Joris-Karl Huysmans

Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (Known as "J.-K. Huysmans")

Decadent and Catholic Novelist, Author of À rebours (The Bible of the Decadence) and En route

Born Feb 05, 1848

Paris, France

Passed Away May 12, 1907 Paris, France

Lifespan 59 years old

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Notice / Correction

"Nature has had her day; by the disgusting uniformity of her skies and landscapes, she has exhausted the patience of the refined mind."

Archival Overview

French novelist of Dutch heritage who broke with Émile Zola's naturalism to publish À rebours (Against Nature, 1884), hailed as 'the breviary of the Decadence', before undergoing a famous conversion to Catholic mysticism in En route and La Cathédrale.

Biographical Record

Working as a quiet civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior for thirty-two years, Huysmans debuted in Zola's naturalist circle with Les Soirées de Médan. In 1884, he shattered literary norms with À rebours, following the neurotic aristocrat Jean des Esseintes into an isolated artificial paradise of perfumes, rare gems, and gilded tortoises.

The book directly inspired Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. In Là-bas (1891), he investigated Satanism and Gilles de Rais, which led directly to his conversion to Catholic mysticism at the Trappist Abbey of Igny, chronicled in En route (1895) and his architectural study La Cathédrale (1898).

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial

Montparnasse Cemetery (Division 30)
Paris, France

                         GPS: 48.8417, 2.3278                    

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