Espace et temps entre les mains d'un esthète décadent : À rebours de J.-K. Huysmans

J.-K. Huysmans' decadent hero feels endangered in the world that surrounds him, is obsessed by time that flows by and causes inevitable physical degradation. he however struggles against time and space, turning his life into work of art. Guided by his imagination he changes the reality around him and runs away from time hiding in a world of his own, created in defense from the mundane. For some Against the Grain is only a novel that consists of loosely connected episodes, for others it is a perfect example of playing with time and space directed by a decadent aesthete. For the needs of his hero, huysmans prepared a perfect arena: a reigned hermitage in Fontenay-aux-Roses, its seclusion making it possible for the hero to carry out all his experiments planned. The novel is an account of events happening in internal space: aesthetic sensations, dreams, recollections, reminiscence, a demiurge stricken with neurosis.