Against Nature (A Rebours)
Huysmans, Joris-Karl / Baldick, Robert / Mcguiness, Patrick / Mcguiness, Patrick
A wildly original fin-de-si?cle novel, "Against Nature" follows its sole character, Des Esseintes, 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 kaleidosc...