Joris-Karl Huysmans





Joris-Karl Huysmans

Author profile


born
February 05, 1848 in Paris, France

died
May 12, 1907

gender
male

genre


About this author

French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. He is most famous for the novel À rebours (Against Nature). His style is remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, wide-ranging vocabulary, wealth of detailed and sensuous description, and biting, satirical wit. The novels are also noteworthy for their encyclopaedic documentation, ranging from the catalogue of decadent Latin authors in À rebours to the discussion of the symbology of Christian architecture in La cathédrale. Huysmans' work expresses a disgust with modern life and a deep pessimism, which led the author first to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer then to the teachings of the Catholic Church.


Average rating: 3.95 · 2,756 ratings · 285 reviews · 50 distinct works
Against Nature
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3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 1,885 ratings — published 1884 — 93 editions
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Là-Bas
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3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 591 ratings — published 1891 — 50 editions
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With the Flow
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3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 2003
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Becalmed
3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 37 ratings — published 1887 — 6 editions
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Marthe: The Story of a Whore
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3.56 of 5 stars 3.56 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 1876 — 3 editions
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En Route
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4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 1895 — 29 editions
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The Cathedral
3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 1989 — 22 editions
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Parisian Sketches
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3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 1989 — 4 editions
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Downstream
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4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1882 — 7 editions
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Saint Lydwine of Schiedam
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4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1923 — 2 editions
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More books by Joris-Karl Huysmans…
“Immersed in solitude, he would dream or read far into the night. By protracted contemplation of the same
thoughts, his mind grew sharp, his vague, undeveloped ideas took on form.”
Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature

“His contempt for humanity grew fiercer, and at last he came to realize that the world is made up mostly of fools and scoundrels. It became perfectly clear to him that he could entertain no hope of finding in someone else the same aspirations and antipathies; no hope of linking up with a mind which, like his own, took pleasure in a life of studious decrepitude; no hope of associating an intelligence as sharp and wayward as his own with any author or scholar.”
Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature

“(Baudelaire) had descended to the bottom of the inexhaustible mine, had picked his way along abandoned or unexplored galleries, and had finally reached those districts of the soul where the monstrous vegetations of the sick mind flourish. There, near the breeding ground of intellectuals aberrations and disease of the mind - the mysterious tetanus, the burning fever of lust, the thyphoids and yellow fevers of crime – he had found, hatching in the dismal forcing-house of ennui, the frightening climacteric of thoughts and emotions.”
Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature

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