#à rebours

[ofleafstructure]

À rebours, Joris-Karl Huysmans

Design by Gérard Deshayes

[noovorous]

Hobbies recommended for decadents to battle your devastating ennui:

1- Latin literature 2- Decorating turtles with handpicked selection of gemstones 3- Using synaesthesia to play music in your head by tasting different liqueurs 4- Collecting bizarre plants 5- Making imagined trips to foreign lands by taking a trip somewhere rather near 6- Collecting art 7- Exploring an array of kinks 8- Making your own perfume 9- Pushing innocents into a life of crime and debauchery 10- Reading about 1-9 in a book with yellow binding 11- Ruining the lives of pretty girls and boys 12- Participating in a roman catholic mass for the aesthetic 13- Studying and burning incense 14- Listening to exotic music 15- Studying gems and their folklore 16- Collecting embroidery and fabrics 17- Kissing lips of a decapitated head 18- Studying dark occult mysteries 19- Graverobbing

References:

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9- À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans 10,11,12,13,14,15,16- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 17- Salome by Oscar Wilde 18- The Thing on the Doorstep by Howard Phillips Lovecraft 19- The Hound by Howard Phillips Lovecraft

[tri-ciclo]

[clairemercie]

Outfits inspired by Against Nature/À rebours (clockwise from top left): Christian Dior FW 1997, Gianfranco Ferre FW 1997, Valentino FW 2001, Versace FW 2001, Valentin Yudashkin SS 2005, Jean Louis Scherrer Haute Couture FW 1998, Roberto Cavalli SS 2003

[blossomingbooks]

Book review: À rebours, Joris-Karl Huysmans

Finally doing my blossoming book review of Joris-Karl Huysmans' À rebours (1884), after a long time coming.

“It was a novel without a plot, and with only one character, being, indeed, simply a psychological study of a certain young Parisian, who spent his life trying to realize in the nineteenth century all the passions and modes of thought that belonged to every century except his own... (...) For years, Dorian Gray could not free himself from the influence of this book. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he never sought to free himself from it.”  (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray)

You wouldn’t believe for how many years I had this book on stand-by. I made the bold decision to start reading it when I was halfway through my French studies... and let’s just say that 19th century Decadent writing isn’t the smoothest option for a non-native. 

Yet, I persisted until I had read around 4/5 of the book, when my brain got way too tired to continue (and other academic pursuits got in the way as well). But this summer I was to visit France again, after 9 years since I'd been there. So, to reawaken my language skills, I took this out of the depths of the French section of my bookshelf to finally finish it. 

It was a delightful surprise to feel much more at ease reading it than I had expected. The narrative is pretty much static throughout the whole book, so to pick up where I left off wasn’t a problem either. 

This is a very peculiar story with a very peculiar protagonist. Des Esseintes is a Decadent aristocrat who wants to live apart from his contemporary society, which he despises – thus the title, À rebours (an expression literally translated to “backwards”) or, in the English translation, Against the Grain. 

The narrative happens mostly within the confines of his country house in Fontenay and it revolves around his intellectual musings and artistic tastes. Most chapters feel more like a work of literary criticism than fiction, with in-depth analyses of specific authors from different centuries. Recurring mentions include Edgar Allan Poe, Decadent authors such as Baudelaire (a key influence for his “ennui”) and Barbey d'Aurevilly, as well as Symbolist poets Mallarmé and Verlaine. 

Considering this, it’s a book I wouldn’t recommend unless you’re a classic literature afficionado or an academic. I was mainly attracted to it because it’s said to be the “poisonous” French “yellow book” mentioned in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (one of my all-time favorite novels). It has a central role in the protagonist’s arc, producing “in the mind of the lad, as he passed from chapter to chapter, a form of reverie, a malady of dreaming” (Wilde). 

Some of des Esseintes’ most interesting aesthetic experiments include his attempt at creating perfumes, his garden of poisonous tropical flowers and, in the most unhinged episode of the narrative, adorning a tortoise’s shell with gemstones (the weight of which eventually proves fatal to the animal). 

Ultimately, however, his reclusive lifestyle starts taking a toll on his health: with stomach pains followed by anemia and a nervous system aggravated by delirium episodes, his ennui slowly turns into neurosis. 

Considered a manifesto of the Decadent spirit, À rebours draws a compelling portrait of the 19th century’s “Mal du siècle” through this eccentric antihero who desires, above all, to turn "the dream of reality into reality itself".

[plrle]

being a decadent literature nerd and also a fan of childrens cartoons is fun, although almost every time cursed. that being said, me and my friend got drunk and i thought Hey Wouldn't It Be Hilarious If Des Esseintes From À Rebours Was In The Main Cast Of Strawberry Shortcake

and what do you think happened

[dorian-gray-official]

Also number 27: What’s your favorite book? Or just one you’ve read a few times? 

'À Rebours' !!

Its by Joris-Karl Huysmans and features a beautiful young orphan aesthete - a dreamer much like myself, in search of peace and tranquility away from the vulgarity of humanity.

It's a perfect work of art with absolutely no plot, it's entirely useless but I adore it so <33

It really is a splendid work and I see rather a lot of myself in it. Though it came to me in a dark time, I enjoyed it so much I had it bound in 7 different covers so I could find comfort in it no matter my mood :))

If I may express myself in the language of today's young and beautiful, I suppose I am something of a Jean des Esseintes "kinnie".

Though I'm not certain of the exact origin of this word (perhaps a modernised 'kin' or 'kinfolk') I certainly would love to lead his life.

I highly recommend this novel for anyone who would like to read it <3

[noovorous]

Bark that looks like copper? Now I know what grows in des Esseintes' garden.

One of my favorite trees due to year round interest. Birch bark cherry or Tibetan cherry. Prunus serrula.

[deoster]

Des Esseintes

[noovorous]

You are all wrong. A perfect novel is one with no plot, lots of vibrant descriptions, eclectic in style, with a maximum of ONE named character. Bonus point if that novel comes in a yellow cover.

[tri-ciclo]

“And yet the point of view from which his ideas on art had sprung was a simple one: for him, literary schools did not exist; the only thing that mattered was the temperament of the artist; the only thing of interest was the way his brain worked, regardless of the subject he was treating.” ― Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature

[noovorous]

He is yellow for He works through the book of His. A decadent play, bound in yellow as was À rebours, as was The Picture of Dorian Gray, as was The Yellow Book. An innocent first act lures you into the foul, beautiful, decadent, horriffic and horrible act two. For He is hollow as we are hollow, we of the aestheticism, of decadence, of late malformed symbolism, we are like Him masks of pallid porcelain, with nothing underneath. We wear no masks, we are masks.

Tell me now, have you seen the Yellow Sign?

Characters who are yellow coded not as in joy and optimism but, rather, yellow as in the first color the human eye will notice, plastered over hazard signs and school buses. Yellow as in a light so bright it burns. Yellow as in illness and disease, just waiting to infect. Yellow as deception, a cover up for something with teeth and claws and malice. Can anyone hear me

[alexjcrowley]

Joris-Karl Huysmans ripensando al suo periodo naturalista:

[ladentdelion]

Metal Fight Beyblade - Saison 2 - Épisode 41

[plrle]

all right, the thing is happening, i think. my exams are almost over, and for a long time i wanted to draw a chapter for a pseudo comic book as a practice, and these are some of the characters. i didn't think of a plot by now, i'm deciding on the characters and their designs.

so, this is aiden and elizabeth!

[noovorous]

Thank you for making me realise that third sentence on the page 78 of À rebours doesn't end on that page...

Is it not a full sentence then? I suppose it is not...

Two complete sentences per page, now I know one more reason why I love its style. Now excuse me, I'm gonna keep having an excuisite laugh about it for some time.

Hey, let’s do one of these oldie but goodies:

Take the closest book to you and find the third full sentence on page…let’s say 78. Reply or reblog with the sentence!