Joris-Karl Huysmans - A rebours (1884)

Since my first post cited Joris-Karl Huysmans' A rebours (Against Nature or Against the Grain) as my entree to Decadent literature, it seems sensible to blog about it right off the bat. Without question, A rebours is the Decadent novel and a must read if you're interested in the Decadent movement or French fin de siecle literature in general. That said, as fascinating and well-written as I found it, it’s not easy going. Note: I read Margaret Mauldon's translation published by Oxford and found it very accessible. (The painting at right is Portrait of J.-K. Huysmans by Adolphe Erneste Gumery, painted in 1884 - the year A rebours was published).

A rebours is about Jean Des Esseintes, a wealthy aristocratic fop (the contemporary term was 'dandy'). He and his friends roam Paris indulging their sexual and sensual whims until Des Esseintes literally burns out on life in the fast lane. Disgusted with human society, he retreats to a house outside Paris and seals himself away to revel in his books and art and commune with his darker impulses. Cue the novel’s epigraph: "I must rejoice beyond the confines of time...though the world be repelled by my joy, and in its coarseness know not what I mean." 

Sound spicy? Well, this all occurs in the novel’s prologue. Most of A rebours is composed of descriptive chapters delving into every particular of how Des Esseintes creates and obsesses over his private world. Imagine expanding to novel length the first few pages of an Edgar Allan Poe short story such as "The Fall of the House of Usher" or "The Telltale Heart", in which we are acquainted with a neurotic narrator, and you have a fair idea of the terrain. 

When I first read A rebours I wrote in a margin: “This novel is like a bible of decadent literature”. And this is exactly how the novel was viewed by the Decadent writers who followed. A rebours is a how-to guide for the effete dandy. Entire descriptive chapters are dedicated to decor, literature, music, art, philosophy, and even flowers in terms of how they fit with Des Esseintes’ decadence. 

This leaves little room for plot, but I doubt Huysmans cared. He’s writing about Des Esseintes’ psychology, which makes A rebours very Modern (especially for 1884). When the narrative is punctuated by action, it’s usually just a brief vignette of eccentric dandyism. For example, Des Esseintes buys a tortoise as a pet and encrusts its shell with jewels he picks by hand to achieve the right aesthetic impact. Elsewhere, he exposes a young hustler to the pleasures of brothels as an experiment in "producing a murderer". 

It's not long before the isolation affects Des Esseintes mentally and physically. He becomes increasingly neurotic and lethargic. Towards the end of the book when doctors are summoned to intervene, Des Esseintes resents their intrusion:

"The doctors spoke of amusements and distractions; but with whom, and with what, could they possibly suppose that he might amuse or enjoy himself? Had he not outlawed himself from society? Did he know one man capable of trying to lead a life such as his own, a life entirely confined to contemplation and dreams? Did he know one man capable of appreciating the delicacy of a phrase, the subtlety of a painting, the quintessence of an idea, one man whose soul was sufficiently finely crafted to understand Mallarme and to love Verlaine?"

A rebours pits a highly cultured aristocratic dandy against a world rotting away intellectually. Des Esseintes – and clearly Huysmans, too – blame the decay on the encroachment of a crass and vulgar middle class. A bovine herd who buy art for decoration, not because they appreciate it. Who consume drama for entertainment, oblivious to any deeper meaning in what they experience. He describes it as "the crushing of all intelligence, the negation of probity, the death of all art."  

The rise of capitalism and its incessant focus on money and acquisition are also blamed ("the vast whorehouse of America, transported on to our continent"). However, Des Esseintes is really concerned with the trampling of art, literature, and music. He retreats to escape, but the novel’s title and its conclusion suggest this is impossible. For an educated, intelligent mind this creates intense alienation, isolation, and even nihilism, key features of broader French fin de siecle angst.

For me, this is one of the most intriguing aspects of A rebours, as well other Decadent novels and those of the contemporaneous Symbolist movement that I would read over the ensuring years. The alienation and extreme state of mind presented strikes me as a precursor for the psychology of much early 20th Century literature, forming a bridge from the 19th Century to the Modern.