num_pages: 224
description: 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.
language: English
title: Against Nature
titlecomplete: Against Nature
characters: Jean Des Esseintes
genres: Fiction, 19th Century, French Literature, Classics, France, Philosophy, Literary Fiction, Art, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 13077
places: Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
publisher: Penguin Classics