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Domesticity
Joris-Karl Huysmans’s semi-autobiographical third novel, first published in French in 1881, signaled the beginning of his break from the naturalism of Émile Zola and his turn toward a “new naturalism” that laid out the negative consequences of determinism and embraced a disgust for human existence and an all-out war against respectability.
Domesticity tells the tale of novelist André Jayant and artist Cyprien Tibaille, two men struggling between the urges of their body and the urges of their soul—between the comforts of coupledom and the ideals of art—and with the failure of matrimony or the artistic endeavor to fulfill the needs of either. More than a psychological character study, though, Domesticity stands as one of the most memorable portraits of late-nineteenth-century Paris: its shops, its eateries, its apartments, and its sad, futile affairs of the heart.
Steeped in sardonic pessimism, this ode to sterility was one of the author’s own favorite novels of his career.
Domesticity tells the tale of novelist André Jayant and artist Cyprien Tibaille, two men struggling between the urges of their body and the urges of their soul—between the comforts of coupledom and the ideals of art—and with the failure of matrimony or the artistic endeavor to fulfill the needs of either. More than a psychological character study, though, Domesticity stands as one of the most memorable portraits of late-nineteenth-century Paris: its shops, its eateries, its apartments, and its sad, futile affairs of the heart.
Steeped in sardonic pessimism, this ode to sterility was one of the author’s own favorite novels of his career.
- Genres19th Century
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1881
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About the author
Joris-Karl Huysmans
329 books703 followersCharles Marie Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. AKA: J.-K. Huysmans.
He is most famous for the novel À rebours (Against Nature). His style is remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, wide-ranging vocabulary, wealth of detailed and sensuous description, and biting, satirical wit.
The novels are also noteworthy for their encyclopedic documentation, ranging from the catalogue of decadent Latin authors in À rebours to the discussion of the symbiology of Christian architecture in La cathédrale. Huysmans' work expresses a disgust with modern life and a deep pessimism, which led the author first to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer then to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
He is most famous for the novel À rebours (Against Nature). His style is remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, wide-ranging vocabulary, wealth of detailed and sensuous description, and biting, satirical wit.
The novels are also noteworthy for their encyclopedic documentation, ranging from the catalogue of decadent Latin authors in À rebours to the discussion of the symbiology of Christian architecture in La cathédrale. Huysmans' work expresses a disgust with modern life and a deep pessimism, which led the author first to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer then to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
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August 11, 2025
And then the character of her husband seemed to her prematurely old. After her father's grumbling affection, her uncle's upright rigidity, she would have liked a freer rein, the benefit of childish intimacies. André had adopted a paternal and benevolent manner.
He was always on the defensive and, behind a display of affection, sought to take the measure of his wife. Not to shock her directly, not to fly red rags in her face, to keep hold of her so that she wasn't too aware of the leash, wrap the harshness of a refusal in a delicate tenderness, such was his method. Moreover, when she sought to impose her will on him through a hidden war, as formerly on her father, he promptly took into account the force of her calculated inertia, her tireless cunning.
An illuminating transition in style before Huysmans departs from naturalism. You get to see some of what excites him, and makes his writing exciting, in little flairs buried in the semi-unremarkable determinism.
He was always on the defensive and, behind a display of affection, sought to take the measure of his wife. Not to shock her directly, not to fly red rags in her face, to keep hold of her so that she wasn't too aware of the leash, wrap the harshness of a refusal in a delicate tenderness, such was his method. Moreover, when she sought to impose her will on him through a hidden war, as formerly on her father, he promptly took into account the force of her calculated inertia, her tireless cunning.
An illuminating transition in style before Huysmans departs from naturalism. You get to see some of what excites him, and makes his writing exciting, in little flairs buried in the semi-unremarkable determinism.
Displaying 1 of 1 review