#j. k. huysmans

[nem0c]

A few days later, the servant brought him an enema altogether different in colour and smell from the peptone preparations. "But it's not the same!" exclaimed Des Esseintes, anxiously inspecting the liquid that had been poured into the apparatus. He asked for the menu as he might have done in a restaurant, and unfolding the doctor's prescription, he read out: -Cod-liver oil 29 grammes -Beef-tea 200 grammes -Burgundy 200 grammes -Yolk of one egg [...]The operation was successfully carried out, and Des Esseintes could not help secretly congratulating himself on this experience which was, so to speak, the crowning achievement of the life he had planned for himself; his taste for the artificial had now, without even the slightest effort on his part, attained its supreme fulfiment. No one, he thought, would ever go any further; taking nourishment in this way was undoubtedly the ultimate deviation from the norm.

J. K. Huysmans, À rebours, Bovril and wine enema

[mauvais--sang]

Joris-Karl Huysmans, excipit autographe d'À vau-l'eau, 1882 [via]

[libriaco]

Dormire, forse

Si disse, quasi allegro, che non c'è felicità possibile se non in casa propria e al difuori del tempo [...] Questo, e dormire.

J. K. Huysmans, [Là-Bas, 1891] L'abisso, Milano, SugarCo, 1990 [Trad. A. Galli Zugaro]

[justineportraits]

Jean Louis Forain Etude pour Marthe, Histoire d'une jeune fille par J. K. Huysmans 1876

[gothpretentious]

amy lowell, “j-k huysmans”

[theconformist]

Time to get Decedent! My vintage copy of Against Nature by J. K. Huysmans.

The “poisonous French novel" that corrupts Dorian Gray.

[botchedandecstatic]

Books Read/Reread, November/December 2023

Jon Fosse, Trilogy J. K. Huysmans, Lá-bas Stephen King, Night Shift* Cristina Rivera Garza, The Iliac Crest Marina Benjamin, A LIttle Give: The Unsung, Unseen, Undone Work of Women Nina MacLaughlin, Winter Solstice Elaine Scarry, On Beauty, and Being Just Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story* Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Lyric Novella Manjula Martin, The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History André Breton, Nadja* Patrick Modiano, Paris Nocturne Daphne Du Maurier, Don't Look Now* Molly McGhee, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World

= Reread

[talesofpassingtime]

Read the latest book. What do you find? Simple anecdotes: murder, suicide, and accident histories copied right out of the newspaper, tiresome sketches and wormy tales, all written in a colorless style and containing not the faintest hint of an outlook on life nor an appreciation of human nature. When I have waded through one of these books its insipid descriptions and interminable harangues go instantly out of my mind, and the only impression that remains is one of surprise that a man can write three or four hundred pages when he has absolutely nothing to reveal to us—nothing to say!

— J.-K. Huysmans,  Là-bas 

[graywyvern]

( via / via )

Hi-fi for the Eyes.

"...black masses have continued to be said since the Middle Ages. ...even in America, where the poet Longfellow was head of a sect." ----letters of J K Huysmans

Dreaming Eden.

"DIVIDENDS

This advantage to be seized; and here, an escape prepared against an evil day; So it is arranged, consummately, to meet the issues. Convenience and order. Necessary murder and divorce. A decent repute.

Such are the plans, in clear detail. She thought it was too soon but they said no, it was too late. They didn’t trust the other people. Sell now. He was a fool to ignore the market. It could be explained, he said. With the woman, and after the theater she made a scene. None of them felt the crash for a long time.

(But what is swifter than time?)

So it is resolved, upon awakening. This way it is devised, preparing for sleep. So it is revealed, uneasily, in strange dreams. A defense against gray, hungry, envious millions. Aveiled watch to be kept upon this friend. Dread that handclasp. Seek this one. Smile. They didn’t trust the others. They were wary. It looked suspicious. They preferred to wait, they said.

Gentlemen, here is a statement for the third month, And here, Mildred, is the easiest way. Such is the evidence, convertible to profit. These are the dividends, waiting to be used. Here are the demands again, considered again, and again the endless issues are all secure. Such are the facts. Such are the details. Such are the proofs.

Almighty God, these are the plans, These are the plans until the last moment of the last hour of the last day, And then the end. By error or accident. Burke of cancer, Jackson out at the secret meeting of the board. Hendricks through the window of the nineteenth floor. Maggots and darkness will attend the alibi.

Peace on earth. And the finer things. So it is all devised. Thomas, the car."

--Kenneth Fearing

𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗢𝗥𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗡𝗢𝗜𝗦𝗘 #13 (𝙂𝙍𝙀𝙔).

[massimomantovani]

Definizione del termine si diffonde in tutta Europa DECADENTISMO si colloca all’incirca tra il 1880 e il 1910 nato negli ambienti culturali parigini movimento letterario corrente culturale assume diverse denominazioni (es. Simbolismo) si ispira ad alcuni testi programmatici si oppone alla mentalità borghese e assume atteggiamenti provocatori comprende diverse manifestazioni artistiche e letterarie, caratterizzate da elementi comuni il sonetto Languore (1883) di P. Verlaine il romanzo Controcorrente (1884) di J.-K. Huysmans 2 | Il Decadentismo

[hiptohate]

Carina Rydberg - Vitt slödder Michel Houellebecq - Förinta J-K Huysmans - I avgrunden

[mauvais--sang]

« Dans un ciel d’un noir permanent et profond, des étres liquides et phosphoreux, des vésicules et des bacilles, des corpuscules cernés de poils, des capsules plantées de cils, des glandes aqueuses et velues volent sans ailes et s'enchevétrent dans les rubans des trichines et des taenias ; il semble que toute la faune des vers filaridés, que toutes les peuplades des parasites fourmillent en la nuit de cette planche dans laquelle apparait subitement la face humaine, inachevée, brandie au bout de ces vivantes spires ou enfoncée comme un noyau dans la gélatine animée des protoplasmes. »

— Joris-Karl Huysmans, « Le Monstre » (in Certains), 1889 [via]

[thehalcyonharbinger]

I have no idea how many books I've read this year (definitely not even close to 23 lol my ba thesis was a bitch, so I spent the entire year reading exclusively articles), but I'll try listing all those I CAN remember!!!!

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (it was my second time reading this book, I needed it for my BA)

2. Against Nature, J. K. Huysmans (also BA)

3. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (also also BA)

4. Persuasion, Jane Austen

5. Mansfield Park, Jane Austen

6. Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathaneal West

7. The Alchemist, Paulo Coehlo (please don't read this book, i beg you)

8. Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin

9. Villette, Charlotte Brontë

10. If Beale Street Could Talk, James Baldwin

11. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

11. Hamlet by You Know Who

This is still more than I expected 😭 thank you for tagging me!!! If anyone who is my mutual/follower wants to do this, please do, I would love to know what you've been reading this year so far!!

23 Books in 2023

thanks for the tag @mrs-storm-andrews 📚✨

the rules are to name any 23 books you read in 2023. i was thinking about naming the best ones but it just so happens that i read exactly 23 books since doing my mid-year tag so here they are in reverse chronological order

loved it | was disappointed by it

Die Wunder des Lebens by Stefan Zweig

En l'absence des hommes by Philippe Besson

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

Die spät bezahlte Schuld by Stefan Zweig

Witch King by Martha Wells

The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold

Family by M.C.A. Hogarth

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Dreamstorm by M.C.A. Hogarth

Die Reise in die Vergangenheit by Stefan Zweig

The King of Crows by Libba Bray

Vergessene Träume by Stefan Zweig

Dreamhearth by M.C.A. Hogarth

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles

tagging @counterwiddershins @fugitoidkry @magpiefngrl @oliviermiraarmstrongs @pinkasrenzo @sugarbabywenkexing @fandomreferencepending @pemberlaey @hello-jumping-in-puddles @thehalcyonharbinger @beeblackburn @weirdsociology @veliseraptor @theodoradove @sixappleseeds @doh-rae-me @venndaai

📚goodreads📚

[libriaco]

Polvere sei

«Bah! – fece Des Hermies – la polvere fa bene. Oltre ad avere il sapore di un biscotto antichissimo e l’odore appassito di un vecchio libro, è il velluto fluido delle cose, la pioggia sottile e asciutta che anemizza i colori troppo forti e smorza i toni violenti. È anche la buccia dell’abbandono, il velo dell’oblio. Nessuno la detesta, salvo quelli colpiti da un tragico destino e ai quali talvolta dovresti pensare.»

J. K. Huysmans, [Là-Bas, 1891] L'abisso, Milano, SugarCo, 1990 [Trad. A. Galli Zugaro]

[sacredwhores]

The rules of money are precise and invariable. Money attracts money, money seeks to accumulate in the same places, money is naturally attracted to scoundrels and those who are entirely bereft of any talent. When, by an exception which proves the rule, money finds its way into the hands of a man who, though wealthy, is neither a miser nor has any murderous proclivities, it stands idle, incapable of creating a force for good, incapable of even making its way into charitable hands who would know how to employ it. One might almost say that it takes revenge for its misdirection, that it undergoes a voluntary paralysis whenever it enters into the possession of someone who is neither a born swindler nor a complete and utter dotard. (...) But the real height of monstrosity is attained when money, hiding the splendour of its name under the dark veil of the word, calls itself capital. At that moment its action is no longer limited to individual incitations to theft and murder, but extends across the entire human race. With a single word capital grants monopolies, erects banks, corners markets, changes people's lives, is capable of causing millions to starve to death.

Joris-Karl Huysmans, The Damned (Là-bas)

[nem0c]

O, you worn-out Pierrots, you journeymen bakers! You, who at the hour when swarthy sewer-workers are getting ready to pump out drains, at that solemn moment when one man is picking the lock of the next man’s door, and yet another is buying a mistress at a bargain price from someone else, you sweat, grumble and gasp; you begin your war-chant and your cannibal dances around dough that cries out for mercy! Stuff yourselves, howl like wolves and drink like fishes, for you share in the zealous prayers offered up to the God of the poor: Give us this day our daily bread, O white warriors! All wheat and no oats, OK? Amen.

J. K. Huysmans, Parisian Sketches, The Journeyman Baker