Huysmans, Joris-Karl
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| − | '''Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans''' (February 5, 1848 | + | |
| + | '''Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans''' (February 5, 1848 – May 12, 1907) was a [[France|French]] [[novelist]] who published his works as '''Joris-Karl Huysmans'''; he is most famous for the novel ''À rebours''. 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. He began his career in the school of [[Naturalism]], but later broke with the naturalists. His novels are also noteworthy for their encyclopaedic documentation, ranging from the catalogue of decadent [[Latin]] authors in ''À rebours'' to the discussion of the symbolism of [[Christian]] [[architecture]] in ''La Cathédrale''. Huysmans' work increasingly expressed disgust with modern life and a deep [[pessimism]], which led the author first to the [[philosophy]] of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] but later to the teachings of the [[Catholic Church]]. | ||
| + | {{toc}} | ||
==Parents and early life== | ==Parents and early life== | ||
| − | Huysmans was born in Paris to a [[Netherlands|Dutch]] father, Godfried Huysmans, who was a lithographer by trade. His mother, Malvina Badin, had been a schoolmistress. He published his works as "Joris-Karl Huysmans" | + | Huysmans was born in [[Paris]] to a [[Netherlands|Dutch]] father, Godfried Huysmans, who was a lithographer by trade. His mother, Malvina Badin, had been a schoolmistress. He published his works as "Joris-Karl Huysmans," using an approximation of the Dutch equivalent of his forenames, to emphasize his roots. Huysmans' father died when he was eight years old, and his mother quickly remarried, leaving Huysmans feeling a great deal of resentment against his stepfather, Jules Og, a [[Protestant]] who was part owner of a Parisian book-bindery. |
| − | Huysmans' school years were unhappy but he obtained a ''baccalauréat''. For thirty-two years, he worked as a civil servant for the French Ministry of the Interior, a job he found insufferably tedious. The young Huysmans was called up to fight in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], but was invalided out with dysentery, an experience he described in his early story ''Sac au dos (Backpack)'' (later included in ''Les Soirées de Médan''). | + | Huysmans' school years were unhappy but he obtained a ''baccalauréat''. For thirty-two years, he worked as a civil servant for the French Ministry of the Interior, a job he found insufferably tedious. The young Huysmans was called up to fight in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], but was invalided out with [[dysentery]], an experience he described in his early story ''Sac au dos (Backpack)'' (later included in ''Les Soirées de Médan''). |
==Writing career== | ==Writing career== | ||
His first major publication was a collection of prose poems, heavily influenced by [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]], called ''Le drageoir à épices'' (1874). They attracted little attention but already revealed flashes of the author's distinctive style. Huysmans followed it with ''Marthe, Histoire d'une fille'' (1876). The story of a young prostitute, it was much closer to [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]] and brought him to the attention of [[Emile Zola]]. His next works were in a similar vein: somber, realistic and filled with minutely detailed evocations of Paris, the city Huysmans knew intimately. ''Les Soeurs Vatard'' deals with the lives of women in a bookbindery. ''En Ménage'' is an account of a writer's failed marriage (Huysmans himself never married, but had a long-term mistress called Anna Meunier). The climax of this early period is the novella ''À vau-l'eau (Downstream or With the Flow)'', the story of a downtrodden clerk, Monsieur Folantin, and his heroic and futile quest for a decent meal. | His first major publication was a collection of prose poems, heavily influenced by [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]], called ''Le drageoir à épices'' (1874). They attracted little attention but already revealed flashes of the author's distinctive style. Huysmans followed it with ''Marthe, Histoire d'une fille'' (1876). The story of a young prostitute, it was much closer to [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]] and brought him to the attention of [[Emile Zola]]. His next works were in a similar vein: somber, realistic and filled with minutely detailed evocations of Paris, the city Huysmans knew intimately. ''Les Soeurs Vatard'' deals with the lives of women in a bookbindery. ''En Ménage'' is an account of a writer's failed marriage (Huysmans himself never married, but had a long-term mistress called Anna Meunier). The climax of this early period is the novella ''À vau-l'eau (Downstream or With the Flow)'', the story of a downtrodden clerk, Monsieur Folantin, and his heroic and futile quest for a decent meal. | ||
| − | This was followed by Huysmans' most famous novel ''À rebours'' (''Against the Grain'' or ''Against Nature'') (1884), which featured a single [[Fictional_character|character]], the [[Aesthetics|aesthete]] des Esseintes, and decisively broke from Naturalism, becoming the ultimate example of "[[decadent movement|decadent]]" literature. ''À rebours'' gained further notoriety as an exhibit during the trials of [[Oscar Wilde]] in 1895, during which the prosecutor referred to the novel as a "[[Sodomy|sodomitical]]" book. The book also appalled Zola, who felt it had dealt a "terrible blow" to Naturalism. Huysmans began to drift away from the Naturalists and found new friends among the [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist]] and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] writers whose work he had praised in ''À rebours'', including [[Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly]], [[Villiers de L'Isle Adam]] and [[Léon Bloy]]. [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] was so pleased with the publicity his verse had received from the novel that he dedicated one of his most famous (and most obscure) poems, ''Prose pour des Esseintes'' to its hero. | + | This was followed by Huysmans' most famous novel ''À rebours'' (''Against the Grain'' or ''Against Nature'') (1884), which featured a single [[Fictional_character|character]], the [[Aesthetics|aesthete]] des Esseintes, and decisively broke from Naturalism, becoming the ultimate example of "[[decadent movement|decadent]]" literature. ''À rebours'' gained further notoriety as an exhibit during the trials of [[Oscar Wilde]] in 1895, during which the prosecutor referred to the novel as a "[[Sodomy|sodomitical]]" book. The book also appalled Zola, who felt it had dealt a "terrible blow" to Naturalism. Huysmans began to drift away from the Naturalists and found new friends among the [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist]] and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] writers whose work he had praised in ''À rebours'', including [[Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly]], [[Villiers de L'Isle Adam]], and [[Léon Bloy]]. [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] was so pleased with the publicity his verse had received from the novel that he dedicated one of his most famous (and most obscure) poems, ''Prose pour des Esseintes'' to its hero. |
| − | + | Huysmans' next novel, ''En rade'', a highly unromantic account of a summer spent in the country, was relatively unsuccessful commercially. In 1891, the publication of ''Là-Bas (Down There)'' attracted considerable attention for its depiction of [[Satan|Satanism]] in late 1880s [[France]]. The book introduced the character Durtal, a thinly disguised portrait of the author. The later Durtal novels, ''En Route'' (1895), ''La Cathédrale'' (1898) and ''L'Oblat'' (1903), trace Durtal/Huysmans' conversion to [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]]. ''En Route'' depicts Durtal's spiritual struggle during his stay at a Trappist monastery. ''La Cathédrale'' finds the protagonist at [[Chartres]], making an intense study of the cathedral and its symbolism. In ''L'Oblat'', Durtal becomes a Benedictine oblate, finally reaching an acceptance of the suffering in the world. | |
| − | Huysmans' next novel, ''En rade'', a highly unromantic account of a summer spent in the country, was relatively unsuccessful commercially. In 1891, the publication of ''Là-Bas (Down There)'' attracted considerable attention for its depiction of [[Satan|Satanism]] in late 1880s France. The book introduced the character Durtal, a thinly disguised portrait of the author. The later Durtal novels, ''En Route'' (1895), ''La Cathédrale'' (1898) and ''L'Oblat'' (1903), trace Durtal/Huysmans' conversion to [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]]. ''En Route'' depicts Durtal's spiritual struggle during his stay at a Trappist monastery. ''La Cathédrale'' finds the protagonist at [[Chartres]], making an intense study of the cathedral and its symbolism. In ''L'Oblat'', Durtal becomes a Benedictine oblate, finally reaching an acceptance of the suffering in the world. | ||
Huysmans was also known for his [[art criticism]]: ''L'Art moderne'' (1883) and ''Certains'' (1889). He was an early advocate of [[Impressionism]], as well as an admirer of such artists as [[Gustave Moreau]] and [[Odilon Redon]]. He was a founding member of the [[Académie Goncourt]]. | Huysmans was also known for his [[art criticism]]: ''L'Art moderne'' (1883) and ''Certains'' (1889). He was an early advocate of [[Impressionism]], as well as an admirer of such artists as [[Gustave Moreau]] and [[Odilon Redon]]. He was a founding member of the [[Académie Goncourt]]. | ||
| − | Huysmans was made a Chevalier de la [[Légion d'honneur]] in 1892, but only for his work with the civil service. In 1905, his admirers persuaded the French government to promote him to ''officier de la Légion d'honneur'' in view of his literary achievements. In the same year, Huysmans was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. Joris-Karl Huysmans was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris. | + | Huysmans was made a Chevalier de la [[Légion d'honneur]] in 1892, but only for his work with the civil service. In 1905, his admirers persuaded the French government to promote him to ''officier de la Légion d'honneur'' in view of his literary achievements. In the same year, Huysmans was diagnosed with [[cancer]] of the mouth. Joris-Karl Huysmans was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris. |
==Quotes about Huysmans' style== | ==Quotes about Huysmans' style== | ||
| − | + | “Barbaric in its profusion, violent in its emphasis, wearying in its splendor, it is - especially in regard to things seen—extraordinarily expressive, with all the shades of a painter's palette. Elaborately and deliberately perverse, it is in its very perversity that Huysmans' work—so fascinating, so repellent, so instinctively artificial—comes to represent, as the work of no other writer can be said to do, the main tendencies, the chief results, of the Decadent movement in literature.” ([[Arthur Symons]], "The Decadent Movement in Literature") | |
| − | ...Continually dragging Mother Image by the hair or the feet down the wormeaten staircase of Syntax. ([[Léon Bloy]], quoted in Robert Baldick, ''The Life of J.-K. Huysmans'') | + | “...Continually dragging Mother Image by the hair or the feet down the wormeaten staircase of Syntax.” ([[Léon Bloy]], quoted in Robert Baldick, ''The Life of J.-K. Huysmans'') |
| − | + | “It is difficult to find a writer whose vocabulary is so extensive, so constantly surprising, so sharp and yet so exquisitely gamey in flavour, so constantly lucky in its chance finds and in its very inventiveness.” ([[Julien Gracq]]) | |
==Selected works== | ==Selected works== | ||
| − | * ''Le drageoir aux épices'' ( | + | * ''Le drageoir aux épices'' (1874) |
| − | * ''Marthe'' ( | + | * ''Marthe'' (1876) |
| − | * ''Les Sœurs Vatard'' ( | + | * ''Les Sœurs Vatard'' (1879) |
| − | * ''Croquis Parisiens'' ( | + | * ''Croquis Parisiens'' (1880) |
| − | * ''En ménage'' ( | + | * ''En ménage'' (1881) |
| − | * ''À vau-l'eau'' ( | + | * ''À vau-l'eau'' (1882) |
| − | * ''L'art moderne'' ( | + | * ''L'art moderne'' (1883) |
| − | * ''[[À rebours]]'' ( | + | * ''[[À rebours]]'' (1884) |
| − | * ''En rade'' ( | + | * ''En rade'' (1887) |
| − | * ''Là-bas'' ( | + | * ''Là-bas'' (1891) |
| − | * ''En route'' ( | + | * ''En route'' (1895) |
| − | * ''La cathédrale'' ( | + | * ''La cathédrale'' (1898) |
| − | * ''La magie en Poitou. Gilles de Rais.'' ( | + | * ''La magie en Poitou. Gilles de Rais.'' (1899) (see [[Gilles de Rais]]) |
| − | * ''Sainte Lydwine de Schiedam'' ( | + | * ''Sainte Lydwine de Schiedam'' (1901) (see [[Lydwine de Schiedam]]) |
| − | * ''l'Oblat'' ( | + | * ''l'Oblat'' (1903) |
| − | * ''Les foules de Lourdes'' ( | + | * ''Les foules de Lourdes'' (1906) |
| − | * ''Trois Églises et trois Primitifs'' ( | + | * ''Trois Églises et trois Primitifs'' (1908) |
| − | == | + | ==References== |
| − | + | *Baldick, Robert. ''The Life of J.-K. Huysmans'', 1955. New edition revised by Brendan King, 2006; Dedalus, 2006. ISBN 978-1903517437 | |
| + | *Cevasco, George A. ''The breviary of the Decadence: J.-K. Huysmans's A rebours and English literature''. AMS Press, 2001. ISBN 0404644554 | ||
| + | *Ziegler, Robert. ''The mirror of divinity: the world and creation in J.-K. Huysmans''. University of Delaware Press, 2004. ISBN 0874138736 | ||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
| − | *[http://www.huysmans.org/ | + | All links retrieved August 5, 2022. |
| − | + | *[http://www.huysmans.org/ J-K Huysmans] | |
| − | * {{gutenberg author| id=J.+K.+Huysmans | name=Joris-Karl Huysmans}} | + | * {{gutenberg author| id=J.+K.+Huysmans | name=Joris-Karl Huysmans}} |
| − | **[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/2/3/4/12341/12341.txt ''Against The Grain'' by Joris-Karl Huysmans] | + | **[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/2/3/4/12341/12341.txt ''Against The Grain'' by Joris-Karl Huysmans] Project Gutenberg ebook (Also known as ''Á Rebours'' or ''Against Nature''). |
| − | **[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/2/14323/14323-h/14323-h.htm ''Là-bas'' | + | **[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/2/14323/14323-h/14323-h.htm ''Là-bas'' ''(Down There)'' by J. K. Huysmans] Project Gutenberg ebook (Also known as ''The Damned''). |
| − | **[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/0/6/15067/15067-h/15067-h.htm ''The Cathedral'' by J. K. Huysmans] | + | **[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/0/6/15067/15067-h/15067-h.htm ''The Cathedral'' by J. K. Huysmans] Project Gutenberg ebook. |
| − | + | *[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07591a.htm ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' entry on Huysmans] | |
| − | *[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07591a.htm ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' entry on Huysmans] | + | |
| − | + | [[Category:Biography]] | |
| + | [[Category:Writers and poets]] | ||
| − | + | {{credit|108121712}} | |
| − | {{ | ||
Latest revision as of 03:25, 6 August 2022
Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (February 5, 1848 – May 12, 1907) was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans; he is most famous for the novel À rebours. 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. He began his career in the school of Naturalism, but later broke with the naturalists. His novels are also noteworthy for their encyclopaedic documentation, ranging from the catalogue of decadent Latin authors in À rebours to the discussion of the symbolism of Christian architecture in La Cathédrale. Huysmans' work increasingly expressed disgust with modern life and a deep pessimism, which led the author first to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer but later to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Parents and early life
Huysmans was born in Paris to a Dutch father, Godfried Huysmans, who was a lithographer by trade. His mother, Malvina Badin, had been a schoolmistress. He published his works as "Joris-Karl Huysmans," using an approximation of the Dutch equivalent of his forenames, to emphasize his roots. Huysmans' father died when he was eight years old, and his mother quickly remarried, leaving Huysmans feeling a great deal of resentment against his stepfather, Jules Og, a Protestant who was part owner of a Parisian book-bindery.
Huysmans' school years were unhappy but he obtained a baccalauréat. For thirty-two years, he worked as a civil servant for the French Ministry of the Interior, a job he found insufferably tedious. The young Huysmans was called up to fight in the Franco-Prussian War, but was invalided out with dysentery, an experience he described in his early story Sac au dos (Backpack) (later included in Les Soirées de Médan).
Writing career
His first major publication was a collection of prose poems, heavily influenced by Baudelaire, called Le drageoir à épices (1874). They attracted little attention but already revealed flashes of the author's distinctive style. Huysmans followed it with Marthe, Histoire d'une fille (1876). The story of a young prostitute, it was much closer to Naturalism and brought him to the attention of Emile Zola. His next works were in a similar vein: somber, realistic and filled with minutely detailed evocations of Paris, the city Huysmans knew intimately. Les Soeurs Vatard deals with the lives of women in a bookbindery. En Ménage is an account of a writer's failed marriage (Huysmans himself never married, but had a long-term mistress called Anna Meunier). The climax of this early period is the novella À vau-l'eau (Downstream or With the Flow), the story of a downtrodden clerk, Monsieur Folantin, and his heroic and futile quest for a decent meal.
This was followed by Huysmans' most famous novel À rebours (Against the Grain or Against Nature) (1884), which featured a single character, the aesthete des Esseintes, and decisively broke from Naturalism, becoming the ultimate example of "decadent" literature. À rebours gained further notoriety as an exhibit during the trials of Oscar Wilde in 1895, during which the prosecutor referred to the novel as a "sodomitical" book. The book also appalled Zola, who felt it had dealt a "terrible blow" to Naturalism. Huysmans began to drift away from the Naturalists and found new friends among the Symbolist and Catholic writers whose work he had praised in À rebours, including Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Villiers de L'Isle Adam, and Léon Bloy. Stéphane Mallarmé was so pleased with the publicity his verse had received from the novel that he dedicated one of his most famous (and most obscure) poems, Prose pour des Esseintes to its hero.
Huysmans' next novel, En rade, a highly unromantic account of a summer spent in the country, was relatively unsuccessful commercially. In 1891, the publication of Là-Bas (Down There) attracted considerable attention for its depiction of Satanism in late 1880s France. The book introduced the character Durtal, a thinly disguised portrait of the author. The later Durtal novels, En Route (1895), La Cathédrale (1898) and L'Oblat (1903), trace Durtal/Huysmans' conversion to Roman Catholicism. En Route depicts Durtal's spiritual struggle during his stay at a Trappist monastery. La Cathédrale finds the protagonist at Chartres, making an intense study of the cathedral and its symbolism. In L'Oblat, Durtal becomes a Benedictine oblate, finally reaching an acceptance of the suffering in the world.
Huysmans was also known for his art criticism: L'Art moderne (1883) and Certains (1889). He was an early advocate of Impressionism, as well as an admirer of such artists as Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon. He was a founding member of the Académie Goncourt.
Huysmans was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1892, but only for his work with the civil service. In 1905, his admirers persuaded the French government to promote him to officier de la Légion d'honneur in view of his literary achievements. In the same year, Huysmans was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. Joris-Karl Huysmans was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris.
Quotes about Huysmans' style
“Barbaric in its profusion, violent in its emphasis, wearying in its splendor, it is - especially in regard to things seen—extraordinarily expressive, with all the shades of a painter's palette. Elaborately and deliberately perverse, it is in its very perversity that Huysmans' work—so fascinating, so repellent, so instinctively artificial—comes to represent, as the work of no other writer can be said to do, the main tendencies, the chief results, of the Decadent movement in literature.” (Arthur Symons, "The Decadent Movement in Literature")
“...Continually dragging Mother Image by the hair or the feet down the wormeaten staircase of Syntax.” (Léon Bloy, quoted in Robert Baldick, The Life of J.-K. Huysmans)
“It is difficult to find a writer whose vocabulary is so extensive, so constantly surprising, so sharp and yet so exquisitely gamey in flavour, so constantly lucky in its chance finds and in its very inventiveness.” (Julien Gracq)
Selected works
- Le drageoir aux épices (1874)
- Marthe (1876)
- Les Sœurs Vatard (1879)
- Croquis Parisiens (1880)
- En ménage (1881)
- À vau-l'eau (1882)
- L'art moderne (1883)
- À rebours (1884)
- En rade (1887)
- Là-bas (1891)
- En route (1895)
- La cathédrale (1898)
- La magie en Poitou. Gilles de Rais. (1899) (see Gilles de Rais)
- Sainte Lydwine de Schiedam (1901) (see Lydwine de Schiedam)
- l'Oblat (1903)
- Les foules de Lourdes (1906)
- Trois Églises et trois Primitifs (1908)
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Baldick, Robert. The Life of J.-K. Huysmans, 1955. New edition revised by Brendan King, 2006; Dedalus, 2006. ISBN 978-1903517437
- Cevasco, George A. The breviary of the Decadence: J.-K. Huysmans's A rebours and English literature. AMS Press, 2001. ISBN 0404644554
- Ziegler, Robert. The mirror of divinity: the world and creation in J.-K. Huysmans. University of Delaware Press, 2004. ISBN 0874138736
External links
All links retrieved August 5, 2022.
- J-K Huysmans
- Works by Joris-Karl Huysmans. Project Gutenberg
- Against The Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans Project Gutenberg ebook (Also known as Á Rebours or Against Nature).
- Là-bas (Down There) by J. K. Huysmans Project Gutenberg ebook (Also known as The Damned).
- The Cathedral by J. K. Huysmans Project Gutenberg ebook.
- Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Huysmans
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