Joris-Karl Huysmans: Against Nature – A review of the literature
Against Nature, by Huysmans, is a novel written in decadent aesthetics and is inspired by many other decadent authors, such as Baudelaire. Huysmans develops a character named Des Esseintes who has the makings of a nervous loner reflecting on living alone in his artifact house. Against Nature is written with a beautifully descriptive setting. The beginning of the book expresses its environment from top to bottom; for example, Huysmans takes the reader on a pleasurable sensory journey through Des Esseintes’ house. The setting involves all of his decorating schemes and begins to inform the reader of his large library of his most prized literature; Baudelaire, Edgar Allen Poe, Dickens, Petronius and many more. Huysmans finally explains Des Esseintes’ extensive knowledge of literature, art, and business interests such as perfume manufacturing. His thoughts are always in conflict; for example, it contemplates the importance of Christianity against paganism. Throughout the book, he is torn between his knowledge of many conflicting ideas, leading primarily to his education with the Jesuit priests. Although he suffers from a nervous illness, he escapes his illness by reading literature and conversing with his imagination instead of real people.
Des Esseintes is a very melancholy type of man, but with little mental desire to keep his soul alive during his illness. An example of a short-lived wish is his longing for a turtle; Due to his eccentric imagination, he has the tortoise’s shell covered with his auspicious gemstones and loves the contrast of the animal against his golden ground. Of course, the tortoise dies from a heavy shell and lack of nutrition, but it shows no emotion towards death because the tortoise has already aged to its liking. Like most decadent writers, the Des Esseintes character is highly narcissistic.
Her house is covered in expensive literature, fake flowers, and art. Des Esseintes especially prefers the religious paintings of Gustave Moreau and imagines the goddess Salome in motion with the other figures in the painting. Salomé seems to intimidate him, and he always reflects more towards the art and literature that threaten him. Huysmans also mentions Des Esseintes’ artwork titled Religious Persecutions: “These images, replete with abominable imaginations, reeking of burnt flesh, oozing blood, filled with screams of horror and curses, make your skin crawl, keeping you rooted to the spot. , unable to breathe, when he entered that red room.(Huysman, JK, 1884)
As mentioned before, Des Esseintes has many short-lived wishes that he quickly fulfills; then he begins his conquest of boredom for something new. During his boring lifestyle, he conjures up old memories of Paris; one is about a boy who tries to turn into a murder. While living among society in Paris, she meets a boy, Auguste, whom she calls “little Judas”. He introduces Auguste to a night of drinking and sex at a brothel, hoping to escalate the boys’ sexual frustration to the point of murder. Des Esseintes pores over the newspaper for months, expecting to see the boy murder some unnecessary people on the streets, and is disappointed that his devious plan didn’t work.
Another memory is that of his former lover; Urania, a ventriloquist who fulfills her sexual desires to commit adultery, in which she uses her multiple voices as an illusory husband ready to break down the door. While experimenting with aromatics and perfume making, he imagines a lover who, “…would go into ecstasies with certain aromatics…a nervous woman who liked to have her nipples drenched in perfume.” (Huysmans, JK, 1884) during Des Esseintes’s experiment with aromatics, he faints, which begins the reality and intensity of his nervous illness.
While continuing in a dreamlike state, possibly caused by the early stages of death, he takes an imaginary trip to London. The journey is filled with eating, talking, drinking and watching. Huysmans wrote this imaginary trip with more descriptions than a real vacation could imply. Des Esseintes says: “It would be madness to risk losing these unforgettable impressions through an ill-advised journey”, explains Huysmans that his imaginary journey was worth much more than actually doing it; In fact, he felt the exhaustion of the mental vacation as if it were a real one.
Des Esseintes begins to get bored with his literature, art, and home. He explains his book collection as if it is supporting his intelligence as it weakens. He mentions Baudelaire many times and says: “[Baudelaire’s writings]….eventually reaching those regions of the soul where the nightmarish growths of human thought flourish.” Towards the end of the book, he realizes that he can no longer take laudanum, opiates, or hashish to enhance his imaginary journeys because your body will reject anything you take in. At this point in Des Esseintes disease, Huysmans explains Des Esseintes’s mirror image of himself, which is that of a malnourished man, he calls a doctor who prescribes enemas of certain nutrients, that he is very excited to have, “…eliminated the tedious and vulgar task of eating” (Huysmans, JK, 1848) The doctor orders him to return to Paris and to society, instead of being confined within the walls of his house in Fontenay Des Esseintes comes to the conclusion that he must reconcile himself to Catholicism along with his move to Paris, explaining that he must abandon his art of comparing all religious skepticism so that his mind may be at peace.
In general, he uses his imagination to satisfy his need for pleasure and adventure. It seems that he moved to Fontenay to reflect on himself, but during his reclusive lifestyle a nervous illness begins. The reflection on his memories makes him get entangled in the comparison of the knowledge he has acquired in life; from his early years with the Jesuit priests to his adulthood in modern Paris society. Des Esseintes is an artist who criticizes art, literature and social class. He is a teacher of religious teachings compared to a realistic scientific view. Due to his struggle to gather his knowledge in the truth, he almost died from neglecting his basic needs to survive.