This is one of the best RU-vid reviews I’ve ever seen. I became interested in this book after reading Submission. I can’t wait to read this. I also love Gustav Moreau, who i discovered after reading 2666, which has Jupiter and Semele as the wrap around cover. You mentioned that Huysmans seems to want to transpose the art of Moreau into prose. There is a piece of literary criticism on Flaubert that discusses this exact movement in French literature, starting with Flaubert and culminating in Huysmans, which has a reciprocal effect on the way the impressionists painte. the essay focuses mostly on Moreau, who was also one of Flaubert favorites. The literary form even has a name that I’m forgetting Well done.
I was obsessed with this book when I was in college and have been surprised how little folks outside of that setting had even heard of it. The bedazzled turtle has always been that lasting image for me that stuck with me.
One of the darkest books I’ve ever read. I remember talking to a friend who’s a true crime junkie and I told her that whoever she thought was the most vile murderer, I could top. She thought she had me with Albert Fish, and I responded with Gilles De Rais (mike drop).
I’d also commit to remarking that Mr Volvo’s thought’s are insightful and worthy, delivered with breadth. It is the nature of any professional orator, to affect a persona. This is especially true of RU-vid. It is after all, not ‘In Our Time.’ The BBC programme that is.
À Rebours, but doesn't that bring back memories of late-teen lazy days spent reading Mishima, D'Annunzio, and Wilde, half a lifetime ago. Well, I guess it's time to pay Monsieur Huysmans another visit after all these years 🐢
Great book! I read it last year. When I recently reread Dorian Gray I was struck by how much Wilde seems to draw from the prose style of À rebours, especially in chapter 11 when Dorian becomes an aesthete.
At this moment I'm reading The man of the red house robe. This is my translation from "El hombre de la bata roja" by Julián Barnes, what a coincidence, it is mention in the book many times, at least in the first 100 pages.
The more I think about it, the more I consider the tortoise episode as both a cautionary tale for Des Esseintes and as foreshadowing for the reader. Des Esseintes, in the end, is dangerously close to bejeweling himself to death, in a different way, sure, but bejeweling himself nonetheless.
Nice review. Strangely the description reminded me somewhat of the work of some authors which in Germany were called "pop literature" once. Some of them collectively published a book called "Tristesse Royale" in the early 2000s. The most famous of the bunch would be Christian Kracht, who often dealt in themes of ennuie and dissociation from the world. He sometimes resembles Salinger, sometimes Bret Easton Ellis.
Schopenhauer... pessimism... elitist preference holding... almost exclusively internal events... mix those things with laugh out loud humor and eventual heavy self-criticism and you get Thomas Bernhard. i would love to hear what you think about him. Absolutely love your channel. Can't wait to read Against Nature p.s. i've been a huge Moreau fan since reading Proust's mention of him in Swann's Way. Moreau's art also provides one of the best book covers: Bolaño's 2666
"Against Nature" is an ode to the craft of beauteous language. You said it my man, 'elevated British English' hmm. Nothing quite like it, except maybe Italian, Latin which is at another level.That's the reason I opted to get the John Rutherford translation of Don Quixote, instead of Edith Grossman's (though it is more popular and readable for the contemporary). Language has in some way to reflect the class trappings, more so, the aesthetics of their well-to-do characters and what they represent. English dialects don't get you there
I loved the first and the last chapters of this book but felt miserable, tortured and impatient while reading the chapters in between. It really makes the reader feel the “decadence”.
Very good review. Please do the same with less known books of Joris-Karl Huysmans ; from "Le Drageoir aux épices" to "Les Foules de Lourdes." By the way, this video will be relayed on the Facebook page dedicated to J.-K. Huysmans.
I value your content, but it would be helpful if you could strengthen the subtitles; sometimes I have difficulties hearing you and yet relying on your subtitles proves unsatisfactory.
Thanks so much for the feedback. I actually don’t do anything with the subtitles. I think they’re automated by RU-vid. Sorry to hear they aren’t very good. If there’s anything you want me to clarity, please let me know.
For the record, Des Esseintes is pronounced DEZ EH-SCENT (not exact, but it's the closest I can come in English spelling.) Because of the final "es," the T is pronounced clearly, and the "ei" makes it an open E. Hearing you pronounce it as if it were "Des Esson" made it kind of painful to sit through this clip. Also, the final s's in both "Joris" and "Huysmans" are pronounced. I know that's not what you may have learned in high-school French, but French has plenty of exceptions.
