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Joris-Karl Huysmans

Joris-Karl Huysmans’s Followers (644)

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Joris-Karl Huysmans


Born
in Paris, France
February 05, 1848

Died
May 12, 1907

Genre


Charles Marie Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. AKA: J.-K. 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 encyclopedic documentation, ranging from the catalogue of decadent Latin authors in À rebours to the discussion of the symbiology 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 Chu
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Average rating: 3.83 · 21,456 ratings · 1,912 reviews · 284 distinct worksSimilar authors
Against Nature

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3.80 avg rating — 14,131 ratings — published 1884 — 816 editions
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Là-Bas

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3.96 avg rating — 4,364 ratings — published 1891 — 287 editions
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Downstream

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3.91 avg rating — 330 ratings — published 1882 — 60 editions
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En Route

3.98 avg rating — 320 ratings — published 1895 — 171 editions
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The Cathedral

3.68 avg rating — 299 ratings — published 1898 — 346 editions
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Becalmed

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3.86 avg rating — 251 ratings — published 1887 — 54 editions
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With the Flow

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3.92 avg rating — 155 ratings — published 2003 — 5 editions
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Marthe: The Story of a Whore

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3.41 avg rating — 159 ratings — published 1876 — 49 editions
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A Dilemma

3.77 avg rating — 127 ratings — published 1887 — 21 editions
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Parisian Sketches

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3.81 avg rating — 101 ratings — published 1880 — 33 editions
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More books by Joris-Karl Huysmans…
Là-Bas En Route The Cathedral The Oblate of St. Benedict
(4 books)
by
3.95 avg rating — 5,036 ratings

Quotes by Joris-Karl Huysmans  (?)
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“Immersed in solitude, he would dream or read far into the night. By protracted contemplation of the same thoughts, his mind grew sharp, his vague, undeveloped ideas took on form.”
Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature

“His contempt for humanity grew fiercer, and at last he came to realize that the world is made up mostly of fools and scoundrels. It became perfectly clear to him that he could entertain no hope of finding in someone else the same aspirations and antipathies; no hope of linking up with a mind which, like his own, took pleasure in a life of studious decrepitude; no hope of associating an intelligence as sharp and wayward as his own with any author or scholar.”
Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature

“Already, he was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity.”
Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature

Polls

December 2022 Old School Classics Poll

 
  71 votes, 37.0%

 
  48 votes, 25.0%

The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, 1220, 224 pp
 
  23 votes, 12.0%

 
  20 votes, 10.4%

 
  11 votes, 5.7%

McTeague by Frank Norris, 1899, 368 pp
 
  10 votes, 5.2%

 
  9 votes, 4.7%

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