Authors: Joris-Karl Huysmans
Against Nature
AGAINST NATURE
JORIS-KARL HUYSMANS
was born in Paris in 1848, the only son of a French mother and a Dutch father. After a childhood saddened by his father's death and his mother's speedy remarriage, he became a junior clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, where he remained for thirty-two years. He spent the first half of the Franco-Prussian War in hospital, suffering from dysentery, and the second half under fire in the besieged capital. When peace returned he went back to the Ministry, and three years later published his first book,
Le Drageoir à épices
(1874), a collection of prose-poems after Baudelaire. He then turned to novel-writing and published
Marthe
(1876),
Les Sæurs Vatard
(1879),
En Ménage
(1881) and
A Vau-l'Eau
(1882).
A Rebours
, published in 1884 and hailed by Arthur Symons as âthe breviary of the Decadence', marked his break with Zola's Medan Group and the beginning of an attempt to widen the scope of the novel. His other novels were
En Rade
(1887),
LÃ -Bas
(1891),
En Route
(1895),
La Catbédrale
(1898) and
L'Oblat
(1903). He died in 1907.
ROBERT BALDICK
, the late co-editor of the Penguin Classics, received his MA and D. Phil. from Oxford University, where he was a Fellow of Pembroke College. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he wrote biographies of J.-K. Huysmans, Frédérick Lamaître and Henry Murger, a study of the Goncourts,
The Siege of Paris
and
The Duel
. Authors whose work he translated from the French include the Goncourts, Montherlant, Radiguet, Restif de la Bretonne, Sartre, Simenon and Jules Verne. For the Penguin Classics he translated Flaubert's
Three Tales
and
Sentimental Education
, Chateaubriand's
Memoirs
and Huysmans'
Against Nature
. He died in 1972.
PATRICK MCGUINNESS
was born in 1968 in Tunisia. He is a fellow of St Anne's College, University of Oxford, where he lectures in French. He is the author of
Maurice Maeterlinck and the Making of Modern Theatre
(2000), and has edited T. E. Hulme's
Selected Writings
(1998),
Symbolism, Decadence and the Fin de siècle
(2000),
Anthologie de la poésie Symboliste et décadente
(Paris,
2001) and Laura Riding and Robert Graves's
A Survey of Modernist Poetry
(2002). His translation of Stéphane Mallarmé's
For Anatole's Tomb
was published in 2003. In 1998 he won an Eric Gregory Award for poetry from the Society of Authors, and his poems and translations have appeared in a variety of books and reviews. He lives in Cardiff.
JORIS â KARL HUYSMANS
Translated by
ROBERT BALDICK
With an Introduction and Notes by
PATRICK MCGUINNESS
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
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This edition first published, 2003
1
Translation copyright © Robert Baldick, 1956
Introduction, Notes and translation of Appendices copyright © Patrick McGuinness, 2003
Chronology copyright © Terry Hale, 2001
All rights reserved
The moral right of the editors have been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
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EISBN: 978â0â141â90660â7
Appendix I: Preface, Written Twenty Years After the Novel
1815
Birth of Godfried Huysmans, father of the novelist, in the Dutch town of Breda. A lithographer and miniaturist by profession, he settles in Paris as a young man.
1845
June Godfried Huysmans proposes to a young French schoolmistress, Malvina Badin.
1848
5 Feb. Birth of Charles Marie Georges Huysmans at no. 11 (now no. 9) rue Suger in the 6th Arrondissement.
1848
Ordination of Joseph Antoine Boullan.
1856
24 June Death of Godfried Huysmans.
1857
Mother re-marries, to a M. Jules Og.
1858
May Mother and stepfather purchase a small bookbindery at no. 11 rue de Sèvres in the 7th Arrondissement.
1862
Huysmans enrols at the Lycée Saint-Louis.
1864
First sexual experiences with prostitutes.
1866
7 Mar. Huysmans passes
baccalauréat
.
1866
1 Apr. Following in the footsteps of other members of the family on his mother's side, Huysmans enters the Ministry of the Interior as an
employé de sixième classe
(employee: sixth grade) on a salary of 1,500 francs p.a.
1866
Autumn Enrols in the Faculties of Law and Letters of the University of Paris.
1867
8 Sept. Death of stepfather.
1868
15 Aug. Salary increases to 1,800 francs p.a.
1870
30 July Mobilized in the 6th Battalion of the Garde Mobile during the Franco-Prussian War. Dysentery prevents him from seeing action.
1870
15 Aug. Salary increases to 2,100 francs p.a.
1871
Feb. The Government and its staff relocate to Versailles.
1871
Summer Huysmans rents rooms in Paris.
1872
First draft of his war memoirs which will become
Sac au dos
.
1873
1 Feb. Salary increases to 2,400 francs p.a.
1874
10 Oct.
Le Drageoir à épices
(tr.
Dish of Spices
, 1927), a collection of prose-poems, is published at the author's own expense.
1876
4 May His mother dies, leaving Huysmans responsible for his two half-sisters and the management of the bookbindery. He transfers to a post at the Sûreté Générale in Paris.
1876
12 Sept.
Marthe, histoire d'une fille
(tr.
Marthe
, 1927 (US) and 1958 (UK)), a short novel dealing with the life of a prostitute in a licensed brothel, is published in Brussels.
1877
Early Enters into contact with Zola, Flaubert and Edmond de Goncourt.
1877
Aug.
L'Artiste
serializes
Sac au dos
.
1878
1 Jan. Salary increases to 2,700 francs p.a.
1879
26 Feb.
Les Soeurs Vatard
(tr.
The Vatard Sisters
, 1983), a study of the lives of women working as bookbinders, is published. The work is dedicated to Zola.
1879
17 May
Le Voltaire
, on Zola's recommendation, publishes Huysmans' first article on the Salon, the main artistic event in the Parisian calendar.
1880
1 Jan. Salary increases to 3,000 francs p.a.
1880
April
Sac au dos
(tr.
Knapsack
, 1907) appears in
Les Soirées de Medan
, a collection of war stories, together with tales by Zola and Maupassant.
1881
Feb.
En Ménage
(tr.
Living Together
, 1969), a pessimistic study of everyday life, is published.
1881
22 May
Croquis Parisiens
(tr.
Parisian Sketches
, 1962) is published.
1882
1 Jan. Salary increases to 3,300 francs p.a.
1882
26 Jan.
A Vau-l'Eau
(tr.
Downstream
, 1927 (US) and 1952 (UK)), the study of the wretched existence of a minor
fonctionnaire
(civil servant), is published in Brussels.
1883
May
L'Art Moderne
, a collection of critical essays championing progressive artists (Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, the Impressionists), is published.
1884
1 Jan Salary increases to 3,600 francs p.a.
1884
May
A Rebours
(tr.
Against the Grain
, 1922;
Against Nature
, 1959) is published to enormous acclaim.
Friendship commences with Léon Bloy.
1886
Jan. Only a loan from the poet François Coppée prevents Huysmans from becoming bankrupt due to losses incurred by the bookbindery.
1887
1 Jan. Salary increases to 4,500 francs p.a.
1887
16 April Salary increases to 4,800 francs p.a.
1887
26 April
En Rade
(tr.
Becalmed!
, 1992 (UK) and
A Haven
, 1998 (US)) is published but fails to find favour with the public.
1887
31 Oct. Letter to Zola first mentioning
LÃ -Bas
.
1888
Spring
The Universal Review
commissions a novella from Huysmans but subsequently declines
La Retraite de M. Bougran
(
M. Bougran's Retirement
).
1888
Summer Huysmans encounters the work of the Primitives during a visit to Germany.
1889
21 Aug. Funeral of Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. Mallarmé and Huysmans are named his literary executors.
1889
Sept. Huysmans visits Tiffauges, the stronghold of Gilles de Rais. Huysmans meets Berthe de Courrière.
1889
Nov. Publication of
Certains
, the author's second volume of critical essays.
1890
5 Feb. Huysmans writes to introduce himself to the former Abbé Boullan.
1890
July
La Bièvre
(tr.
The Bièvre River
, 1986), an evocation of the river and its surroundings, is published.
1890
Sept. Huysmans visits Boullan in Lyons.
Berthe de Courrière is interned in Bruges.
1891
15 Feb.
L'Echo de Paris
begins serialization of
LÃ -Bas
(
The Damned
).
1891
March Henriette Maillat attempts to blackmail Huysmans over the author's use of her correspondence in
LÃ -Bas
.
1891
April
LÃ -Bas
published in book form.
1891
28 May Berthe de Courrière introduces Huysmans to the Abbé Mugnier, who will become his spiritual director.
1891
July Pilgrimage to La Salette, followed by a visit to Boullan in Lyons.
1891
25 Sept. Paul Valéry visits Huysmans in his office.
1892
Jan Huysmans holds a seance in his flat.
1892
1 Feb. Salary increases to 5,000 francs p.a.
1892
July Huysmans' first retreat at Notre-Dame d'Igny.
1893
3 Jan. Boullan dies at Lyons.
1893
3 Sept. Huysmans appointed Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.
1894
Spring Huysmans meets Dom Besse, who is seeking to develop the small Benedictine community at Saint Wandrille in Normandy.
1895
1 Jan. Salary increases to 6,000 francs p.a.
1895
12 Feb. Death of Anna Meunier, his mistress, in Sainte-Anne.
1895
25 Feb. Publication of
En Route
(tr. 1896), which describes Durtal's conversion and subsequent retreat at Notre-Dame d'Igny.