Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogu ...

who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel '' À rebours'' (1884, published in English as ''Against the Grain'' and as ''Against Nature''). He supported himself by way of a 30-year career in the French civil service. Huysmans's work is considered remarkable for its

idiosyncratic An idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person (though there are also other uses, see below). It can also mean an odd habit. The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be "quirk". Etymology The term "idiosyncr ...

use of the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in N ...

, large vocabulary, descriptions, satirical wit and far-ranging erudition. First considered part of Naturalism, he became associated with the decadent movement with his publication of ''À rebours.'' His work expressed his deep

pessimism Pessimism is a negative mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is " Is the glass half emp ...

, which had led him to the philosophy of

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

. In later years, his novels reflected his study of

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

religious conversion Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...

, and becoming an

oblate In Christianity (especially in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Methodist traditions), an oblate is a person who is specifically dedicated to God or to God's service. Oblates are individuals, either laypersons or clergy, normally liv ...

. He discussed the

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

of Christian architecture at length in '' La cathédrale'' (1898), set at

Chartres Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as def ...

and with its cathedral as the focus of the book. '' Là-bas'' (1891), ''

En route ''En route'' may refer to: * ''En Route'' (novel), an 1895 novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans * ''En Route'' (film), a 2004 German movie directed by Jan Krüger * En-route chart, in aeronautics * enRoute (credit card), Air Canada's credit card divisio ...

'' (1895) and '' La cathédrale'' (1898) are a

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...

that feature Durtal, a character on a spiritual journey who eventually converts to Catholicism. In the novel that follows, ''L'Oblat'' (1903), Durtal becomes an oblate in a monastery, as Huysmans himself was in the Benedictine Abbey at

Ligugé Ligugé () is a commune in the Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. It is located on the River Clain, south of Poitiers. It is known for its historic monastery, Ligugé Abbey. Twin towns – sister cities Ligug ...

, near

Poitiers Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglome ...

, in 1901. ''La cathédrale'' was his most commercially successful work. Its profits enabled Huysmans to retire from his civil service job and live on his royalties.

Parents and early life

Huysmans was born in Paris in 1848. His father Godfried Huysmans was Dutch, and a

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

by trade. His mother Malvina Badin Huysmans had been a schoolmistress. Huysmans's father died when he was eight years old. After his mother quickly remarried, Huysmans resented his stepfather, Jules Og, a Protestant who was part-owner of a Parisian book-bindery. During childhood, Huysmans turned away from the Roman Catholic Church. He was unhappy at school but completed his coursework and earned a

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

Civil service career

For 32 years, Huysmans worked as a civil servant for the French Ministry of the Interior, a job he found tedious. The young Huysmans was called up to fight in the Franco-Prussian War, but was invalided out with

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

. He used this experience in an early story, "''Sac au dos''" (Backpack) (later included in his collection, ''

Les Soirées de Médan ''Les Soirées de Médan'' ("Evenings at Médan") is a collection of six short stories by six different writers associated with Naturalism, first published in 1880. All the stories concern the Franco-Prussian War. The contents of the book are as ...

''). After his retirement from the Ministry in 1898, made possible by the commercial success of his novel, ''La cathédrale'', Huysmans planned to leave Paris and move to

. He intended to set up a community of Catholic artists, including Charles-Marie Dulac (1862-1898). He had praised the young painter in '' La cathédrale''. Dulac died a few months before Huysmans completed his arrangements for the move to Ligugé, and he decided to stay in Paris. In addition to his novels, Huysmans was known for his

art criticism Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is que ...

in '' L'Art moderne'' (1883) and '' Certains'' (1889). He was a founding member of the

Académie Goncourt The Société littéraire des Goncourt (Goncourt Literary Society), usually called the Académie Goncourt (Goncourt Academy), is a French literary organisation based in Paris. It was founded in 1900 by the French writer and publisher Edmond de G ...

. An early advocate of

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passa ...

, he admired such artists as

Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau (; 6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence".Cassou, Jean. 1979. ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism.'' ...

and

Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist. Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, he worked almost exclusivel ...

. In 1905 Huysmans was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. He died in 1907 and was interred in the

cimetière du Montparnasse Montparnasse Cemetery (french: link=no, Cimetière du Montparnasse) is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery ...

, Paris.

Personal life

Huysmans never married or had children. He had a long-term, on-and-off relationship with Anna Meunier, a seamstress.

Writing career

He used the name Joris-Karl Huysmans when he published his writing, as a way of honoring his father's ancestry. His first major publication was a collection of prose poems, ''Le drageoir aux épices'' (1874), which were strongly influenced by

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...

. They attracted little attention but revealed flashes of the author's distinctive style. Huysmans followed it with the novel, '' Marthe, Histoire d'une fille'' (1876). The story of a young prostitute, it was closer to Naturalism and brought him to the attention of

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

. His next works were similar: sombre, realistic and filled with detailed evocations of Paris, a city Huysmans knew intimately. '' Les Soeurs Vatard'' (1879), dedicated to Zola, deals with the lives of women in a bookbindery. ''

En ménage ''En ménage'' (English: ''Married Life'') is a novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, first published in February 1881 by Charpentier. It tells the story of André Jayant, a novelist who marries a petty-minded woman called Berthe. When ...

'' (1881) is an account of a writer's failed marriage. The climax of his early work is the novella ''

À vau-l'eau ''À vau-l'eau'' (English: ''With the Flow'' or ''Downstream'' ) is a novella by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, first published by Henry Kistmaeckers in Brussels on January 26, 1882. Plot Summary 21µThe work - which has little in the w ...

'' (1882) (''Downstream or With the Flow''), the story of a downtrodden clerk, Monsieur Folantin, and his quest for a decent meal. Huysmans's novel '' À rebours'' (''Against the Grain'' or ''Against Nature'' or ''Wrong Way''; 1884) became his most famous, or notorious. It featured the character of an aesthete, des Esseintes, and decisively broke from Naturalism. It was seen as an example of " decadent" literature. The description of des Esseintes' " alluring liaison" with a "cherry-lipped youth" was believed to have influenced other writers of the decadent movement, including

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. Huysmans began to drift away from the Naturalists and found new friends among the

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

writers whose work he had praised in ''À rebours.'' They included

Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (2 November 1808 – 23 April 1889) was a French novelist and short story writer. He specialised in mystery tales that explored hidden motivation and hinted at evil without being explicitly concerned with anythin ...

, Villiers de L'Isle Adam and

Léon Bloy Léon Bloy (; 11 July 1846 – 3 November 1917) was a French Catholic novelist, essayist, pamphleteer (or lampoonist), and satirist, known additionally for his eventual (and passionate) defense of Catholicism and for his influence within French ...

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...

was so pleased with the publicity his verse had received from the novel that he dedicated one of his most famous poems, "Prose pour des Esseintes", to its hero. Barbey d'Aurevilly told Huysmans that after writing ''À rebours,'' he would have to choose between "the muzzle of a pistol and the foot of the Cross."Aurevilly, Jules Barbey d' (1884). ''Le Constitutionnel'', "Á rebours", 28 July 1884. Huysmans, who had received a secular education and abandoned his Catholic religion in childhood, returned to the Catholic Church eight years later.Baldick, Robert (1959). Introduction to ''Against Nature'', his translation of Huysmans's ''Á rebours''. Harmondsworth: Penguin, p. 12. Huysmans's next novel, '' En rade'', an unromantic account of a summer spent in the country, did not sell as well as its predecessor. His '' Là-bas'' (1891) attracted considerable attention for its portrayal of

Satanism Satanism is a group of Ideology, ideological and Philosophy, philosophical beliefs based on Satan. Contemporary religious practice of Satanism began with the founding of the atheistic Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States in 19 ...

in France in the late 1880s. He introduced the character Durtal, a thinly disguised

self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

. The later Durtal novels, ''

'' (1895), '' La cathédrale'' (1898) and '' L'oblat'' (1903), explore Durtal/Huysmans's conversion to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. ''En route'' depicts Durtal's spiritual struggle during his stay at a

Trappist The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...

monastery. In '' La cathédrale'' (1898), the protagonist is at

, intensely studying the cathedral and its symbolism. The commercial success of this book enabled Huysmans to retire from the civil service and live on his royalties. In ''L'Oblat'', Durtal becomes a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

. He finally learns to accept the world's

suffering Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence of a ...

. Huysmans's work was known for his idiosyncratic use of the

, extensive vocabulary, detailed and sensuous descriptions, and biting, satirical wit. It also displays an encyclopaedic erudition, ranging from the catalogue of decadent

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

authors in ''À rebours'' to the discussion of the iconography of Christian architecture in '' La cathédrale''. Huysmans expresses a disgust with modern life and a deep

. This had led him first to the philosophy of

. Later he returned to the Catholic Church, as noted in his Durtal novels.

Honors

Huysmans was made a ''Chevalier de la

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

'' in 1892, for his work with the civil service. In 1905, his admirers persuaded the French government to promote him to ''Officier de la Légion d'honneur'' for his literary achievements.

Style and influence

"It takes me two years to 'document' myself for a novel – two years of hard work. That is the trouble with the naturalistic novel – it requires so much documentary care. I never make, like Zola, a plan for a book. I know how it will begin and how it will end – that's all. When I finally get to writing it, it goes along rather fast – ''assez vite.''" "Barbaric in its profusion, violent in its emphasis, wearying in its splendor, it is – especially in regard to things seen – extraordinarily expressive, with all the shades of a painter's palette. Elaborately and deliberately perverse, it is in its very perversity that Huysmans's work - so fascinating, so repellent, so instinctively artificial - comes to represent, as the work of no other writer can be said to do, the main tendencies, the chief results, of the Decadent movement in literature." (

Arthur Symons Arthur William Symons (28 February 186522 January 1945) was a British poet, critic and magazine editor. Life Born in Milford Haven, Wales, to Cornish parents, Symons was educated privately, spending much of his time in France and Italy. In 188 ...

, ''The Decadent Movement in Literature'') "...Continually dragging Mother Image by the hair or the feet down the worm-eaten staircase of terrified Syntax." (

, quoted in Robert Baldick, ''The Life of J.-K. Huysmans''). Critical reviews by Léon Bloy of ''À rebours,'' ''En rade,'' and ''Là-bas'' published contemporaneously, in various journals or reviews, as Huysmans's novels came out over the years, in 1884, 1887, 1891, can be found, collected together and published 6 years after Huysmans's death, in book form, in ''On Huysmans' Tomb.'' "It is difficult to find a writer whose vocabulary is so extensive, so constantly surprising, so sharp and yet so exquisitely gamey in flavour, so constantly lucky in its chance finds and in its very inventiveness." (

Julien Gracq Julien Gracq (; 27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007; born Louis Poirier in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, in the French ''département'' of Maine-et-Loire) was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were note ...

) "In short, he kicks the oedipal to the curb" (M. Quaine, ''Heirs and Graces'', 1932, Jowett / Arcana) Huysmans's novel, ''Against the Grain'', has more discussions of sound, smell and taste than any other work of literature we know of. For example, one chapter consists entirely of smell hallucinations so vivid that they exhaust the book's central character, Des Esseintes, a bizarre, depraved aristocrat. A student of the perfumer's art, Esseintes has developed several devices for titillating his jaded senses. Besides special instruments for re-creating any conceivable odour, he has constructed a special "mouth organ", designed to stimulate his palate rather than his ears. The organ's regular pipes have been replaced by rows of little barrels, each containing a different liqueur. In Esseintes's mind, the taste of each liqueur corresponded with the sound of a particular instrument. "Dry

curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coa ...

, for instance, was like the

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

with its shrill, velvety note: kümmel like the

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

, whose

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...

is sonorous and nasal; crème de menthe and anisette like the

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

, at one and the same time sweet and poignant, whining and soft. Then to complete the orchestra, comes

kirsch Kirschwasser (, ; , German for "cherry water") or kirsch is a clear, colorless brandy traditionally made from double distillation of morello cherries, a dark-colored cultivar of the sour cherry. It is now also made from other kinds of cherri ...

, blowing a wild

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

blast; gin and

whisky Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ca ...

, deafening the palate with their harsh outbursts of

cornets The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a sopra ...

and

trombones The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

:liqueur

brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured with ...

, blaring with the overwhelming crash of the

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

s." By careful and persistent experimentation, Esseintes learned to "execute on his tongue a succession of voiceless melodies; noiseless funeral marches, solemn and stately; could hear in his mouth solos of crème de menthe, duets of vespertro and

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Ph ...

." The protagonist of ''

Submission Deference (also called submission or passivity) is the condition of submitting to the espoused, legitimate influence of one's superior or superiors. Deference implies a yielding or submitting to the judgment of a recognized superior, out of re ...

'' (2015), a novel by Michel Houellebecq, is a literary scholar specializing in Huysmans and his work; Huysmans's relation to Catholicism serves as a foil for the book's treatment of Islam in France.

Works by Huysmans

* ''Le drageoir aux épices'' (1874) * '' Marthe'' (1876) * '' Les Soeurs Vatard'' (1879) * ''Sac au dos'' (1880) * ''Croquis Parisiens'' (1880, 2nd ed. 1886) * ''

'' (1881)
''Pierrot sceptique''
(1881, written in collaboration with Léon Hennique) * ''

'' (1882) * ''L'art moderne'' (1883) * '' À rebours'' (1884) * '' En rade'' (1887) * ''Un Dilemme'' (1887) * ''Certains'' (1889) * ''La bièvre'' (1890) * '' Là-bas'' (1891) * ''

'' (1895) * '' La cathédrale'' (1898) * ''La Bièvre et Saint-Séverin'' (1898) * ''La magie en Poitou. Gilles de Rais.'' (1899) (see

Gilles de Rais Gilles de Rais (c. 1405 – 26 October 1440), Baron de Rais (), was a knight and lord from Brittany, Anjou and Poitou, a leader in the French army, and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known for his reputation and later c ...

) * ''La Bièvre; Les Gobelins; Saint-Séverin'' (1901) * ''Sainte Lydwine de Schiedam'' (1901, France) (on Saint

Lydwine de Schiedam Lidwina (Lydwine, Lydwid, Lidwid, Liduina of Schiedam) (1380-1433) was a Dutch mystic who is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church. She is the patron saint of the town of Schiedam and of chronic pain. Lidwina is also thought to be one of t ...

) ( Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur) ** ''Saint Lydwine of Schiedam'', translated from the French by Agnes Hastings (London, 1923, Kegan Paul) * ''De Tout'' (1902) * ''Esquisse biographique sur Don Bosco'' (1902) * '' L'Oblat'' (1903) * ''Trois Primitifs'' (1905) * ''Le Quartier Notre-Dame'' (1905) * ''Les foules de Lourdes'' (1906) * ''Trois Églises et trois Primitifs'' (1908) Current editions :
''Écrits sur l’art (1867-1905)''
edited and introduced by Patrice Locmant, Paris, Éditions Bartillat, 2006.
''À Paris''
edited and introduced by Patrice Locmant, Paris, Éditions Bartillat, 2005.
''Les Églises de Paris''
edited and introduced by Patrice Locmant, Paris, Éditions de Paris, 2005.
''Le Drageoir aux épices''
edited and introduced by Patrice Locmant, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2003.
''The Durtal Trilogy''
edited by Joseph Saint-George with notes by Smithbridge Sharpe, Ex Fontibus, 201
(Alternative site)

References

External links

Joris Karl Huysmans
website includes almost all of Huysmans's published work and contemporary material about him. * * * * *

''Catholic Encyclopedia'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Huysmans, Joris-Karl 1848 births 1907 deaths Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism Deaths from oral cancer Decadent literature French art critics 19th-century French novelists 20th-century French novelists French people of Dutch descent French Roman Catholic writers Our Lady of La Salette Writers from Paris Benedictine oblates French male novelists