Gegen den Strich
The Catholic writer Léon Bloy praised the novel, describing Huysmans as "formerly a Naturalist, but now an Idealist capable of the most exalted mysticism, and as far removed from the crapulous [gluttonous or drunken] Zola as if all the interplanetary spaces had suddenly accumulated between them." In his review, Barbey d'Aurevilly compared Huysmans to Baudelaire, recalling: "After "Les Fleurs du mal" I told Baudelaire it only remains for you to choose between the muzzle of the pistol and the foot of the Cross. But will the author of "À rebours" make the same choice?" His prediction eventually proved true when Huysmans converted to Catholicism in the 1890s.