Editing Joris-Karl Huysmans (section)

===Writing career===
He used the name Joris-Karl Huysmans when he published his writing, as a way of honoring his father's ancestry. His first major publication was a collection of prose poems, ''Le drageoir aux épices'' (1874), which were strongly influenced by [[Baudelaire]]. They attracted little attention but revealed flashes of the author's distinctive style.

Huysmans followed it with the novel, ''[[Marthe (novel)|Marthe, Histoire d'une fille]]'' (1876). The story of a young prostitute, it was closer to [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]] and brought him to the attention of [[Émile Zola]]. His next works were similar: sombre, realistic and filled with detailed evocations of Paris, a city Huysmans knew intimately. ''[[Les Sœurs Vatard]]'' (1879), dedicated to Zola, deals with the lives of women in a bookbindery. ''[[En ménage]]'' (1881) is an account of a writer's failed marriage. The climax of his early work is the novella ''[[À vau-l'eau]]'' (1882) (translated as ''With the Flow'', ''Downstream'', and ''Drifting''), the story of a downtrodden clerk, Monsieur Folantin, and his quest for a decent meal.

[[Image:Huysmans hommes aujourdhui.jpg|thumb|left|A caricature showing Huysmans as a somewhat eccentric sort of literary [[dandy]], by [[Coll-Toc]], 1885]]

Huysmans's 1884 novel {{lang|fr|[[À rebours]]}} (''Against the Grain'' or ''Against Nature'' or ''Wrong Way'') became his most famous, or notorious. It featured the character of an [[Aesthetics|aesthete]], des Esseintes, and decisively broke from Naturalism. It was seen as an example of "[[decadent movement|decadent]]" literature. The description of des Esseintes's "[[homosexuality|alluring liaison]]" with a "cherry-lipped youth" was believed to have influenced other writers of the decadent movement, including [[Oscar Wilde]].<ref name="glbtq">{{cite web |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/huysmans_jk.html |title=Huysmans, Joris-Karl (1848–1907) |year=2002 |last=McClanahan |first=Clarence |access-date=2007-08-11}}</ref>

Huysmans began to drift away from the Naturalists and found new friends among the [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]] and Catholic writers whose work he had praised in ''À rebours.'' They included [[Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly]], [[Villiers de L'Isle Adam]], and [[Léon Bloy]]. [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] was so pleased with the publicity his verse had received from the novel that he dedicated one of his most famous poems, "Prose pour des Esseintes", to its hero. Barbey d'Aurevilly told Huysmans that after writing ''À rebours,'' he would have to choose between "the muzzle of a pistol and the foot of the Cross."<ref name="Barbey">Aurevilly, Jules Barbey d' (1884). ''Le Constitutionnel'', "Á rebours", 28 July 1884.</ref> Huysmans, who had received a secular education and abandoned his Catholic religion in childhood, returned to the Catholic Church eight years later.<ref name="Baldick">Baldick, Robert (1959). Introduction to ''Against Nature'', his translation of Huysmans's ''Á rebours''. Harmondsworth: Penguin, p. 12.</ref>

Huysmans's next book after ''Á rebours'' was the novella ''Un dilemme'', which tells "the story of a poor working-class woman who gives birth out of wedlock. When her bourgeois lover, the father of the baby, dies, his heartless family members refuse to help, leaving the mother and her child destitute."<ref>Antosh, Ruth (2024). ''J.-K. Huysmans'', p. 50.</ref> Huysmans's next novel, ''[[En rade]]'', an unromantic account of a summer spent in the country, did not sell as well as its predecessor. "The novel's originality lies in its abrupt juxtaposition of real life and dreams."<ref>Antosh, Ruth (2024). ''J.-K. Huysmans'', p. 56.</ref>

His ''[[Là-bas (novel)|Là-bas]]'' (1891) attracted considerable attention for its portrayal of [[Satanism]] in France in the late 1880s.<ref>Rudwin, Maxmilian J. (1920). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101064304957;view=1up;seq=262 "The Satanism of Huysmans,"] ''The Open Court,'' Vol. XXXIV, pp. 240–251.</ref><ref>Thurstan, Frederic (1928). "Huysmans' Excursion into Occultism," ''Occult Review'', Vol. XLVIII, pp. 227–236.</ref> He introduced the character Durtal, a thinly disguised self-portrait, who is writing a biography of the notorious 15th-century child-murderer and torturer [[Gilles de Rais]].<ref>Antosh, Ruth (2024). ''J.-K. Huysmans'', pp. 65-66.</ref> The later Durtal novels, ''[[En route (novel)|En route]]'' (1895), ''[[The Cathedral (Huysmans novel)|La cathédrale]]'' (1898) and ''[[L'oblat]]'' (1903), explore Durtal/Huysmans's conversion to [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]].<ref>Hanighan, F. C. (1931). "Huysmans Conversion," ''The Open Court,'' Vol. XLV, pp. 474–481.</ref> ''En route'' depicts Durtal's spiritual struggle during his stay at a [[Trappists|Trappist]] monastery. In ''[[The Cathedral (Huysmans novel)|La cathédrale]]'' (1898), the protagonist is at [[Chartres]], intensely studying the cathedral and its symbolism. The commercial success of this book enabled Huysmans to retire from the civil service and live on his royalties.  In ''L'Oblat'', Durtal becomes a [[Benedictine]] [[oblate (religion)|oblate]]. He finally learns to accept the world's suffering.

Huysmans was a founding member of the [[Académie Goncourt]].

Huysmans's work was known for his idiosyncratic use of the [[French language]], extensive vocabulary, detailed and sensuous descriptions, and biting, satirical wit. It also displays an encyclopaedic erudition, ranging from the catalogue of decadent [[Latin]] authors in ''À rebours'' to the discussion of the iconography of Christian architecture in ''[[The Cathedral (Huysmans novel)|La cathédrale]]''. Huysmans expresses a disgust with modern life and a deep pessimism. This had led him first to the philosophy of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]. Later he returned to the Catholic Church, as he described in his Durtal novels.