À rebours: Difference between revisions

19th century novel by a French writer with a Dutch name, Joris-Karl Huysmans, ''A[[À Reboursrebours]]'' was first published in 1884. It has been translated into English as ''Against the Grain'' and, more recently, as ''Against Nature''. The novel tells the story of the young dandy and aesthete, Jean, Duc des Esseintes, who becomes disgusted with the society of his day and tries to escape from it by constructing a "refined Thebaid" - a house where he lives completely alone, surrounded by the artistic objects and books that obsess him and living out his aesthetic daydreams. "Story" is perhaps pushing it a bit; [[No Plot, No Problem|this is one of the more plotless novels of its age]] and duels, love affairs, court cases over wills and characters who turn out to be each other's long lost relatives are pretty much absent. The real conflict is psychological, between des Esseintes and his own society, and the real question is whether he will succeed in making the life he wants independent of it. He's more or less the sole character of the book. Everyone else is seen through his eyes.

''AÀ Reboursrebours'' was hugely influential on the so-called "Decadent" writers of the 1890s in France and Britain, with the critic Arthur Symons describing it as "the breviary of the Decadence". The Decadents reacted against Victorian sexual repression, rationalism and naturalistic fiction in the direction of excess, romanticism and writing exploring "forbidden" themes. Perhaps its most famous fan was Oscar Wilde, who was heavily influenced by ''AÀ Reboursrebours'' in writing ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', including in his description of the "novel without a plot" that helps lead Dorian astray.

* [[Death by Origin Story]] - By the time the main action of ''AÀ Reboursrebours'' has started, both his parents have died. To judge by what's said of them, they played little role in his life whilst alive.