Latest / The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library / Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 1

Transcript

Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 1 · The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: CHAPTER I. OF AGAINST THE GRAIN chapter i the floressa
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: des esseintes to judge by the various portraits preserved in
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the chateau de lourdes had originally been a family of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: stalwart troopers and stern cavalrymen the closely arrayed side by
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: side in the old frames which their broad shoulders filled
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: they startled one with the fixed gaze of their eyes
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: their fierce moustaches and the chests whose deep curves filled
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the enormous shells of their cuirasses these were the ancestors
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: there were no portraits of their descendants and a wide
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: breach existed in the series of the faces of this
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: race only one painting served as a link to connect
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the past and present a crafty, mysterious head with haggard
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and gaunt features, cheekbones punctuated with a comma of paint,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the hair overspread with pearls, a painted neck rising stiffly
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: from the fluted ruff. In this representation of one of
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the most intimate friends of the Duc d'Epernon and the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Marquis d'Or, the ravages of a sluggish and impoverished constitution
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: were already noticeable it was obvious that the decadence of
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: this family had followed an unvarying course the effemination of
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the males had continued with quickened tempo as if to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: conclude the work of long years the des esseintes had
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: intermarried for two centuries using up in such consanguineous unions
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: such strength as remained. There was only one living scion
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of this family, which had once been so numerous that
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: it had occupied all the territories of the Ile-de-France and Labrie.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: The Duc Jean was a slender, nervous young man of thirty,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: with hollow cheeks, cold steel-blue eyes, a straight thin nose
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and delicate hands. By a singular atavistic reversion, the last
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: descendant resembled the old grandsire, from whom he had inherited
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the pointed remarkably fair beard and an ambiguous expression, at
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: once weary and cunning. His childhood had been an unhappy one.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Menaced with scrofula and afflicted with relentless fevers, he yet
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: succeeded in crossing the breakers of adolescence, thanks to fresh
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: air and careful attention. He grew stronger, overcame the languors
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: of chlorosis, and reached his full development. His mother, a tall, pale,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: taciturn woman, died of anaemia. and his father of some
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: uncertain malady. Desessant was then seventeen years of age. He
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: retained but a vague memory of his parents, and felt
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: neither affection nor gratitude for them. He hardly knew his father,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: who usually resided in Paris. He recalled his mother as
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: she lay motionless in a dim room of the Chateau
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: de Lourdes. The husband and wife would meet on rare occasions,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: and he remembered those lifeless interviews when his parents sat
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: face to face in front of a round table, faintly
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: lit by a lamp with a wide, low-hanging shade. For
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the Duchesse could not endure light or sound without being
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: seized with a fit of nervousness. a few halting words
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: would be exchanged between them in the gloom and then
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the indifferent duke would depart to meet the first train
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: back to paris jean's life at the jesuit school where
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: he was sent to study was more pleasant at first
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the fathers pampered the lad whose intelligence astonished them but
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: despite their efforts they could not induce him to concentrate
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: on studies requiring discipline. He nibbled at various books, and
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: was precociously brilliant in Latin. On the contrary, he was
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: absolutely incapable of construing two Greek words, showed no aptitude
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: for living languages, and promptly proved himself a dunce when
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: obliged to master the elements of the sciences his family
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: gave him little heed sometimes his father visited him at
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: school how are you be good study hard and he
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: was gone the lad passed the summer vacations at the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: chteau de lourdes but his presence could not seduce his
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: mother from her reveries. She scarcely noticed him. When she did,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: her gaze would rest on him for a moment with
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: a sad smile. And that was all. The moment after,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: she would again become absorbed in the artificial night with
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: which the heavily curtained windows enshrouded the room. The servants
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: were old and dull. Left to himself, the boy delved
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: into books on rainy days, and roamed about the countryside
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: on pleasant afternoons. It was his supreme delight to wander
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: down the little valley to Jitigny, a village planted at
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the foot of the hills, a tiny heap of cottages,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: capped with thatch, strewn with tufts of sengreen and clumps
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: of moss. In the open fields, under the shadow of
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: high ricks, he would lie listening to the hollow splashing
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: of the mills, and inhaling the fresh breeze from Vosy.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Sometimes he went as far as the peat-bogs, to the
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: green and black hamlet of Longueville, or climbed windswept hillsides
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: affording magnificent views. There, below to one side, as far
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: as the eye could reach lay the seine valley blending
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: in the distance with the blue sky high up near
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the horizon on the other side rose the churches and
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: tower of provence which seemed to tremble in the golden
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: dust of the air immersed in solitude he would dream
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: or read far into the night By protracted contemplation of
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: the same thoughts, his mind grew sharp. His vague, undeveloped
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: ideas took on form. After each vacation, Jean returned to
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: his masters more reflective and headstrong. These changes did not
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: escape them. Subtle and observant, accustomed by their profession to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: plumb souls to their depths, they were fully aware of
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: his unresponsiveness to their teachings. They knew that this student
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: would never contribute to the glory of their order, and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: as his family was rich and apparently careless of his future,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: they soon renounced the idea of having him take up
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: any of the professions their school offered. Although he willingly
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: discussed with them those theological doctrines which intrigued his fancy
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: by their subtleties and hair-splittings, they did not even think
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: of training him for the religious orders, since, in spite
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: of their efforts, his faith remained languid. As a last resort,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: through prudence and fear of the harm he might effect,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: they permitted him to pursue whatever studies pleased him, and
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: to neglect the others, being loath to antagonize this bold
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: and independent spirit by the quibblings of the lay school assistants.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Thus he lived in perfect contentment, scarcely feeling the parental
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: yoke of the priests. He continued his Latin and French
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: studies when the whim seized him and although theology did
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: not figure in his schedule he finished his apprenticeship in
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: this science begun at the chateau de lour in the
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: library bequeathed by his grand-uncle dom the old prior of
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the regular canons of Saint-Ruf. But soon the time came
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: when he must quit the Jesuit institution. He attained his
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: majority and became master of his fortune. The comte de Montchevrel,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: his cousin and guardian, placed in his hands the title
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: to his wealth. There was no intimacy between them, for
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: there was no possible point of contact between these two men,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the one young, the other old. Impelled by curiosity, idleness,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: or politeness, Lysissaint sometimes visited the Montchevrel family, and spent
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: some dull evenings in their Rue de la Chaise mansion,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: where the ladies, old as antiquity itself, would gossip of
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: quarterings of the noble arms, heraldic moons, and anachronistic ceremonies.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: The men, gathered around whist-tables, proved even more shallow and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: insignificant than the dowagers. These descendants of ancient, courageous knights,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: these last branches of feudal races, appeared to Desicent as catarrhal,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: crazy old men repeating inanities and time-worn phrases a fleur-de-lis
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: seemed the sole imprint on the soft pap of their
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: brains the youth felt an unutterable pity for these mummies
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: buried in their elaborate hypogeums of wainscoting and grotto work
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: for these tedious triflers whose eyes were forever turned towards
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a hazy Canaan, an imaginary Palestine. After a few visits
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: with such relatives, he resolved never again to set foot
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: in their homes, regardless of invitations or reproaches. Then he
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: began to seek out the young men of his own
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: age and set. One group educated like himself in religious institutions,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: preserved the special marks of this training. They attended religious services,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: received the sacrament on Easter, frequented the Catholic circles, and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: concealed as criminal their amorous escapades. For the most part
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: they were unintelligent, acquiescent fops, stupid bores, who had tried
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the patience of their professors, yet these professors were pleased
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: to have bestowed such docile, pious creatures upon society. The
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: other group, educated in the state colleges or in the lycée,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: were less hypocritical and much more courageous, but they were
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: neither more interesting nor less bigoted. Gay young men Dazzled
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: by operettas and races, they played Lansquenet and Baccarat, staked
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: large fortunes on horses and cards, and cultivated all the
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: pleasures enchanting to brainless fools. After a year's experience, Desessant
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: felt an overpowering weariness of this company, whose debaucheries seemed
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: to him so unrefined. facile and indiscriminate without any ardent
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: reactions or excitement of nerves and blood he gradually forsook
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: them to make the acquaintance of literary men in whom
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: he thought he might find more interest and feel more
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: at ease this too proved disappointing he was revolted by
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: their rancorous and petty judgments their conversation as obvious as
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: a church door their dreary discussions in which they judged
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the value of a book by the number of editions
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: it had passed and by the profits acquired at the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: same time he noticed that the freethinkers the doctrinaires of
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the bourgeoisie people who claimed every liberty that they might
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: stifle the opinions of others were greedy and shameless puritans
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: whom in education he esteemed inferior to the corner shoemaker
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: his contempt for humanity deepened he reached the conclusion that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the world for the most part was composed of scoundrels
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: and imbeciles certainly he could not hope to discover in
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: others aspirations and aversions similar to his own could not
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: expect companionship with an intelligence exulting in a studious decrepitude
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: nor anticipate meeting a mind as keen as his among
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the writers and scholars irritated ill at ease and offended
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: by the poverty of ideas given and received he became
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: like those people described by nicole those who are always
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: melancholy he would fly into a rage when he read
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the patriotic and social balderdash retailed daily in the newspapers
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: and would exaggerate the significance of the plaudits which a
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: sovereign public always reserved for works deficient in ideas and
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: style Already he was dreaming of a refined solitude, a
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: comfortable desert, a motionless ark, in which to seek refuge
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: from the unending deluge of human stupidity. A single passion, woman,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: might have curbed his contempt, but that too had palled
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: on him. he had taken to carnal repasts with the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: eagerness of a crotchety man affected with a depraved appetite
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: and given to sudden hungers whose taste is quickly dulled
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: and surfeited associating with country squires he had taken part
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: in their lavish suppers where at dessert tipsy women would
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: unfasten their clothing and strike their heads against the tables
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: He had haunted the green rooms, loved actresses and singers,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: endured in addition to the natural stupidity he had come
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: to expect of women, the maddening vanity of female strolling players. Finally,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: satiated and weary of this monotonous extravagance and the sameness
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: of their caresses, he had plunged into the foul depths.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: hoping by the contrast of squalid misery to revive his
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: desires and stimulate his deadened senses. Whatever he attempted proved vain.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: An unconquerable ennui oppressed him. Yet he persisted in his
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: excesses and returned to the perilous embraces of accomplished mistresses.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: But his health failed His nervous system collapsed. The back
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: of his neck grew sensitive. His hand, still firm when
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: it seized a heavy object, trembled when it held a
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: tiny glass. The physicians whom he consulted frightened him. It
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: was high time to check his excesses and renounce those
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: pursuits which were dissipating his reserve of strength. For a
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: while he was at peace. but his brain soon became overexcited.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Like those young girls who, in the grip of puberty,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: crave coarse and vile foods, he dreamed of and practised
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: perverse loves and pleasures. This was the end. As though
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: satisfied with having exhausted everything, as though completely surrendering to fatigue,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: his senses fell into a lethargy, and impotence threatened him.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: He recovered, but he was lonely, tired, sobered, imploring an
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: end to his life, which the cowardice of his flesh
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: prevented him from conquering. Once more he was toying with
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the idea of becoming a recluse, of living in some
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: hushed retreat where the turmoil of life would be muffled,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: as in those streets covered with straw to prevent any
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: sound from reaching invalids. It was time to make up
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: his mind. The condition of his finances terrified him. He
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: had spent, in acts of folly and in drinking bouts,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: the greater part of his patrimony, and the remainder, invested
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: in land, produced a ridiculously small income. He decided to
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: sell the Chateau de Lourdes, which he no longer visited,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: and where he left no memory or regret behind. He
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: liquidated his other holdings, bought government bonds, and in this
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: way drew an annual interest of fifty thousand francs. In addition,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: he reserved a sum of money which he meant to
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: use in buying and furnishing the house, where he proposed
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: to enjoy a perfect repose. exploring the suburbs of the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: capital he found a place for sale at the top
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: of the fontenay aux rose in a secluded section near
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the fort far from any neighbours his dream was realised
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: in this country place so little violated by parisians he
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: could be certain of seclusion the difficulty of reaching the
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: place to an unreliable railroad passing by at the end
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: of the town, and to the little street-cars which came
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and went at irregular intervals, reassured him. He could picture
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: himself alone on the bluff, sufficiently far away to prevent
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: the Parisian throngs from reaching him, and yet near enough
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to the capital to confirm him in his solitude. And
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: he felt that in not entirely closing the way there
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: was a chance that he would not be assailed by
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a wish to return to society seeing that it is
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: only the impossible the unachievable that arouses desire he put
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: masons to work on the house he had acquired then
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: one day informing no one of his plans he quickly
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: disposed of his old furniture, dismissed his servants, and left,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: without giving the concierge any address.