Recommended: J.-K. Huysmans

from Doris Kareva

I would like to draw attention to a book by J.-K. Huysmans, À Rebours (1884), that once had tremendous impact in decadent circles and nowadays is nearly forgotten. I happened to read it in early age and was thrilled to discover something in total opposition with Soviet values around.

In this book practically nothing happens. It is rather a catalogue of the tastes and inner life of Des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive aesthete and antihero. It is this "poisonous book" to which Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray refers and whose protagonist Dorian imitates. Huysmans deals with exoticism, eroticism and spirituality in a rich, intoxicating style, obsessed with bizarre sensations. It is a haunting and dangerous book; be careful.

Doris Kareva
Doris Kareva, a 2006 participant in the UI's International Writing Program, has published thirteen poetry collections, most recently Shape of Time (2005). Kareva has edited anthologies of Estonian poetry, and translated the work of Auden, Beckett, Dickinson, and Shakespeare. She currently serves as Secretary General of the Estonian National Commission for UNESCO.

December 07, 2006
Fiction | International Writing Program | Recommended Reading

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