Against Nature: Joris-Karl Huysmans (Penguin Classics)

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He finally came to the conclusion that, for the most part, the world was composed of bullies and imbeciles.

They were influenced by the Gothic novel and Edgar Allan Poe and liked writing about dandies, rich young men with nothing to do but be eccentric, weird and, well, decadent. Did he know a single person trying to lead an existence such as his own, one consigned to contemplation, one given up to daydreams…of appreciating the delicacy of a phrase, the subtlety of a painting, the quintessence of an idea…?The protagonist fills the house with his eclectic art collection, which notably consists of reprints of the paintings of Gustave Moreau (such as Salome Dancing before Herod and L'Apparition), drawings of Odilon Redon, and engravings of Jan Luyken. The only chapter that truly seems out of place herein, in this brief section of the narrative, des Esseintes takes an out of character detour into the territory marked by the likes of Octave Mirbeau’s Clara from Torture Garden or more to the point, Jean Lorrain’s oily Claudius Ethal from Monsieur de Phocas, in deliberately seeking to start trouble and drive others to ruination by subtle means.

It's the feature of his style he tends to be most remembered for in French literature, and given that there's a lot of description of lavish furnishings, art works, antique objects and so on, he gets plenty of opportunity to use it. Gautier described Decadence as a mode which 'endeavours to express the most inexpressible thoughts, the vaguest and most fleeting contours of form, that listens, with a view to rendering them, to the subtle confidences of neurosity, to the confessions of aging lust turning to depravity, and to the odd hallucinations of fixed ideas passing into mania. Many critics were appalled by its apparent lack of morality, while young Dandies and Aesthetes were attracted to it for its idolisation of art and sensation. A Rebours also contains descriptions of several prominent works of art, including French symbolist artist Moreau's Salome Dancing before Herod. The term “bulimia” has existed long before the 20thC diagnosis, but it seems always to have referred to overeating, not so much craving or hunger.Mundane Made Awesome: Des Esseintes' "hobbies" (the word seems inadequate) are described by Huysmans in lavish style and as if they are of epic importance, which to the central character, they are. Huysmans predicted his novel would be a failure with the public and critics: "It will be the biggest fiasco of the year—but I don't care a damn! I’ve experienced and seen all I wanted to…I’ve been saturated with English life since my departure…what aberration was I suffering from…to believe, like some complete fool, in the necessity, interest and benefit of a real excursion?