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Joris-Karl Huysmans

French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. He is most famous for the novel À rebours (Against Nature). His style is remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, wide-ranging vocabulary, wealth of detailed and sensuous description, and biting, satirical wit. The novels are also noteworthy for their encyclopaedic documentation, ranging from the catalogue of decadent Latin authors in À rebours to the discussion of the symbology of Christian architecture in La cathédrale. Huysmans' work expresses a disgust with modern life and a deep pessimism, which led the author first to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer then to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
years of life: 5 February 1848 12 May 1907

Quotes

dawghas quoted11 days ago
Reading or dreaming, he would soak himself in solitude until nightfall; by dint of always mulling over the same thoughts his mind became more concentrated and his as yet indeterminate ideas matured. After every holiday he went back to his teachers more thoughtful and more stubborn; these changes did not escape them; perspicacious and astute, trained by their calling to probe the deepest levels of the soul, they were not taken in by this lively but intractable intelligence
dawghas quoted11 days ago
The young man was filled with inexpressible pity for those mummies buried in their elaborately panelled Pompadour-style hypogea, for those morose sluggards who lived with their gaze permanently fixed on a nebulous Canaan, an imaginary Palestine.
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