As Joris-Karl Huysmans predicted in 1884, Against Nature (A rebours) was fated to be a novel like no other. Resisting the models of classic nineteenth-century fiction, it focuses on the attempts of its anti-hero, the hypersensitive neurotic and aesthete Des Esseintes, to escape Paris and the vulgarity of modern life. Holed up in his private museum of high taste, he indulges his pleasure in fine art and literature. A compendium of fin-de-siecle cultural decadence, Against Nature anticipates strains of modernism in its appreciation of Baudelaire, Moreau, Redon, Mallarme, and Poe. This new translation is supplemented by substantial annotation to enhance the understanding of a highly allusive work.
- ISBN10 0140440860
- ISBN13 9780140440867
- Publish Date October 1966
- Publish Status Unknown
- Out of Print 14 February 2003
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 224
- Language English