À rebours

>>8887002
Boring and too flowery

>>8887002
French are fags

>>8887002
>french """literature"""

>>8887002
fantastic book, the pinnacle of 'decadent' literature

>>8887514
>too flowery
that's the point

>>8887528
is there anything made by french that isn't "decadent"? has french people ever wrote something virtuous?

>>8887532
>>8886842

>>8887532
decadent refers to a specific era, of fin de siècle Europe (specifically Paris), where the anxieties of the new modern age were sublimated into a sort of skeptical romanticism

Goya’s savage verve, his harsh, brutal genius, captivated Des Esseintes. On the other hand, the universal admiration his works had won rather put him off, and for years he had refrained from framing them, for fear that if he hung them up, the first idiot who saw them might feel obliged to dishonour them with a few inanities and go into stereotyped ecstasies over them.

He felt the same about his Rembrandts, which he examined now and then on the quiet; and it is of course true that, just as the loveliest melody in the world becomes unbearably vulgar once the public start humming it and the barrel-organs playing it, so the work of art that appeals to charlatans, endears itself to fools, and is not content to arouse the enthusiasm of a few connoisseurs, is thereby polluted in the eyes of the initiate and becomes commonplace, almost repulsive.

This sort of promiscuous admiration was in fact one of the most painful thorns in his flesh, for unaccountable vogues had utterly spoilt certain books and pictures for him that he had once held dear; confronted with the approbation of the mob, healways ended up by discovering some hitherto imperceptible blemish, and promptly rejected them, at the same time wondering whether his flair was not deserting him, his taste getting blunted.

>>8887002
It bored me to death tbfh

I get the point, but I felt it was carried to long

>>8887002
gay shit

Which is better: A Rebours, or Oblomov?

>>8887002
I'm reading it right now, about 3chapters in. Long lists of Latin poets and interior decoration suggestions. From the reviews I was hoping some vanilla de sade meets celine but boy was I wrong.

thats the western No Longer Human rite?

Found it very inspiring, in that there were not any real representations of other characters. Also made me add a bunch of stuff to my "to read"-list.
Was also quite interesting to get a view into what Huysmans considered fitting of a character such as Des Esseintes, at the time of the novel, in various subjects, including odours, colours, plants and literature, although it could be too much at times, as I assume was the point of >>8887611

>>8888258
No. Absolutely not.

>>8888155
They are very different. Oblomov is a critique of character, A Rabours a critique of society.

File: 1472311881856.jpg (33KB, 484x356px) Image search: [Google]

33KB, 484x356px

>>8887002
Holy shit is the first part drawn out.
>I am smart but in a different way!
>Page after page of what kind of shit he buys and how he keeps himself from being bothered
Didn't like it that much to be honest.

>>8887514
spot the pleb.
>not understading decadentism

I like the part where he gets sick and starts putting food up his butt.

>>8887002
>Discuss.
Dat hat fits on there perfect.

It made a huge impression on me when I was younger mostly because it wasn't like other novels I had read. For about a month, I was reading a lot of Oscar Wilde so that was how I found out about Huysmans.