Against the Grain

Because of his extreme sensitivity to the absurd and the grotesque in human affairs, des Esseintes, who is really a mouthpiece for Huysmans himself, has estranged himself from 19th-century society and leads a hermit-like existence in an environment of ascetic medievalism. Cloistered in his cottage, alone except for the two silent servants, de Esseintes reviews the compendium of human experience: color, food and drink, literature, art, music, philosophy and religion... all are scrutinized, sifted, analyzed according to des Esseintes' delicate, highly selective tastes.