Against Nature, by Huysmans, is a novel written in a decadent aesthetic and is inspired by many other decadent authors, such as Baudelaire. Huysmans develops a character named Des Esseintes who has the characteristics of a nervous loner who reflects on living alone in his artifact house. Against Nature is written with a beautifully descriptive setting. The beginning of the book expresses its environment from top to bottom; for example, Huysmans takes the reader on a pleasurable sensory journey through the house of Des Esseintes. The setting involves all of his decorating schemes and begins to inform the reader of his vast library of his most prized literature; Baudelaire, Edgar Allen Poe, Dickens, Petronius and many more. Huysmans finally explains Des Esseintes’ extensive knowledge of literature, art, and business interests such as perfume making. His thoughts are always in conflict; for example, he contemplates the importance of Christianity against paganism. Throughout the book, he is torn between his knowledge of many conflicting ideas, which mainly leads to his upbringing with the Jesuit priests. Although he suffers from a nervous disease, he escapes his illness by reading literature and conversing with his imagination instead of real people.

Des Esseintes is a very melancholy type of man, but with little mental desire to keep his soul alive during his illness. An example of a short-lived wish is his longing for a turtle; Due to his eccentric imagination, he has the turtle’s shell covered with his favorable gemstones and loves the contrast of the animal against his golden ground. Of course, the turtle dies from a heavy shell and lack of nutrition, but he doesn’t show any emotion towards death because the turtle has already aged to his liking. Like most decadent writers, the character Des Esseintes is highly narcissistic.

Her house is covered in expensive literature, fake flowers, and art. Des Esseintes particularly prefers Gustave Moreau’s religious paintings and imagines the goddess Salome in motion with the other figures in the painting. Salome seems to intimidate him, and he always reflects more towards art and literature that threaten him. Huysmans also mentions Des Esseintes’s artwork titled Religious Persecutions: “These images, replete with abominable imaginations, reeking of burnt flesh, oozing blood, filled with screams of horror and curses, make your skin crawl, keeping you rooted to the spot.” , unable to breathe, when he entered that red room.(Huysman, JK, 1884)

As mentioned before, Des Esseintes has many short-lived wishes that he quickly fulfills; then he begins his conquest of boredom with something new. During his boring lifestyle, he conjures up old memories of Paris; one is about a boy he tries to turn into murder. While living among society in Paris, he meets a boy, Auguste, whom he calls “little Judas.” He presents Auguste with a night of drinking and sex in a brothel, hoping to escalate the boys’ sexual frustration to the point of murder. Des Esseintes pores over the newspaper for months, expecting to see the boy murder some unnecessary people on the streets, and is disappointed that his devious plan didn’t work.

Another memory is that of his former lover; Urania, a ventriloquist who fulfills her sexual desires to commit adultery, in which she uses her multiple voices as an illusory husband ready to break down the door. While experimenting with aromatics and perfume making, he envisions a lover who, “…she would go into ecstasy over certain aromatics…a nervous woman who liked to have her nipples drenched in perfume.” (Huysmans, JK, 1884) during Des Esseintes’s experiment with aromatics, she faints, which begins the reality and intensity of his nervous illness.

While continuing in a dreamlike state, possibly caused by the early stages of death, he takes an imaginary trip to London. The trip is full of eating, talking, drinking and watching. Huysmans wrote this imaginary trip with more descriptions than an actual vacation might imply. Des Esseintes says: “It would be madness to risk losing, through an ill-advised trip, these unforgettable impressions”, Huysmans explains that his imaginary trip was worth much more than actually doing it; In fact, he felt the exhaustion of the mental vacation as if it were a real one.

Des Esseintes begins to grow bored with his literature, art, and home. He explains his collection of books as if he were supporting his intelligence as he weakens. He mentions Baudelaire many times and says: “[Baudelaire’s writings]….arriving finally at those regions of the soul in which the nightmarish growths of human thought flourish.” Towards the end of the book, he realizes that he can no longer take laudanum, opiates, or hashish to enhance his imaginary journeys because his body will reject whatever he takes in. At this point in Des Esseintes’s illness, Huysmans explains Des Esseintes’s mirror image of himself, which is that of a malnourished man.He calls in a doctor who prescribes him enemas of certain nutrients, that he is very excited to have, “…eliminated the tedious and vulgar task of eating” (Huysmans, JK, 1848) The doctor orders him to return to Paris and society, instead of being confined within the walls of his house in Fontenay Des Esseintes comes to the conclusion that he must reconcile himself to Catholicism along with his move to Paris, explaining that he must abandon his art of comparing all religious skepticism in order for his mind to be at peace.

In general, he uses his imagination to satisfy his need for pleasure and adventure. It seems that he moved to Fontenay to reflect on himself, but during his lonely lifestyle he begins a nervous illness. Reflecting on his memories makes him get entangled in comparing the knowledge he has acquired in life; from his early years with the Jesuit priests to his adulthood in modern Parisian society. Des Esseintes is an artist who criticizes art, literature and social class. He is a master of religious teachings as opposed to a realistic scientific view. Due to his struggle to gather his knowledge of the truth, he nearly died from neglecting his basic needs for survival.