Against the Grain (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Marie Georges Huysmans
- First Published: 1884
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Character study
- Time of Work: Late 1800’s
- Setting: Paris
- Principal Characters: Jean Des Esseintes
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Nineteenth century, Art or artists, Alienation, Paris, Reality, Truth, Aesthetics, Isolation
- Locales: Paris, France
The Story:
The Des Esseintes were an old family. In the Château de Lourps, the portraits of the ancestors were those of rugged troopers and stern cavalrymen. The family, however, had followed a familiar pattern; through two hundred years of intermarriage and indulgence, the men had become increasingly effeminate. Now the only remaining Des Esseintes was Jean, a man of thirty. By a kind of atavism, Jean’s looks resembled his first grandsire. The resemblance, however, was in looks only.
Jean’s childhood had been unhappy. His father, living in Paris most of the time,...
[The entire page is 2437 words long]
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