The French fin de siècle must have been an incredibly exciting era. Just think of the great technological progress of the 1880s: the decade that brought us synthetic perfumery, with fragrances like Houbigant’s Fougère Royale (1882) and Guerlain’s Jicky (1889). But they were also times of increasing pessimism: in French literature, a group of self-proclaimed Decadents turned their backs on the current known as Naturalism. With their harsh depictions of a civilization in decline, they reacted against the contemporary bourgeois ideal of eternal progress. Joris-Karl Huysmans, the most prominent member of the Decadent movement, uncovers the maladies of the late nineteenth century in his novel Against Nature (1884): it captures the essence of a vibrant, troubled, and altogether confusing period in history.

Against Nature is often described as an anti-novel with an anti-hero. The main character, Des Esseintes, is a neurotic, ailing, eccentric, bored, thirty-year-old aristocrat with a keen sense for aesthetics. After a young adult life marked by exuberance on all fronts, he feels the urge to move away from the ‘vulgarities’ of the Parisian upperclass. He finds his retreat in a quiet countryside mansion, where he spends much of his time and money on interior decoration; not the least interested in the idyllic green grass and blue skies of Fontenay, he creates a dark, gloomy ambiance to set his mind at ease…

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