Against Nature (31 page)

2
.
This collection had cost him… peasant's boots
: In the following passage Huysmans names past and contemporary bookbinders, and we note that Des Esseintes spends more time touching these books than reading them.

3
.
The ‘side-splitting mirth' of Rabelais… anathemas
: François Rabelais (d. 1553), author of
Gargantua et Pantagruel
, was known for his humour and linguistic inventiveness. Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, 1622–73), was the author of some of French theatre's finest comedies. Des Esseintes dislikes his emphasis on ‘good sense'. François Villon, the medieval poet and author of
Testament
, was one of the prototypes of the
poète maudit
. Agrippa D'Aubigné (1552–1630), author of
Les Tragiques (The Tragic Ones
).

4
.
As for prose… straight to his heart
: Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778), one of the most prolific writers in all genres in French literary history. A politically-engaged humanist philosopher, he fought against religious bigotry and political oppression. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), massively influential Swiss writer, author of autobiographical, critical, novelistic and political texts. Denis Diderot (1713–84), novelist, playwright and free-thinking critic, he was also politically active and editor of the
Encyclopédie
. Louis Bourdaloue (1623–1704) was a Jesuit priest known for his sermons that emphasized personal morality. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), was a poet, historian, churchman and orator, and was a member of Louis XIV's court. Blaise Pascal (1623–62) was a philosopher, mathematician, scientist and Christian apologist. His
Pensées
were published in 1670.

5
.
Ozanam
: Frédéric Ozanam (1813–53) was an influential liberal Catholic.

6
.
All these ecclesiastics… the Reverend Father Chocarne
: This chapter is a résumé of key figures in nineteenth-century liberal
Catholicism. Marc Fumaroli's and Rose Fortassier's editions give the dates, bio-bibliographies and precise significance of these writers.

7
.
Ernest Hello
:(1828–85), a profound influence on the Symbolist generation, Hello translated and wrote a study of Jan Van Ruysbroeck's
Noces spirituelles (Spiritual Wedding
) in 1869, from which the epigraph to
Against Nature
is taken. When the poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck published a translation of Ruysbroeck's book in 1891, Huysmans declared: ‘There is more knowledge and understanding of the human heart in one page of [Ruysbroeck's] than in all the Stendhals, Bourgets and Barrèses in the world!' Hello was the author of a number of philosophical and aesthetic works, notably
Le Style
(1861).

8
.
a Catholic Duranty
: Edmond Duranty (1833–80) was the editor of the review
Réalisme
. Also a novelist, he was an influential spokesman for realist literary doctrine.

9
.
Léon Bloy
:(1847–1917), novelist, journalist and polemicist, was a friend and supporter of Huysmans, before becoming one of Huysmans' most vicious critics.

10
.
Barbey d'Aurevilly
: Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808–89), novelist and right-wing journalist, dandy and friend of Baudelaire. His stories and novels are characterized by melodrama, blasphemy and sadism.
Un Prêtre marié (A Married Priest
) appeared in 1865.
Les Diaboliques (The Devils
, 1874) was prosecuted for obscenity.

1
.
Portalis and Homais
: Auguste Portalis (1801–55) was a statesman and politician of the July Monarchy. Homais is the name of the pharmacist in
Madame Bovary
, one of Flaubert's great images of the pernicious stupidity of ‘common sense'.

2
.
riddecks
: Bars (Flemish).

1
.
for him, there were no such things as schools
: Perhaps Huysmans was preparing the way for reception of his novel, but some of these ideas are reflected in his letters of the period, where he begins to doubt the validity of distinguishing between literary schools.

2
.
He now preferred… L'Assommoir
: Each of these books is somehow considered an atypical, exotic, even overwritten example of
its author's work. Des Esseintes prefers the seemingly marginal, exotic or nostalgic novels to the more established realist ‘classics' of Flaubert, the Goncourts and Zola.

3
.
Goncourt
: Edmond de Goncourt (1822–96) and his brother Jules (1830–70) were novelists, historians and diarists. Their
Journal
is a fascinating and judgemental view of the period 1850–96, full of anecdotes and portaits of extraordinary people and tumultuous events. Their
Germinie Lacerteux
(1864) is a masterpiece of Naturalist writing, while
Charles Demailly
(1868), a story of an artistic young man brought low by a scheming wife and a malicious literary world, may have influenced Huysmans' conception of Des Esseintes. After Jules' death, Edmond continued to write. His novels include
Les Frères Zemganno
(1879) and
La Faustin
(1882).

4
.
In Zola… its natural postures
: The reference is to Zola's
La Faute de l'abbé Mouret (The Sin of Father Mouret
, 1875), the story of a young priest and his lover Albine set in an Edenic garden called Paradou.

5
.
Paul Verlaine
: (1844–96), one of the main influences on the Symbolist movement and author of the influential
Les Poètes maudits (The Cursed Poets
, 1884). Verlaine lived the life of the ‘
poète maudit
', but his poetry is known for its musicality, deliberate imprecision of effect and precision of craft.

6
.
Le soir tombait… s'étonne
: Night was falling, an equivocal autumn night: the fair ones hanging dreamily on to our arms whispered words so specious that ever since our soul has been trembling and amazed. (Translation by Robert Baldick.)

7
.
Car nous voulons… littérature
: For we still want light and shade, not colour, nothing but light and shade… and all the rest is
literature
. (Translation by Robert Baldick.)

8
.
Tristan Corbière
: (1845–75), author of
Les Amours jaunes
(1873). Corbière was more or less unknown until Huysmans and Verlaine (in
Les Poètes maudits
) brought him to public attention. He was one of the French poets admired by Pound and Eliot.

9
.
Obscène confesseur des dévotes mort-nées
: Obscene confessor of fair bigots still-born. (Translation by Robert Baldick.)

10
.
Éternel féminin de l'éternel jocrisse
: Eternal feminine of the eternal fool. (Translation by Robert Baldick.)

11
.
Théodore Hannon
: Belgian poet and author of
Rimes de joie (Rhymes of Joy
), which Huysman prefaced in 1881, and which contains a poem called ‘Cyprien Tibaille', after one of Huysmans'
characters. By the time of
Against Nature
, the two were no longer friends.

12
.
Stéphane Mallarmé
: (1842–98), the pre-eminent poet of the Symbolist movement, though his work in poetry and prose surpassed even Symbolism's grand ambitions. Mallarmé responded to
Against Nature
with his own poem ‘Prose (pour Des Esseintes)', one of his most linguistically and conceptually taxing poems.

13
.
Leconte de Lisle
: (1818–94), leading member of the Parnassian movement, whose poetry prized impersonality, sculpted verse and stately rhythms.

14
.
Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
: (1838–89), one of the most eccentric and brilliant French writers of the second half of the nineteenth century. Originally a poet, Villiers moved to prose and theatre. His novel
L'Eve future (The Future Eve
, 1886) and his play
Axël
(1890) are masterpieces of the ‘idealist reaction' in French literature. His
Contes cruels (Cruel Tales
, 1883) contain the story ‘Véra', a tale of a woman brought back to life by her husband's idealism and will power. ‘Claire Lenoir' is a supernatural novella. Tullia Fabriana is a character in Villiers'
Isis
.

15
.
Charles Cros
: (1842–88), eccentric poet and polymath (inventor of the gramophone, pioneer of colour photography and astronomer), was, like Corbière and Villiers, a literary outsider even to literary outsiders such as the Symbolists.

16
.
of the first two Parnasses
: The ‘Parnassian' poets prized impersonality, craft and formal perfection against Romanticism's lyrical inspiration and belief in the social value of art. The
Parnasses
were anthologies of poetry in which a variety of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century – Verlaine, Mallarmé, Banville, Leconte de Lisle – appeared.

17
.
O miroir… nudité
: Oh mirror! cold water frozen by boredom within your frame, how many times, for hours on end, saddened by dreams and searching for my memories, which are like dead leaves in the deep hole beneath your glassy surface, have I seen myself in you as a distant ghost! But, oh horror! on certain evenings, in your cruel pool, I have recognized the bareness of my disordered dream! (Translation by Robert Baldick.)

18
.
Alors m'éveillerai-je… l'ingénuité
: Then shall I awake to the original fervour, upright and alone in an ancient flood of light, lilies! and one of you for innocence. (Translation by Robert Baldick.)

19
.
Aloysius Bertrand
: (1807–41), author of
Gaspard de la nuit (Gaspard and the Night
, 1842), hallucinatory Romantic prose poems.

20
.
Livre de jade
: (1867), a prose poem by Judith Gautier (1846–1917), daughter of Théophile Gautier.

21
.
a glossary… medieval monasteries
: In 1888, a
Petit Glossaire des auteurs décadents et symbolistes (Short Glossary of Decadent and Symbolist Authors
) was produced by the young Symbolist and Decadent writers, principally Paul Adam and Félix Fénéon. It included extracts from Verlaine, Mallarmé and several lesser-known writers, but surprisingly nothing from Huysmans himself.

1
.
and he was well aware… with impunity
: Huysmans was writing at a time of high Wagnerism. Baudelaire and Mallarmé had written powerful meditations on Wagner's music and its implications for poetry, and the French
Revue wagnérienne
published a number of Symbolist texts inspired by or in response to Wagner's music. Huysmans was also a contributor to the review. It should be noted that at the time Wagner's music was heard in extracts at concerts rather than performed integrally. It is interesting in this respect that Des Esseintes, always ready to extract and anthologize and decontextualize, does not approve of these practices for music.

2
.
of Auber and Boïeldieu, of Adam and Flotow
: All represent the French comic opera tradition.

3
.
Des Mädchens Klage
: (‘The Young Girl's Lament'), a poem by Schiller set to music by Schubert.

1
.
But then, the decayed nobility was done for… classes
: Huysmans here refers to the scandals that preceded the 1848 revolution.

2
.
Among the Dominicans… certain dealers
: Rouard de Card's book was published in 1856. This preoccupation of Des Esseintes takes up the theme explored in the chapter on scents of real or ‘essential' substances and fake, industrially produced versions.