Huysmans Joris-Karl

Against the Grain Huysmans Joris-Karl

Jean des Esseintes is the last member of a powerful and once proud noble family. He has lived an extremely decadent life in Paris, which has left him disgusted with human society. Without telling anyone, he retreats to a house in the countryside. He fills the house with his eclectic art collection (which notably consists of reprints of the paintings of Gustave Moreau). Drawing from the theme of Gustave Flaubert's Bouvard et Pécuchet, Des Esseintes decides to spend the rest of his life in intellectual and aesthetic contemplation.