Penguin Classics: Against Nature

A Rebours.

A wildly original fin de siecle novel, ‘Against Nature’ contains only one character.

Des Esseintes is a decadent, ailing aristocrat who retreats to an isolated villa where he 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 grenade” and has enjoyed a cult following to this day.

This revised edition of Robert Black’s lucid translation features a new introduction and a chronology, and reproduces Huysman’s original 1903 preface as well as a selection of reviews from writers including Mallarme, Zola and Wilde.