Against the Grain

Against the Grain, novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans, published in French as À rebours in 1884. It was also translated into English as Against Nature.

In both its style and its subject, the work epitomizes the decadence of late 19th-century French elite culture. The protagonist, Des Esseintes, exhibits the debilitating symptoms of neurasthenia, a generalized psychosomatic disorder that came into vogue during that period. The condition necessitates his temporary retirement from Paris to his country estate at Fontenay, where he sets his course “against the grain” of ordinary life. Cloistered in luxury, Des Esseintes contrives a regimen of exquisite sensualism. He devises a “mouth organ” from which he sips “harmonic” combinations of liqueurs. He cultivates exotic flora and arranges to have the shell of a live tortoise inlaid with jewels. His overly refined tastes encompass perfumes, monastic music, visionary painting, and the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé. Unchecked indulgence only deepens his malaise, however, prompting his doctor to order him back to Paris. The story ends there, with an appeal by Des Esseintes for pity from a God he only vaguely believes in. Although the author intended the work for a select group of readers, it has become a sourcebook on fin-de-siècle aestheticism.