Shows / The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Escape the grey tyranny of ordinary life.
The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library presents the strange, sumptuous and unsettling works of one of the fin de siècle’s most singular writers, read in full. Enter a world of jeweled tortoises and monstrous flowers, infernal rites and Gothic cathedrals; of exquisite sensations, spiritual nausea, black humour and the desperate search for something beyond the vulgarity of modern existence.
For aesthetes, mystics, decadents, and anyone who has ever suspected…
Episodes
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Là-bas Chapter II
In which Durtal reflects with a touch of weary scepticism on the literary circles he has abandoned, finding their surface glitter and petty vanities unable to…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Là-bas Chapter I
In which two friends engage in a spirited dissection of naturalism's limitations and virtues, revealing a restless quest for a literary style that binds the…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 16
In which Des Esseintes, confined by the stern dictates of his physicians to abandon his solitary haven, contemplates with poignant dismay the decay of…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 15
In which Des Esseintes endures the ravages of a mysterious and tormenting illness that plunges him into fevered hallucinations and a profound introspection…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 14 Part 2
In which Des Esseintes contemplates the failings of contemporary literature, finding in Baudelaire and Poe a rare fusion of style and substance that reflects…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 14 Part 1
In which Des Esseintes grapples with his physical frailty and seeks solace in the measured order of his literary refuge, finding comfort in the precise and…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 13
In which the oppressive heat suffocates Des Esseintes, tormenting his frail body and unsettling his senses as he wrestles with a profound malady and the…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 12 Part 2
In which Des Esseintes contemplates the bitter disputes and diverse temperaments among Catholic writers, ranging from the combative and vulgar Veuillot to the…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 12 Part 1
In which Des Esseintes, returning to his cherished sanctuary, immerses himself in the tactile and aesthetic pleasures of his uniquely curated library…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 11
In which Des Esseintes, overcome by malaise and a restless longing for the bustle of human life, abruptly abandons his provincial solitude and attempts to…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 10
In which Des Esseintes experiences a fleeting reprieve from his affliction only to be beset by phantom scents that lead him into an intricate exploration of…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 9
In which a restless soul is tormented by feverish wakefulness and oppressive dreams, seeking solace among treasured artworks and memories of past pleasures…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 8
In which the refined and fastidious Des Esseintes cultivates an extraordinary collection of exotic and grotesque plants, marvels at their strange forms and…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 7
In which Des Esseintes finds himself besieged by a flood of melancholy memories and unsettling spiritual doubts, as his austere solitude and vivid…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 6
In which Des Esseintes, repelled by the vulgarities of modern existence, surrounds himself with the enigmatic and exotic art of Gustave Moreau and other…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 5
In which Des Esseintes receives the long-anticipated delivery of a tortoise, transformed into a dazzling objet d’art encrusted with carefully chosen rare…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 4
In which Des Esseintes, immersed in the twilight of classical letters, surveys the vast landscape of Latin literature from the Decadent period to the dawn of…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 3
In which Des Esseintes meticulously orchestrates a hermetically sealed domestic order, surrounding himself with silent servants and contrived environments that…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 2
In which Des Esseintes, after a lengthy sojourn in Paris, immerses himself in the meticulous transformation of his Fontenay home, carefully orchestrating the…
- The Joris-Karl Huysmans Library
Against The Grain, or Against Nature Chapter 1
In which a solitary and fastidious young nobleman traces the decline of his ancient family and grows increasingly alienated from the vapid society around him…