Sac au dos: Les Soirées de Médan

by Joris-Karl Huysmans

Extrait : "Aussitôt que j'eus achevé mes études, mes parents jugèrent utile de me faire comparoir devant une table habillée de drap vert et surmontée de bustes de vieux messieurs qui s'inquiétèrent de savoir si j'avais appris assez de langue morte pour être promu au grade de bachelier..."

37 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1880

About the author

Charles 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.

Reviews

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a very slight piece, a longish short story, but it has great energy and verve. It's the story of a middle class Parisian who is trying to avoid the question of higher studies and a career, gets drafted into the army during the Franco-Prussian war, falls ill, spends most of his time either in hospital or escaping hospital to go carousing and is sent home to convalesce just as the Second Empire collapsed and the war ends. The most unadventurous and incident-less of war narratives, it comes from Huysmans' early naturalist days, and sparkles with the irreverent hedonism of the narrator and an ability to convey atmosphere, even the bleak, foul atmosphere of overcrowded military transports or hospitals. A squib, especially by the standards of Huysmans' later achievements, but perfectly crafted and lively.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this could be classified as one of Huysmans lesser efforts, all the same I'm glad that I've finally been able to read it (now, if only Snuggly could put out a new version of Le drageoir aux épices, which I still have not read: that was Huysmans' very first published book, a collection of prose poems). You have to give Huysmans credit: with this slim naturalistic novella he managed to craft what could be classified as one of the most boring and inconsequential war stories ever set to paper. Basically, a young Parisian man is called to war (the war in this case being the War of 1870). Almost as soon as he arrives for duty he gets stricken with dysentery and spends the rest of the war going from hospital to hospital, where he suffers from ennui and gets doted on by nuns. By the end of the book he's back home in Paris, having not seen even the slightest hint of combat (well, aside from the war going on in his bowels, that is).

Like many of Huysmans' fictitious works, this one is very semi-autobiographical and based on Husymans' own war-time experiences (or lack thereof). Never the most patriotic of Frenchmen, Huysmans actually found himself more sympathetic to the Prussians, which evidently rankled the ire of the ultra-patriotic Leon Bloy, who would, years later, offer up a thinly-veiled caricature of Huysmans in his novel The Woman Who Was Poor (which featured a character named Folantin who brags about how he managed to miss any fighting in the war at all thanks to diarrhea). Bloy was also involved in the War of 1870, but I suspect he saw a bit more of the fighting: fans of this novella should also check out Bloy's collection Sweating Blood, which is a bit more action-packed.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alors! This is the 1907 translated version (from French to English), however, what I really wanted was the 1880 French language version. Nevertheless, I read this and was completely entertained by Joris-Karl Huysmans’ short story of a boy growing into manhood through college, war, friendship, and women. I like Huysmans’ writing style; it is clean, succinct, and wholesomely descriptive.

🇫🇷 I plan to get the French version so as to compare. 🇫🇷

Note: Sac-au-dos = backpack

[Vico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le quotidien d'un jeune homme tout juste diplômé et qui est enrôlé dans l'armée. Assez chanceux, il ne verra jamais le front et se fera trimbaler d'une ville à une autre.

Je retiens les descriptions de Huysmans qui pour moi n'a que très peu de rivaux en la matiere:

On nous sert un succulent repas. Il y a des fleurs sur la table, de magnifiques bouquets de roses et de fuchsias qui s’épanouissent dans des cornets de verre ! Le garçon nous apporte une entrecôte qui saigne dans un lac de beurre ; le soleil se met de la fête, fait étinceler les couverts et les lames des couteaux, blute sa poudre d’or au travers des carafes, et, lutinant le pomard qui se balance doucement dans les verres, pique d’une étoile sanglante la nappe damassée.

Enfin on retrouve également les prémices d'un des thèmes récurrents chez cet auteur casanier, valorisant le confort du chez soi:

Je suis chez moi, dans des cabinets à moi ! et je me dis qu’il faut avoir vécu dans la promiscuité des hospices et des camps pour apprécier la valeur d’une cuvette d’eau, pour savourer la solitude des endroits où l’on met culotte bas, à l’aise.