Against Nature

Infamous as the inspiration for the novel which slowly corrupts Oscar Wildes Dorian Gray Joris-Karl Huysmans Against Nature (A Rebours) is translated by Robert Baldick with an introduction by Patrick McGuinness in Penguin Classics.A wildly original fin-de-siècle novel Against Nature contains only one character. Des Esseintes is a decadent ailing aristocrat who retreats to an isolated villa where her indulges his taste for luxury and excess. Veering between nervous excitability and debilitating ennui he gluts his aesthetic appetites with classical literature and art exotic jewels (with which he fatally encrusts the shell of his tortoise) rich perfumes and a kaleidoscope of sensual experiences. Against Nature in the words of the author exploded like a meteorite and has enjoyed a cult following to this day.This revised edition of Robert Baldicks lucid translation features a new introduction and a chronology and reproduces Huysmanss original 1903 preface as well as a selection of reviews from writers including Mallarmé Zola and Wilde.Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907) is now recognized as one of the most challenging and innovative figures in European literature and an acknowledged principal architect of the fin-de-siècle imagination. He was a career civil servant who wrote ten novels most notably A Rebours and Là-Bas.If you enjoyed Against Nature you might like Huysmanss The Damned (La-Bas) also available in Penguin Classics. About the Author Patrick McGuinness is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Annes College. Born in Tunisia and raised in Belgium he is a poet novelist and translator. His novelThe Last Hundred Days was longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2011 Costa First Novel Award and his second novelThrow me to the Wolves won the 2020 Encore Award. His other books include two collections of poemsThe Canals of Mars (2004) andJilted City (2010) and a memoirOther Peoples Countries (2015) which won the Duff Cooper Prize. He was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2011 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.