Published in Paris in 1884, Joris-Karl Huysman’s Against Nature (original title, À Rebours) was immediately received as a key work of fin-de-siècle “Decadent” literature. The novel concentrates almost entirely on the reclusive life of its protagonist, the Duc Jean des Es- seintes. The last member of what was once a powerful, aristocratic family, des Esseintes elects to retreat from his luxurious Parisian existence to lead a life devoted entirely to sensual pleasure in an isolated country house on the outskirts of the city, until he is forced to return to the capital through ill-health.
In this new translation by Theo Cuffe, the narrative is brought artistically to life with illustrations by the renowned British artist William Tillyer (1938). Born in Middlesbrough, Tillyer has been fascinated by Huysmans’ novel since his student days at the Slade in the late 1950s. In 1974, he began work on a suite of limited edition prints inspired by passages from the book. From representations of the interiors at des Esseintes’s country house, Fontenay aux Roses, to surreally abstracted flowers ‘that look like fakes’, the artist illustrates the text through the use of various intaglio printing methods and techniques. The resulting volume constitutes as much a reappraisal of Huysmans’ text as it does a unique artistic response to the self-imposed solitude of its eccentric antihero.
In this new translation by Theo Cuffe, the narrative is brought artistically to life with illustrations by the renowned British artist William Tillyer (1938). Born in Middlesbrough, Tillyer has been fascinated by Huysmans’ novel since his student days at the Slade in the late 1950s. In 1974, he began work on a suite of limited edition prints inspired by passages from the book. From representations of the interiors at des Esseintes’s country house, Fontenay aux Roses, to surreally abstracted flowers ‘that look like fakes’, the artist illustrates the text through the use of various intaglio printing methods and techniques. The resulting volume constitutes as much a reappraisal of Huysmans’ text as it does a unique artistic response to the self-imposed solitude of its eccentric antihero.