Against the Grain

About this book

Jean des Esseintes, the last, sickly descendant of an ancient noble family, disgusted with Paris and with people, retires to a house outside the city to live entirely for refined sensations. He decorates his rooms in exotic colours, sets precious stones into the shell of a living tortoise, builds an 'organ' of liqueurs that he plays on his tongue, collects strange flowers and perfumes, and reads only the decadent Latin poets and the most refined modern writers, until his nerves give way.

Context and significance

Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848–1907) published the novel, À rebours, in 1884, and it became the bible of the Decadent movement; it is the poisonous yellow book that corrupts the hero of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. This translation is by John Howard. Compare Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil.

About the author