En Route

by Joris-Karl Huysmans

Overview

A novel, translated by W. Fleming, and introduced by David Blow. The second in Huysmans' series of four autobiographical novels (the others being La-Bas, La Cathedrale, and The Oblate of St. Benedict), En Route tells of the religious dissolution and spiritual reedification of Durtal, the decadent anti-hero par excellence. Huysmans' decadence, Blow writes in his introduction, "was a moral predicament, an artistic posture, and the natural outcome of his loss of religious faith." The novel narrates Durtal's progression from a crisis of faith, through Trappism, to a new inspiration in the art, architecture, and music of Rome.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788822842268
Publisher:	Joris-Karl Huysmans
Publication date:	09/11/2016
Sold by:	StreetLib SRL
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB
Language:	French

About the Author

Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (1848 - 1907 in Paris) was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. He is most famous for the novel À rebours (1884, published in English as Against the Grain or Against Nature). He supported himself by a 30-year career in the French civil service. Huysmans' work is considered remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, large vocabulary, descriptions, satirical wit and far-ranging erudition. First considered part of Naturalism, he became associated with the decadent movement with his publication of À rebours. His work expressed his deep pessimism, which had led him to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. In later years, his novels reflected his study of Catholicism, religious conversion and becoming an oblate. He discussed the iconography of Christian architecture at length in La cathédrale (1898), set at Chartres and with its cathedral as the focus of the book.