Huysmans, Joris-Karl

Joris Karl Huysmans (1848 - 1907), a French novelist, was born in Paris to a French mother and a Dutch father. He joined the Ministry of the Interior as a civil servant at the age of 20. Huysmans also fought the Franco - Prussian war and was a supporter of the French Decadent Movement. He is best - known for his novel, A Rebours (1884), which features a single character, the aesthete des Esseintes, who wants to flee Paris and the vulgarity of modern life. His other works include Là - Bas (1891), and Certains (1889).

French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans started his literary career with prose poems. His work is cited as extra-ordinarily expressive and profuse. His earlier works fall in the category of Naturalism but the later ones are symbols of the literary Decadence.