''À vau-l'eau'' (English: ''With the Flow'' or ''Downstream'' ) is a novella by the French writer

Joris-Karl Huysmans Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel '' À rebour ...

, first published by Henry Kistmaeckers in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on January 26, 1882.

Plot Summary

The work - which has little in the way of plot - tells the story of Jean Folantin, a downtrodden

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

ian civil service clerk whose quest for even a modicum of happiness or material comfort always ends in failure. The book chronicles Folantin's everyday disappointments, typified by his search for a decent meal (there are numerous descriptions of the disgusting food he has to eat). At the end of the novella, Folantin pessimistically resigns himself to giving up hope and "going with the flow":

"...he realised the futility of changing direction, the sterility of all enthusiasm and all effort. 'You have to let yourself go with the flow;
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 pr ...
is right', he told himself, '"Man's life swings like a pendulum between pain and boredom". So there's no point trying to speed up or slow down the rhythm of its swings; all we can do is fold our arms and try to get to sleep...'" (Brown translation p.57)

''À vau-l'eau'' is a key work in Huysmans' literary development. It is the last book written in the author's early Naturalist style, with its unflinching depiction of sordid everyday reality, but several features point the way forward to the radical departure marked by Huysmans' next - and most famous - novel, ''

À rebours ''À rebours'' (; translated ''Against Nature'' or ''Against the Grain'') is an 1884 novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans. The narrative centers on a single character: Jean des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive, ailing aesthete. The ...

''. Huysmans later noted the similarities between Monsieur Folantin and Des Esseintes, the aristocratic hero of ''À rebours'':

I pictured to myself a M.Folantin, more cultured, more refined, more wealthy, than the first, and who has discovered in artificiality a specific for the disgust inspired by the worries of life and the American manners of our time. I imagined him winging his way to the land of dreams...living alone and apart, far from the present-day world, in an atmosphere suggestive of more cordial epochs and less odious surroundings". (Quoted in the introduction to Brown, p.xii)

Translations

*As ''With the Flow'', by Andrew Brown with an introduction by

Simon Callow Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English film, television and voice actor, director, narrator and writer. He was twice nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his roles in ''A Room with a View'' (19 ...

(Hesperus, 2003) *As ''Downstream'', by

Robert Baldick Robert André Edouard Baldick, FRSL (9 November 1927 – April 1972), was a British scholar of French literature, writer, translator and joint editor of the Penguin Classics series with Betty Radice. He was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. ...

(reprint edition by

Turtle Point Press Turtle Point Press, founded in 1990, publishes new fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, memoirs, works in translation, and rediscovered classics. History Jonathan D. Rabinowitz established Turtle Point Press in 1990. During his tenure the press ...

, 2005) *As ''Drifting'', by Brendan King (

Dedalus Books Dedalus Books is a British publishing company specialising in European literature. As stated on their website, Dedalus specialises in "its own distinctive genre, which we term distorted reality, where the bizarre, the unusual and the grotesque ...

, 2017)

Sources

* Huysmans ''Romans'' Volume One (Bouquins, Robert Laffont, 2005) * Robert Baldick: ''The Life of J.-K. Huysmans'' (originally published by Oxford University Press, 1955; revised by Brendan King, Dedalus Press, 2006)

External links

Full French text
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vau-L'eau, A 1882 French novels Novels by Joris-Karl Huysmans French novellas Novels set in Paris