans lied when he swore to his disapproving mentor, Zola (according to Wikipedia) that des Esseintes wasn’t really himself. public Wi-Fi - this extends to the majority of our public spaces including the Reading Rooms, as well as our study desks and galleries at St Pancras (you won't require a login) Perfino lo stesso autore nella prefazione a una nuova edizione, vent’anni dopo la prima del 1884, prende le distanze dal suo romanzo, sembra quasi sconfessarlo (certo, pesa che nel frattempo Huysmans si sia convertito al cattolicesimo con tutta la foga bigotta dei neofiti).

You see, I was curious about the fictional character of Jean des Esseintes, the lugubrious layabout to whom Huysman's more famous contemporary fellow writer Mallarme dedicated a long lamenting meditation on the unreality of the Sensual World - Prose For Des Esseintes. Des Esseintes conducts a survey of French and Latin literature, rejecting the works approved by the mainstream critics of his day. He rejects the academically respectable Latin authors of the " Golden Age" such as Virgil and Cicero, preferring later " Silver Age" writers such as Petronius (Des Esseintes praises the decadent Satyricon) and Apuleius ( Metamorphoses, commonly known as The Golden Ass) as well as works of early Christian literature, whose style was usually dismissed as the "barbarous" product of the Dark Ages. Among French authors, he shows nothing but contempt for the Romantics but adores the poetry of Baudelaire. [1]Then, when people confirm our biases--when they align with our groupthink--we listen and nod, we praise them, we tell them ‘it’s so nice to talk to a person who understands’. It’s the confirmation of that tribal need to all be in the same boat together, on the same course. Lloyd, Christopher (1988). "French Naturalism and the Monstrous: J.-K. Huysmans and A Rebours," Durham University Journal, Vol. 81 (1), pp. 111–121. There are even some aesthete-esque hints towards des Esseintes’s homosexual urges, with vague references to a young man who made him think about ‘sinning against the sixth and ninth of the Ten Commandments’.

In this context of permanent chiseling, Esseintes can only be physically displayed with the same obsession for refinement. But - ironically - that's exactly what Jean des Esseintes tries to do. And fails to do, miserably. if a beautiful Moonrise is pointed out to him, he looks at the fleshy finger pointing - rather than the spectacularly large moon.

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( March 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) By careful and persistent experimentation, Esseintes learned to "execute on his tongue a succession of voiceless melodies; noiseless funeral marches, solemn and stately; could hear in his mouth solos of crème de menthe, duets of vespertro and rum." [15]