Naruby – Huysmans Joris-Karl (2022)

The novel "Against the Grain," regarded as the "bible of decadence," reflects the atmosphere of the French fin de siècle. Its main character is the last descendant of the ancient family of des Esseintes, who, bored with a decadent and hedonistic life and disgusted with society as a whole, leaves Paris and retreats into solitude. The depiction of his lifestyle, which he takes to absurd extremes, represents a sort of catalog of decadent aesthetics: des Esseintes indulges in reading rare books, tasting exquisite dishes, creating perfumes, and cultivating bizarre flowers. The constant artificial stimulation of the senses, however, exacerbates his nervous condition and increases his feeling of saturation. Huysmans' work significantly influenced the writing of authors at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries, and with its analytical focus on the hero's inner life and the limitation of the plot to the utmost degree, it anticipates the development of modern literary techniques. We are newly supplementing the text of the novel with the author's preface, written twenty years after the first edition, in which he places "Against the Grain" in the context of his further work and explains the circumstances that led to its creation.