Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

By Bright Summaries

Unlock the more straightforward side of Against Nature with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans, which traces the protagonist Duc Jean Floressas des Esseintes’ attempts to escape what he sees as the mediocrity and materialism of the society he lives in. However, his self-imposed isolation does not give him the freedom he hoped for, and his declining physical and mental health plunge him into despair and eventually force him to return to society, where he knows that he will never be happy. Joris-Karl Huysmans began his career as a follower of Émile Zola and naturalism, before rejecting the tenets of that movement to create the meandering, thought-provoking novels for which he is remembered.

Find out everything you need to know about Against Nature in a fraction of the time!

This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:
• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

Why choose BrightSummaries.com?
Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.

See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BrightSummaries.com
• Release date: Nov 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9782808011419

Book preview

FRENCH WRITER AND ART CRITIC

Born in Paris in 1848.

Died in Paris in 1907.

Notable works:

Parisian Sketches (1880), collection of prose writings

Là-bas (1891), novel

The Cathedral (1898), novel

The writer and art critic Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans, better known under his pseudonym Joris-Karl Huysmans, was born in 1848 to a Dutch father and a French mother. At the start of his career, he was an admirer of Émile Zola (French writer and journalist, 1840-1902) and subscribed to the naturalist movement that Zola led, before moving away from this literary school with the publication of Against Nature in 1884. Throughout his life, he was part of the artistic avant-garde and constantly pushed boundaries with his writing.

In spite of his undeniable talent, Huysmans was a tormented individual who shunned society and politics and lived as an outcast. He was deeply misogynistic and the idea of reproduction repulsed him. His only real interests were art and religion: religion is a recurring theme in his work, and is central to the final third of his writing. For much of his life, he was agnostic and dabbled in mysticism and the occult, before seemingly finding the answers he was searching for with his conversion to Catholicism.

AN ANTINOVEL OF THE DECADENT MOVEMENT

Genre: novel

Reference edition: Huysmans, J-K. (2008) Against Nature. Trans. King, B. Sawtry: Dedalus.

1stedition: 1884

Themes: the Decadent Movement, boredom, loneliness, despair, idealism, art, literature

À rebours, which is generally translated as Against Nature or Against the Grain in English and was