Joris-Karl Huysmans

Biography

Joris-Karl Huysmans, born Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans, was the only son of a French mother and a Dutch father. At 20 he began a long career in the Ministry of the Interior, writing many of his novels on official time. His early work, influenced by contemporary naturalist novelists. His major novels epitomize successive phases of the aesthetic, spiritual, and intellectual life of late 19th-century France. Huysmans' work is considered remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, large vocabulary, descriptions, satirical wit and far-ranging erudition. First considered part of Naturalism, he became associated with the decadent movement with his publication of "À rebours" (1884). His work expressed his deep pessimism, which had led him to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer.