Some explorers of the desert novel Des Essen accept the main "hero" in it as an archetype of the young European who is permanently infected by the illness of the century. It could indeed be argued that one of the goals of the novelist, Huysmans, is to defend his subjective idea that decadence is a fruitful stage in the development of the arts, because it simultaneously deny and overcome the damage done to artistic thought by romanticism and naturalism - two experienced their time, according to the author of "A Rebours", artistic trends in French literature. Almost unanimously, the novel "A Rebours" is now perceived by French literary historians and critics as an art decadence manifesto that steals the forcefully rational spirit of French literature during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. The purpose of this publication is to explore in detail, through a detailed analysis of the XIV chapter, the evolution of the reader's taste in the anti-germ of the deciment novel by Huysmans. Huysmans attributed to the exquisite aesthetic Des Essen an impressive passionate affection for the works of the late Late Creators, bearing the spiritual exhaustion of an exhausted civilization era. He prefers their works to the writings of the writers that emerged during the earlier epoch of classics.

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Through the "hero" in the novel "A Rebours" the "father of French literary decadence" justified by a series of subjective arguments final break with the naturalism of Zola and shares ardent empathy with decadent aesthetic experiments of their contemporaries. His counterpart, Des Essen, says he prefers to read the poems of his contemporaries, the French poets of symbolism, as they managed to overcome the dominant, until recently, sentimental romanticism in French poetry. He proclaimed his early symbolists Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine , Tristan Corbier and Stefan Malarme as his favorites. In the community of novelists, his contemporaries, the anti-hero of Huysmans appreciates highly innovative trends in the narrative strategy of Gustav Flaubert(Salambo), Edmon Goncourt and especially Villiard de Lille Adam, established as a master fantastic stories with Gothic atmosphere. He retired in the tranquility of the villa in Fontene Des Essen, surrounded by rare and valuable fine items collected in the past few years. He selects with great dedication the most expensive literary works for him, with the intent to give himself to reading and lethargy on the ideas laid down in them.

We will see later that from the entire Latin and French literature, Huysmans ' anti-geyser keeps only a few favorite authors in their library that fully satisfy his tasteful taste. In his voluntarily chosen seclusion sophisticated Des Essen contemplate in intoxication many-paintings of artist Gustave Moreau, combined with patient ingenuity different scents to produce fresh perfumes, carefully handled gets his small garden planted with poisonous flowers. A special place in the mosaic structure of the narrative in the "A Rebours" is the tortoise episode, which can be read as a metaphor that unfolds the provocative clarity of the main personality of the novel: Des Essen incorporates a multitude of precious stones into the turtle shell , but very soon, overwhelmed by the extremely expensive but too heavy jewelery, the turtle dies. At the end of the "A Rebours", it turns out that even the seclusion of a village can not release the very demanding essence of life, which is deeply in the heart of its soul, taedium vitae, caused by the banality of existence. Duke Des Essen is forced by growing it melancholy, bringing him frequently to despair, to abandon self-imposed isolation from others and decided again to dip into the exhausting dynamic of secular slow and entertainment that offers multifaceted Paris.

part 1

part 2