Against the Grain (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Marie Georges Huysmans
- First Published: 1884
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Black humor
- Time of Work: 1880’s
- Setting: A villa overlooking Fontenay-aux-Roses in Paris
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Nineteenth century, Art or artists, Alienation, Paris, Reality, Truth, Aesthetics, Isolation
- Locales: Paris, France
Characters Discussed
Jean Des Esseintes (day zeh- SAHNT), the last descendant of a family of French aristocrats that has long been in decline, having fallen prey to the hereditary enfeeblement that—according to a common belief of the nineteenth century—was brought on by continued intermarriage and love of luxury. At the age of thirty, he is anemic, “neurasthenic” (a term replaced in modern parlance by such phrases as “highly strung”), and prey to all manner of real and imaginary illnesses. He already has indulged his appetite for commonplace pleasures and ordinary...
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