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À rebours
À rebours (1884) exauce les promesses de son titre. Entremêlant au récit d’une rupture avec le monde réel des contes, des poèmes en prose, des considérations intempestives, des pages d’histoire ou de critique, il constitue un remarquable exemple d’« antiroman ». En même temps qu’il expose les thèses de la décadence, il s’engage dans les voies de l’expérimentation et ausculte la vie intérieure, ce qui ne l’empêche pas d’exploiter tous les filons du comique, de la grosse blague à l’humour noir.
Dossier :
1. À rebours vu par J.-K. Huysmans
2. L’accueil d’À rebours
3. La place de Baudelaire
4. Variantes.
Dossier :
1. À rebours vu par J.-K. Huysmans
2. L’accueil d’À rebours
3. La place de Baudelaire
4. Variantes.
405 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 2004
1 person want to read
About the author
Joris-Karl Huysmans
389 books698 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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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 23, 2022
A very curious novel in which the hero--a stand-in for the author--posits a series of observations about the dissolution of civilisation as he sees it, and his fascination with decadence, very much in vogue in both literature and the arts in France in the late 19th century.
This rich, snobbish neurasthenic, horrified by human mediocrity, has sequestered himself in the countryside in a house designed to his extremes precisions, to avoid the vicissitudes of what he considers human baseness and degeneracy. Des Esseintes is not just disgusted by the common people, he is equally appalled by the material pettiness of the new bourgeoisie and is contemptuous of the unimaginative dissoluteness of aristocrats with too much time on their hands.
Aside form two servants whom he arranges to never see, des Esseintes, as he is named, sets about to create a private world in which unusual sensations (proceeding through each of the five senses) and the powers of imagination and memory are painstakingly curated to bring himself maximum spiritual and psychic gratification. He is through with hedonism of the old sort, having more than sated himself in the sexual arena and in other worldly appetites; he is an aesthete and an ascetic now, at least of a kind.
He becomes equally exhausted in his search through his library for uplifting works of literature and art, which is a central plot line to this essentially plotless novel. The chapters are punctuated by trivial incidents in his sequestered existence, and by a recital of his efforts to astonish himself with novelty, the morbid, and the decadent. He decorates his home with colors that will shift in tones depending on the time of day and the weather; he creates a musical organ that emits certain sounds based on the taste of certain alcoholic mixtures he combines. This holds his attention for a while. He orders flowers from all over the world and then toys with creating artificial ones that smell even better than the real ones until he gets sick and tired of that exploit as well. In his fascination with color and light he buys jewels of every color and reflection, and when this is not enough, in his desire for scintillating lights he buys a turtle he then has encrusted with the jewels so that as the reptile moves slowly through his drawing room he can see the light refract off its shell. The turtle, understandably, dies immediately.
But most of the novel is really devoted to des Esseintes rifling through his books and his condemnation of most of them, starting with books in Latin, religious texts of all kinds, and working slowly through many now obscure authors to the Symbolists and the Decadents of his era. Huysmans corresponded with many of the authors his hero cites, but as the editors make clear, most of his choices of supreme art have not withstood the test of time, Baudelaire and Poe being exceptions. Furthermore, des Esseintes wallows in the morbid, the grotesque and skims along the surface of sadistic voyeurism. In a word, he is not a likeable character, in addition to being insufferable.
A Rebours, translated into English as "Against the Grain", reveals a personality whose only sense of significance is his unalterable belief in his own taste and sensibility, by an author who flourishes his expansive learning and extensive command of language, especially arcane vocabulary.
This is a book perhaps worth reading by those who are conducting studies in linguistics, in Latin, or in medieval and religious hagiography. But it seems most suited to someone doing advanced studies in in 19th century French literature--the more arcane the better--and more as a curiosity than anything else. Oh, one other possible audience: perhaps for those interested in psychopathology as an example of a character attempting to live by the excessively refined and ultimately pernicious effects of touted decadence.
This rich, snobbish neurasthenic, horrified by human mediocrity, has sequestered himself in the countryside in a house designed to his extremes precisions, to avoid the vicissitudes of what he considers human baseness and degeneracy. Des Esseintes is not just disgusted by the common people, he is equally appalled by the material pettiness of the new bourgeoisie and is contemptuous of the unimaginative dissoluteness of aristocrats with too much time on their hands.
Aside form two servants whom he arranges to never see, des Esseintes, as he is named, sets about to create a private world in which unusual sensations (proceeding through each of the five senses) and the powers of imagination and memory are painstakingly curated to bring himself maximum spiritual and psychic gratification. He is through with hedonism of the old sort, having more than sated himself in the sexual arena and in other worldly appetites; he is an aesthete and an ascetic now, at least of a kind.
He becomes equally exhausted in his search through his library for uplifting works of literature and art, which is a central plot line to this essentially plotless novel. The chapters are punctuated by trivial incidents in his sequestered existence, and by a recital of his efforts to astonish himself with novelty, the morbid, and the decadent. He decorates his home with colors that will shift in tones depending on the time of day and the weather; he creates a musical organ that emits certain sounds based on the taste of certain alcoholic mixtures he combines. This holds his attention for a while. He orders flowers from all over the world and then toys with creating artificial ones that smell even better than the real ones until he gets sick and tired of that exploit as well. In his fascination with color and light he buys jewels of every color and reflection, and when this is not enough, in his desire for scintillating lights he buys a turtle he then has encrusted with the jewels so that as the reptile moves slowly through his drawing room he can see the light refract off its shell. The turtle, understandably, dies immediately.
But most of the novel is really devoted to des Esseintes rifling through his books and his condemnation of most of them, starting with books in Latin, religious texts of all kinds, and working slowly through many now obscure authors to the Symbolists and the Decadents of his era. Huysmans corresponded with many of the authors his hero cites, but as the editors make clear, most of his choices of supreme art have not withstood the test of time, Baudelaire and Poe being exceptions. Furthermore, des Esseintes wallows in the morbid, the grotesque and skims along the surface of sadistic voyeurism. In a word, he is not a likeable character, in addition to being insufferable.
A Rebours, translated into English as "Against the Grain", reveals a personality whose only sense of significance is his unalterable belief in his own taste and sensibility, by an author who flourishes his expansive learning and extensive command of language, especially arcane vocabulary.
This is a book perhaps worth reading by those who are conducting studies in linguistics, in Latin, or in medieval and religious hagiography. But it seems most suited to someone doing advanced studies in in 19th century French literature--the more arcane the better--and more as a curiosity than anything else. Oh, one other possible audience: perhaps for those interested in psychopathology as an example of a character attempting to live by the excessively refined and ultimately pernicious effects of touted decadence.
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October 20, 2022Un cesellatore, Huysmans, dal linguaggio ricco e dalla frase armoniosa, che in A rebours sviluppa tutti i topoi del decadentismo. Nel personaggio di des Esseintes ritroviamo il ritiro volontario dalla vita attiva, i cuscini di carne, la sistematica ricerca della bellezza, che è però rappresentata da un esasperato ricorso alla decorazione, all’abbellimento attraverso particolari, esotismi, oggetti, profumi. La parola insegue la descrizione preziosa, la rende palpabile, reale: una realtà immaginaria consacrata al piacere dei sensi.
La rappresentazione scritta dell’abitazione di des Esseintes è la sintesi del decadentismo e della morbosità che lo riveste. Esemplare la trattazione delle immagini di Salomè di Gustave Moreau o delle stampe orrorifiche di Jan Luyken, artista olandese dalla vita folle e selvaggia. Bresdin, Odilon Redon sono ancora segnalati in questo catalogo di bizzarrie, di mostruose devianze. Alle bizzarrie dell’arte fanno seguito le bizzarrie naturali, come quelle rappresentate dalle piante strane ed esotiche che il proprietario fa trasportare nel suo reame.
La parola factice appare con frequenza a sottolineare l’artificialità del mondo di des Esseintes, la sua creazione di una sorta di realtà alternativa in cui racchiudere la sua esperienza di vita. Così i fiori di stoffa e i profumi che, sprigionandosi dalle botteghe, creano a Parigi un illusorio Midi, rappresentano quell’illusione di bellezza e piacere ai quali il nostro personaggio si affida e in cui lascia annegare i suoi sensi.
Nel mondo concettuale di des Esseintes si ha anche una forte presenza della cultura cattolica, che si esprime soprattutto con motivi estetici, in cui appare una componente sadica, che ne costituisce il fascino oscuro. Huysmans approfitta delle predilezioni culturali del suo personaggio per tracciare una sorta di storia letteraria, in cui sono presi in considerazione autori d’ispirazione religiosa o di contenuti laici. La dimensione saggistica del testo diviene così prevalente, sia che l’autore tratti della letteratura contemporanea o della musica religiosa. La conclusione è una sorta di resa di des Esseintes alla generale decadenza della vita sociale, all’imborghesimento e all’americanizzazione del mondo in cui è costretto a tornare a vivere.
La rappresentazione scritta dell’abitazione di des Esseintes è la sintesi del decadentismo e della morbosità che lo riveste. Esemplare la trattazione delle immagini di Salomè di Gustave Moreau o delle stampe orrorifiche di Jan Luyken, artista olandese dalla vita folle e selvaggia. Bresdin, Odilon Redon sono ancora segnalati in questo catalogo di bizzarrie, di mostruose devianze. Alle bizzarrie dell’arte fanno seguito le bizzarrie naturali, come quelle rappresentate dalle piante strane ed esotiche che il proprietario fa trasportare nel suo reame.
La parola factice appare con frequenza a sottolineare l’artificialità del mondo di des Esseintes, la sua creazione di una sorta di realtà alternativa in cui racchiudere la sua esperienza di vita. Così i fiori di stoffa e i profumi che, sprigionandosi dalle botteghe, creano a Parigi un illusorio Midi, rappresentano quell’illusione di bellezza e piacere ai quali il nostro personaggio si affida e in cui lascia annegare i suoi sensi.
Nel mondo concettuale di des Esseintes si ha anche una forte presenza della cultura cattolica, che si esprime soprattutto con motivi estetici, in cui appare una componente sadica, che ne costituisce il fascino oscuro. Huysmans approfitta delle predilezioni culturali del suo personaggio per tracciare una sorta di storia letteraria, in cui sono presi in considerazione autori d’ispirazione religiosa o di contenuti laici. La dimensione saggistica del testo diviene così prevalente, sia che l’autore tratti della letteratura contemporanea o della musica religiosa. La conclusione è una sorta di resa di des Esseintes alla generale decadenza della vita sociale, all’imborghesimento e all’americanizzazione del mondo in cui è costretto a tornare a vivere.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews