Against the Grain

Joris-Karl Huysmans' book Against the Grain was first published in French as rebours in 1884.The piece embodies the decadence of late 19th-century French upper culture in both style and content. Des Esseintes, the main character, displays the crippling symptoms of neurasthenia, a broad psychosomatic condition that was popular at the time.Because of his health, he must temporarily leave Paris and move to his country estate in Fontenay, where he plots his route "against the grain" of everyday life. Des Esseintes creates a routine of exquisite sensualism while sequestered in luxury.He creates a "mouth organ" that he uses to drink "harmonic" liquor mixtures. He grows exotic plants and arranges to have a live tortoise's shell set with gems. Perfumes, monastery music, visionary art, and Stéphane Mallarmé's poetry are among his too polished interests. However, unchecked excess only makes his illness worse, leading his doctor to instruct him to return to Paris. Des Esseintes' request for mercy from a God he only loosely believes in brings the narrative to a close. Although the author wrote the book with a specific audience in mind, it has since become a reference on fin-de-siècle aestheticism.