Retórica em Huysmans

Structural Techniques in A reboursAuthor(s): Ruth Plaut WeinrebSource: The French Review, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Dec., 1975), pp. 222-233Published by: American Association of Teachers of FrenchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/388693 .Accessed: 10/11/2014 23:55

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THE FRENCH REVIEW, Vol. XLIX, No. 2, December, 1975 Printed in U.S.A.

Structural Techniques in A rebours

by Ruth Plaut Weinreb

J.-K. HUYSMANS' A rebours has enjoyed a privileged position among prose works of the late nineteenth century. It has been considered the apogee of the decadent novel, and Des Esseintes, its hero, has been regarded, with Dorian Gray, as decadence incarnate. Indeed, studies of A Rebours have focused almost exclusively on the hero and his eccentric adventures' leaving un- touched the problems of the structural techniques and devices which lend order to the work.

At the time when he was writing A rebours, Huysmans was impatient with the monotonous patterns of the contemporary novel,2 which had been reduced to the trivial question, "Will she succumb or won't she?" He sought ways of evading the conventional mold and, in the process, he abolished plot, action and the psychological development of characters. What, then, replaces these traditional elements? How does Huysmans handle characterizations and time? What new elements shape the work so often called shapeless? One is tempted to think of A rebours as a prose poem, recalling Baudelaire's description of Le Spleen de Paris: "on ne pourrait pas dire, sans injustice, qu'il n'y a ni queue ni tete, puisque tout, au contraire, y est a la fois tete et queue, alternativement et reciproquement" ((Euvres, p. 281). Huysmans did not explicitly call A rebours a novel3 in its preface, written in 1903, nearly twenty years after A rebours was published. He writes however, "tous les romans que j'ai ecrits depuis A rebours..." (p. 13)4 and mentions his conceptions of it as "une fantaisie breve sous la forme d'une nouvelle bizarre."5 He states his

'See Henri Bachelin, J. -K. Huysmans: du naturalisme litteraire au naturalisme mystique (Paris: Perrin, 1926), pp. 119-27; H. Brunner and J. L. de Coninck, En marge d"'A rebours" (Paris: Dorbon-Ainb, 1929), chapters 3 and 5 on Des Esseintes' artistic and literary tastes; Pierre Cogny, J. -K. Huysmans, A la recherche de 1'unite (Paris: Nizet, 1953), p. 75 ff. on Des Esseintes the dandy. Gustave Van Roosbroeck, a notable exception, attacks the problem of structure in his "Huysmans the Sphinx: The Riddle of A rebours," Romanic Review, 18 (1927), 306-28. Mario Praz's The Romantic Agony, 2nd ed. (Cleveland: World, 1963), A. E. Carter's The Idea of Decadence in French Literature, 1830-1900 (Toronto: Toronto U.P., 1958), George Ridge's The Hero in French Decadent Literature (Athens: U. of Georgia P., 1961), and Ridge's Joris-Karl Huysmans (New York: Twayne, 1968), pp. 60-66, enlightening works on the decadence in general, devote considerable attention to the decadent Des Esseintes.

2 Edmond de Goncourt expressed similar doubts about the novel several years later: "le roman est un genre usb, bcule, qui a dit tout ce qu'il avait a dire, un genre dont j'ai fait tout pour tuer le romanesque" (Jules Huret, Enquete sur l'evolution literaire [Paris: Charpentier, 1891], p. 168).

3H. Bachelin describes A rebours as "encore moins un roman que A vau-l'eau: c'est une longue suite d'etats d'ame dbtermines par des etats de choses et de paysages" (op.cit., p. 181).

4A rebours (Paris: Fasquelle, 1961). All subsequent quotations refer to this edition. 5I disagree with Bachelin that "Huysmans . .. n'etait nullement fait pour le poeme en prose;

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intention to create an extraordinary hero who revels in illusions created through experiments in artifice: "je le profilais fuyant a tire-d'aile dans le reve, se refugiant dans l'illusion d'extravagantes feeries, vivant, seul, loin de son siecle . . " (p. 11).

A rebours is constructed upon discussions of art and the Duc Jean Des Esseintes. These two unrelated subjects create both the difficulty and the fascination of the book. What van Roosbroeck considers the "riddle" of A rebours cannot be solved by dismissing it and the "improbable complexity"6 of Des Esseintes is nothing less than the improbable complexity and originality of Huysmans' solution. The work consists of a "Notice" and sixteen chapters of varying length. It begins with the hero's stereotyped, naturalistic genealogy followed by his life in Paris, and then turns to essay-like chapters on literature, colors, music and painting, interspersed with additional incidents from Des Esseients' life. Eleven of the sixteen chapters stand independently from the fictional framework. In the broadest sense, the only structural balance emerges from the A B A pattern of Des Esseintes' move from Paris to Fontenay and his ultimate return to Paris. Fontenay itself' is a metaphor for the hero's withdrawal, and the spiritual atmosphere there is completed by analyses of works of art, Des Esseintes' sensory experiments, and memories.

Huysmans materializes the spiritual world through Des Esseintes. Des Esseintes spiritualizes the material world through art and his artificial life. The author synthesizes the ideal of reality and the ideal of art, both in conflict with the material world. His originality consists in expressing an aesthetic abstraction, the comfortable domain of poetry, through a person. This conception presented structural difficulties of which Huysmans was well aware.7 Indeed, it is evident that no unified pattern emerges and no development occurs in the analyses of aesthetic problems and experiments. And, it is a matter of indifference which Des Esseintes does first: bejewel a tortoise, create his mouth-organ of liquors, collect monstrous flowers or create a landscape of scents. There is no suggestion of increasingly shocking

d'abord il etait impuissant a se restreindre, et puis-sauf tres rares exceptions,-il n'avait pas le sens du rythme" (p. 107). While brevity characterizes the prose poems of Bertrand and Baudelaire, it is not typical of Lautreamont's Chants de Maldoror which few hesitate to call prose poems. Indeed, if brevity is one criterion, one can cite numerous passages of A rebours which stand autonomously and properly be called prose poems, for example: the passages on Moreau's "Salome," Des Esseintes' nightmare, his London "voyage" and the boys fighting (p. 210), which bears a striking resemblance to Baudelaire's prose poem, "Le Gateau."

6Gustave L. van Roosbroeck: "because of this double origin of the book, the Marquis des Esseintes, is of an improbable complexity. He has no consistency, no unity; he remains unconvincing, unreal, because he is depicted as a half-mad neurotic-and yet discourses on art, letters, religion and archaeology with all the seriousness and keen determination of a seasoned critic" ("Huysmans the Sphinx: The Riddle of A rebours," Romanic Review, 18 (1927), 306-28).

7 In March of 1884 he wrote to Zola, "La verite c'est qu'etant donne le sujet, je n'ai pas pu arriver a le faire autrement, en depit des obligatoires incoherences qu'il amenait" (Lettres inedites a Emile Zola [Geneve: Droz, 1953 ], p. 103; italics mine). While his sincerity is doubtful in the part of the letter concerned with Des Esseintes' literary judgments. Huysmans had no reason to dissemble on the subject of structure.

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decadence, and the perfumed landscapes evoke none of the brutal images which fill the preceding passages on the flowers of evil.

Bourget's well-known definition of decadence emphasizes disunity: "Un style de decadence est celui ou l'unite du livre se decompose pour laisser la place a l'independance de la page, ou la page se decompose pour laisser la place a l'independance de la phrase, et la phrase pour laisser la place a l'independance du mot."8 A rebours derives whatever unity it has essentially from the underlying theme of artifice in both the form and content of the work. Huysmans' style and his hero's preoccupations parallel each other in their search for the absolute in the anti-natural and the exceptional.

Des Esseintes has been called a "half-mad neurotic" and a "mechanic detraquee" due less to his physical condition than to his aesthetic tastes. According to one description, "his decadence is aesthetic . . . with a medical explanation thrown in."9 Critics have yielded too happily to the temptation of dividing the work into two parts, and dismiss the hero's physical degeneracy as extraneous. It is, on the contrary, intimately bound to his spiritual decline, and Des Esseintes clearly shows the same fascination for his own deterioration as for a work of art. Structurally, his nervous condition constitutes the single side of characterization having some perceptible development. Whereas the rest of the work fluctuates between dream and reality, the hero's decline develops within ordinary time-space limits in which the contingency of events is respected. The portrait of Des Esseintes at the beginning of the book emphasizes his debility, presenting a naturalistic "case" which ultimately transcends the scientific and materialistic limits of naturalism. The medical case per se ceases to be the focal point and becomes the physical manifestation of Des Esseintes' pessimism, an object of fascination for him, and finally, a symbol of his failure. His decline occurs in three paroxysms.10 The first, during the Notice, results from his debauchery and forces him to leave Paris. The second, in chapter seven, arises from memories of his diabolism in Paris, and stimulates still more painful memories. The last, in chapter fifteen, begins when he looks in a mirror and, terrified at the change in his appearance, sinks into despair. Despite the intermittent course of his illness, it ultimately forms a coherent and indispensable part of Des Esseintes' character.

Legitimate doubts are raised regarding the minor characters, mostly an insignificant collection of relatives, doctors, companions, mistresses and servants. Without exception, they relate directly to Des Esseintes, appearing briefly in a single context in the Notice and chapters six and nine connected

8 Essais de psychologie contemporaine (Paris: Lemerre, 1893), p. 25. 9A. E. Carter, p. 84. o1 Huysmans explains the reasons for this arrangement: "je n'ai pas ose intervertir les phases de

la maladie, deplacer les accidents; ainsi j'ai di mettre a la fin, les alterations de l'ouie, alors qu'elles eussant mieux fait, entre d'autres chapitres qu'elles eussent assourdis et eloignees. Je me suis interdit avec ce systeme toute progression d'effets" (Lettres i Zola, p. 103; italics mine).

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with reminiscences of his previous search for pleasure and evasion through artifice. They are observed only from one point of view, and serve simply to illustrate or emphasize Des Esseintes' eccentricity. They have no development, no past, no autonomy or individuality. Some characters with a specific and limited function penetrate the privacy of Fontenay. They are instruments of transition who provide Des Esseintes with means to carry on his experiments. His servants are the only characters who remain throughout; the hero's only companions at Fontenay, they are reduced to silence and anonymity and are there to facilitate his search for and creation of an artificial paradise.

Perhaps many minor characters in a novel function as anonymous super- numeraries in the work's structure. There exists, nonetheless, a hierarchy of importance among major, minor and purely decorative characters. In A rebours such a progression is absent. Ther are two extremes, Des Esseintes and the others. They are mostly presented collectively with a third-person plural indefinite or definite article or a demonstrative or possessive adjective preceding the noun. Descriptions are minimal with few exceptions: some prostitutes are described as a "bataillon de femmes dont les bouches peintes s'ouvrirent toutes ensemble" (pp. 103-4). By reducing them to stereotypes Huysmans preserves the unreal atmosphere of A rebours and heightens the contrast with the extraordinary ideas and perceptions of his hero. Neverthe- less, those who appear in the sadistic and perverse episodes enjoy some individuality and one perceives some progression" in Des Esseintes' relation- ship to them. The reader knows the outcome of several episodes: Des Esseintes destroys the marriage of a companion; he abandons one mistress; another mistress leaves him; an affair with a homosexual remains unresolved. Des Esseintes moves from failure to failure, returning repeatedly to the theme of spleen as his encounters with human beings, like his experiments with objects, end in disillusion. Structurally, the minor characters emphasize the pattern of failure, they figure as a brief release from the hermetic atmosphere of Fontenay and lend some rapidity to the work. To the reader, they remain without motivation and lost in time.

When one looks more closely at Des Esseintes' role in A rebours it is clear that Huysmans controls the quality of his presence through four devices: (1) direct discourse, (2) the "neutral" subject (see below), (3) the present tense, (4) adverbs. Partly because of their frequency and partly because of their contrast to the rest of the narrative, these devices consistently impose themselves upon the reader as key instruments in Huysmans' narrative technique.

Direct discourse is essentially a dramatic device and for that reason seems

" Huysmans felt the lack of development and commented that "il eut au moins fallu les [chapitres sur le sadisme] expliquer d'une facon studieuse par cette perversite diabolique qui s'ingere, au point de vue luxurieux surtout, dans les cervelles epuisees des gens" (p. 15).

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to the reader particularly surprising and somewhat incongruous within the inactive narration of A rebours. In general, it may create contrasts and thereby accelerate the narration, or it may reveal information which would otherwise be awkwardly presented. It may also, like the dialogue in Diderot's Neueu de Rameau, delineate the psychology of the character. Whatever an author's motive in introducing direct discourse, the technique always alters the role of the narrator, who withdraws. It strengthens the illusion of the character's autonomy and places the reader in the role of interpreter. The effects of direct discourse, aside from the subject matter, are accomplished by the length of the sentences and exchanges at a given moment. The speeches of the Princesse de Cleves, for example, resemble a Racinian soliloquy more than conversation.

Of the forty instances of direct discourse in A Rebours, most are short sentences or exclamations, of necessity, mainly Des Esseintes' statements to himself. "Allons! se dit-il. . . voila que j'argumente avec moi-meme" (p. 114). The brief remarks clearly are not intended to provide information about Des Esseintes. He is projected forward with a few words after which his absolute autonomy dissolves and the narrator resumes his task of reporting. On the few occasions when Des Esseintes addresses another character, that person's response remains entirely unexpressed, with one exception. When he asks his servant "Vous ne sentez rien?" the author, not the servant, replies: "L'autre declara ne respirer aucune fleur" -(p. 149). By reverting immediately to indirect discourse, the author eliminates the suggestion of contact. On two occasions, minor characters speak. A young boy asks Des Esseintes for street directions (pp. 146-47); no answer is indicated as Des Esseintes "le regarda." Des Esseintes engages in the single dialogue in the book in a discussion about a young boy, Langlois. His interlocutor asks two brief questions and speaks two short sentences. Des Esseintes replies with a relatively long explanation of his plan and motive for corrupting the boy. The speech covers twenty-eight lines, divided into two paragraphs which form a logical exposition of the final proposition: "je tache simplement de preparer un assassin" (p. 105). This manner of speech is consistent with his habitual analysis of every detail of his existence. His thoughts are dominated not by his interlocutor, but by his idea and his satisfaction in proclaiming himself exceptional. The author uses this dramatic device sparingly in a work that explores abstract problems of aesthetics and is scarcely concerned with a vital presentation of reality. Huysmans seems to have chosen deliberately a device that is conspicuously awkward.

What is here called the "neutral" subject is merely the grammatical subject and not the focus of a sentence. Huysmans' systematic manipulation of Des Esseintes into the role of object or neutral subject relegates him to an insignificant part. The technique is particularly evident in the chapters devoted to literature (from which the examples below come, simply because they provide the most concentrated illustration of the method). Before he is

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shifted to the background, Des Esseintes is integrated in varying degrees into the narrative. Then Huysmans abruptly abandons him after a brief one-sentence paragraph stating that part of his library was filled with works of the Latin decadence, and he embarks upon his discussion of Latin literature and language. He relates Des Esseintes more closely to the subject with a three-page preparation (pp. 180-82) dwelling on the description of his exquisitely bound books, and connects them specifically to the hero. But nowhere is his peripheral function more evident than in the long chapter (three) on Latin literature, where the author occupies the prominent position to amuse himself and the reader with a virtuoso performance of his literary talents using Latin authors as a pretext. Throughout that discussion, Huysmans focuses attention on a work or style and on Des Esseintes as the passive object. He systematically refers to the hero as a springboard for each successive portion, mentioning his reaction to various works. The technique consists of making the author, work or style the subject of the sentence and Des Esseintes the object (there are forty-four cases of this type): "I'horripi- lait.. le suppliciaient .. ne le ravissaient pas.. . ne le seduisaient guere... ne l'enthousiasmait... pouvait lui plaire... lui repugnaient... le capti- vaient... ne lui masquaient pas... le rejouissait... le laissaient froid... le faisaient sourire... I'attirait... le ravissait... le requeraient... I'al- lechaient,... Ie mettait en liesse... Ie delectait... Ie hantaient." Huys- mans' decision to make much negative criticism emphasizes Des Esseintes' peripheral role and his own predominance. He refers ironically to authors whose mediocre styles bore the hero and exaggerates his emotional reactions, none of which relates to an objective, critical vocabulary.

When he is the subject, Des Esseintes acts strictly in a grammatical role since Huysmans selects colorless verbs to associate him with various authors and works: "il eut accepte... il ne trouvait pature... il commenqait a s'in- teresser... il aimait. . .il regrettait... il n'ouvrait plus guere ... il pre- ferait... il ne connaissait que trop... il etait las .. saoul... il aimait mieux... il relisait... il se sentait un faible... il frequentait... il se bornait a feuilleter... et a relire." In the second long section (chapter twelve) of literary criticism, Des Esseintes and literature are specifically related forty-seven times in which he appears as the object nine times and the "neutral" subject twenty-five times. In the chapter on lay literature (fourteen), the frequency is seventy-one times, proportionately more than in chapter twelve, according to the length of the chapters. The technique of making him the object recurs'2 but his function changes slightly. He

12 In chapter twelve, he appears as the "neutral" subject twenty-five times and as object nine times; in chapter fourteen, he appears twenty-seven times as the object and forty-two times as "neutral" subject. Again, the verbs are hardly evocative, for example: I'opprimerent, le delassaient, lui plaisait, l'incitait, ne pouvait le satisfaire, I'exasperait, le seduisaient, ne l'emouvaient plus, lui semblait, transportait des Esseintes, le requeraient, le subjugait, representait pour des Esseintes.

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participates more fully in the discussions on literature and painting when they constitute the genuine subject. In several instances Des Esseintes briefly assumes the role of critic'3 and one can trace a development in his critical faculties. In chapter three, he makes only superficial judgments, in chapter twelve he analyzes as a literary critic: "Selon lui, en litterature, on s'etait jusqu'alors borne . . " (p. 183). In chapter fourteen, he develops into a theorist with his own ideas on the form of' the prose poem (p. 244). At the end of the analysis, however, Des Esseintes becomes the object and Huysmans' presence is emphasized by the metaphors and by the adverbial phrase: "En un mot, le poeme en prose represente, pour Des Esseintes, le suc concret, l'osmazome de la litterature, l'huile essentielle de l'art" (p. 245). Although hero and author join to establish an art poetique, basing it on identical criteria and reinforcing each other's judgments, the author unquestionably assumes the major role.

Huysmans suppresses the hero and addresses the reader directly by shifting to the present tense in each passage on experiments in artifice. While discussing Des Esseintes' choice of colors for Fontenay, Huysmans presents the situation: "Lentement, il tria, un a un, les tons" (p. 41). He then abandons Des Esseintes to comment upon the intricacies of color harmony, shifting from the past definite to the present tense: "Le bleu tire aux flambeaux sur un faux vert" (p. 41). In this same passage he alternates between Des Esseintes' reasoning and his own theory of color. He shifts next to the present tense for a three-page illustration (pp. 42-43) of Des Esseintes' notion that a harmony exists between the sensual nature of an artistic person and the color which he perceives in a special manner, referring to Des Esseintes only in the first paragraph. He finally returns to the hero to conclude: "Le choix de Des Esseintes ne pouvait donc preter au moindre doute" (p. 43). The same technique reappears in the presentation of Des Esseintes' choice of precious stones: "le diamant est devenu singulierement commun . . . les emeraudes et les rubis de l'Orient sont moins avilis" (p. 73). Again, in the mouth organ passage: "le kirsch sonne ... le gin et le whisky emportent" (p. 77). And once more, explaining the importance of the imagination which can "suppleer a la vulgaire realite des faits" (p. 50), Huysmans develops the illustration over four paragraphs, all in the present tense.

As he moves from the imperfect tense of narration to the present tense, Huysmans changes his own rapport with the reader. Describing Moreau's "Salome" he begins the passage in the imperfect to outline the background of the painting. He then moves steadily towards Salome, the focal point of the work, presenting a tableau vivant, accomplished chiefly through the present

13 There are also several metaphors constructed around him: "lui fouettaient le sang" (p. 185); "il savourait les moelles" (p. 186); "il s'ingenia a savourer... ne mordit point" (p. 188); "Deux ouvrages de Barbey attisaient specialement des Esseintes" (p. 200); "II sortit de leurs livres a jeun" (p. 234); "Aussi devait-il se moderer, toucher a peine a ces redoutables elixirs" (p. 237); "donnaient la chair de poule a des Esseintes" (p. 93).

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tense. The technique is repeated in the presentation of Salome in Moreau's "Apparition," shifting to the present the moment Salome becomes the subject. The present tense is used again in the author's exposition on sadism (p. 202), serving as a pivot which changes the rapport between author and reader. 4

It is important to note the consistent independence from Des Esseintes in the above examples. The present tense is used only when he has temporarily disappeared and never when the author refers to him in the more conventional parts of A rebours.15 As the novel has virtually no dialogue, the present tense assumes greater importance as an instrument of change in the tempo and perspective and allows the author to turn towards his reader and deliver ordered expositions of' his aesthetic theories.

Certain adverbs accomplish a shift in perspective, indicating that Huys- mans has come forth to comment upon the subject under discussion. There are seventy-seven examples of this technique. They fall into four groups, according to their function: (a) authoritative statements about Des Esseintes or aesthetics, (b) clarification of an idea of Des Esseintes or aesthetics, (c) parenthetical remarks, (d) enumerations. Although the types overlap, they distinctly represent different functions of the adverb. (Depending on its context, one adverb may appear in more than one of' the above groups.)

It was pointed out above that Des Esseintes loses all importance when Huysmans uses the present tense. The effect of' the adverb differs, as it allows the author to integrate Des Esseintes into his commentary, albeit in a subordinate role. In those passages where Des Esseintes enjoys most independence, the adverb is significantly less frequent. It does not appear in chapter six, during his memory of diabolism, or in the last part of' chapter four when Des Esseintes remembers his visit to the dentist. There is one instance of it in the part of chapter eight devoted to his nightmare of the Pox, four in chapter fifteen, on his illness, and two in the last chapter as Des Esseintes prepares his return to Paris. It would be imprudent to suggest that such an accessory technique is the result of conscious choice; as S. Ullmann has said, "There is . . . something slightly mechanical and unrealistic in the picture of a writer choosing all the time between two or more alternatives."16 It works neverthe- less as a solution to the unusual problems which Huysmans creates in his work.

The "authoritative" adverb (decidement, a n'en pas douter, certainement, positivement, a coup sur, evidemment, certes, assurement, en un mot), is the most frequent and perhaps the most striking of the four types. One finds it

'4 Likewise, after, discussing a number of modern authors, Huysmans generalizes: "En effet, lorsque l'epoque ou un homme de talent est oblige de vivre est plate et bete, l'artiste est. . . hante par la nostalgie d'un autre siecle" (p. 224), continuing in the present for two paragraphs, until he introduces Flaubert and shifts back to the imperfect.

15 With two exceptions, when he makes a general remark on the nature of Des Esseintes' illness (pp. 80, 149).

16 Stephen Ullmann, Language and Style (Oxford: Blackwell. 1964). p. 150.

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when Huysmans pronounces an unequivocal judgment. He comments, for instance, on Des Esseintes' expectations at the beginning of the work: "Decidement, il n'avait aucun espoir de decouvrir chez autrui les memes aspirations," (p. 33) expressing a deterministic approach to Des Esseintes, which he repeats at the end: "Decidement il ne lui restait aucune rade" (p. 266). Huysmans speaks with authority on Des Esseintes' emotions ("Positive- ment, il souffrait de la vue de certaines physionomies"-p. 55), on his reactions ("Certes, Haarlem... l'avait seduit"-p. 177), his literary tastes ("il etait assurement insensible aux oeuvres sur lesquelles il est d'un gout adroit de se pamer"-p. 185). Through these assertions, the author prevents the reader from speculating upon or interpreting various situations regarding Des Esseintes. By stating conclusions, he reduces the psychology ot the hero to a number of established facts about him, and excludes the reader from participating as anything more than an observer.

Adverbs of "clarification" (d'ailleurs, au reste, somme toute, en un mot, en resume, en somme, en effet, au demeurant), are used to elaborate upon or summarize a topic and constitute less an imposition of the author's judgment. The adverbs of this type are most frequently "en somme," "en resume," and "somme toute," somewhat deceptive since they do not always summarize a thought. As they recur within the development of one subject, it is clear that they are used for elaborations. One sentence summarizes most succinctly the idee maitresse of A rebours: "Au reste, l'artifice paraissait a Des Esseintes la marque distinctive du genie de l'homme" (p. 51); it clarifies the preceding exposition of theories of artifice. Following-expositions of varying length, the "clarifying" adverb appears in diverse contexts. It works efficiently as a means of summarizing long expositions and as a means of creating the illusion that the reader has been thoroughly informed about Des Esseintes' thought processes and attitudes, when what he sees in fact, are their effects.

"Parenthetical" adverbs (d'ailleurs, en effet, sans doute, au reste) create a brief interruption made as though the author, suddenly recalling a detail, wished to include it. Des Esseintes felt reassured by his doctor's visit: "ses pensees se deriderent; d'ailleurs, ses souffrances s'etaient tues (p. 256). The break from character to author manifests itself in the adverb and is emphasized by the shift in tense, as the author adds information and justification for his hero's temporary sense of well-being. As Des Esseintes contemplates seducing the ventriloquist, the author remarks: "D'ailleurs, les plans . . . avaient muri" (p. 144). During the hero's nightmare, Huysmans comments: "un siecle, qui dura sans doute une minute, s'ecroula" (p. 133). Here, as above, the author acts as intermediary between character and reader. In the latter instance he fills an omniscient role, reporting directly to the reader the apparent and probable time lapse. The adverbial phrases of the parenthetical type serve to bridge the gap between the limited information of the reader and the omniscience of the author.

Adverbs of "enumeration" (d'autres fois, puis, enfin, alors, quelquefois) are mainly adverbs of time. They are used to organize and present ideas as one

230 FRENCH REVIEW



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would a demonstration. In one instance, Huysmans rapidly enumerates Des Esseintes' habits in four consecutive paragraphs, beginning respectively: Ainsi; D'autres fois; Puis; Enfin (pp. 38-39). He repeats the technique when referring to Des Esseintes' maneuvers with his aquarium, in four consecutive paragraphs, again beginning like an enumeration: Quelquefois; Il se figurait alors; Puis; Il pouvait apercevoir enfin (pp. 48-49). Enumeration parallels the other techniques indicated above. It reveals the author's presence, his considerable control over his character, and his efficiency in dealing with a subject of minimal interest in A rebours: the psychological aspects of Esseintes.

A rebours is essentially an atemporal work. Particularly in the passages devoted to discussions of works of art and aesthetic problems, time becomes irrelevant. As a former art critic, Huysmans quite naturally adopts the form of a critical essay, virtually excluding Des Esseintes from the text. The most extreme example occurs in chapter three; devoted exclusively to Latin literature it is more a literary tour de force than a critical analysis. Since A rebours, we have seen in Proust how aesthetic theories are presented in a structure designed to integrate with characters and action. But Huysmans, like his hero, seeks mainly to "tuer les journees rebelles aux livres" (p. 93), with concern neither for chronology nor for contingency. Contingency, of fundamental importance in creating the impression of time, simply ceases after the introductory pages of the Notice. Confusion begins as the forward movement of the novel is interrupted by fragmented memories of Paris which intermittently occupy Des Esseintes' solitude. From his arrival in Fontenay until the end, the only progression arises from his physical deterioration, discussed above. His moral crisis is "independante du temps."'7

The past and present and a period of timeless duration can be perceived within the static atmosphere of Fontenay, but moments remain out of focus. Many chapters begin with a past event which contrasts Des Esseintes' newly organized life at Fontenay. The many incidents evoked from his existence in Paris however, convey among themselves no sense of sequence and within themselves no sense of completeness, providing no time perspective on the hero's past. The scene shifts back and forth abruptly to justify the introduc- tion of a new subject. To open the discussion of Des Esseintes' expertise and eccentric taste in decor, the author states: "Jadis, alors qu'il recevait chez lui les femmes, il avait composie un boudoir" (p. 37). He establishes his knowledge of flowers with the remark: "autrefois, a Paris, son penchant naturel vers l'artifice l'avait conduit a delaisser la veritable fleur" (p. 123). Huysmans repeats the pattern of referring to the past to prepare a connection with the succeeding subject, consistently excluding a sense of causality in these shifts "a rebours."

The juxtaposition of direct and indirect style creates confusion and separates the present moment from the moment of thought: "aujourd'hui . . .

'7 Brunner and Coninck, p. 110.

231 HUYSMANS


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il voulait," "actuellement. . . il voulut." Huysmans violates the conventional agreement between adverbs of time and verb tenses. Sequences are compli- cated also by the description of an attitude at the beginning of a chapter as an accomplished fact: "Apres s'etre desinteresse de l'existence humaine" (p. 83), and at the end of the same chapter as a new observation: "il etait muir pour l'isolement" (p. 99).

A shift to the context of dreams and memories accomplishes a suspension of time and an expansion of moments into duration, an important element in Des Esseintes' artificial paradise. It also suggests parallels between A rebours and the prose poem where the poet has to deal with "cette necessite de rame- ner au 'present etenel' du poeme l'ecoulement temporel de l'ecriture line- aire." He may, according to Suzanne Bernard, achieve this by divisions into couplets, most often accompanied by "une structure cyclique du poeme, d'une organisation rythmique fondee sur le retour, la r/epetition."" 8Huvsmans exploits such a technique to achieve an atemporal atmosphere. He repeatedly portrays Des Esseintes in one of two poses: (1) settled into a chair or bed; (2) lighting a cigarette.19 The only awareness of the present occurs when he stokes the fire, lights a cigarette, or looks at his watch. Otherwise, the author states that time has passed: "cette periode fut de courte duree" (p. 109). Since Des Esseintes lives at night, the sense of change disappears, and since he barely stirs from his chair, acts are not defined in time. Often he appears at the beginning of a chapter seated in front of his fire, he reappears there at the chapter's end after having wandered in a labyrinth of dreams and reflections.

Memory and dreams fulfill an important and identical role in the structure of A rebours. Unlike epic literature where dream, expressing divine will, has some consequence in the action, or in La Nouvelle Hiloise where the dreams of Julie and Saint-Preux fulfill a dramatic purpose, dreams in A rebours constitute the work's most important device of transition. Memory and dream retain only their quality of existing in the mind, permitting unlimited movement in time and space. Consistent with the nature of the novel, they replace action and reality. To shift away from discussions of art, memories are introduced. The shift is accomplished in two ways, equally deliberate. The first method consists of stating baldly that Des Esseintes remembered a previous event. The second is simply involuntary memory. Huysmans states, for example, that Des Esseintes "se prit a rever delicieusement, lanc' a tout bride sur une piste de souvenirs effacee depuis des mois et subitement retracee par le rappel d'un nom qui s'eveillait, sans motif du reste, dans sa memoire" (p. 101, italics mine). These dreams merely accomplish a move from Fontenay to Paris and bear no further importance. The technique is repeated several

8 Suzanne Bernard, Le Poeme en prose de Baudelaire jusqu'a nos jours (Paris: Nizet. 1959), pp. 449-50.

9 P. 79 I se renfonqa dans son fauteuil; p. 101 Enfonce dans un vaste fauteuil .. . [il ] alluma une cigarette; p. 107 il alluma une cigarette; p. 130-31 il fut s'entendre sur son lit; p. 136 II resta, etendu sur son lit; p. 150 I1 s'enfonqa dans un fauteuil; pp. 175-76 I1 s'enfonqa dans sa chaise, alluma une cigarette; p. 206 II s'assit.

232 FRENCH REVIEW



pages later in the same chapter (six) when the author introduces a new subject: "Appartenant au meme ordre d'idees, d'autres souvenirs se pressaient maintenant" (p. 103). Although associative memory spontaneously evokes incidents of a like nature, in this case diabolism, Huysmans' persistent use of the device points to the purpose of transition.

The second transitional technique consists of evoking memories or dreams in a manner bordering on the absurd. A stimulus and a memory of entirely different sorts are connected. In one of the best-known passages of the book, the mouth-organ episode, Des Esseintes is stimulated by the scent of whiskey which "lui rememorait... . l'identique senteur dont il avait eu la langue pleine au temps oiu les dentistes travaillaient dans sa gencive" (p. 79). The painful experience of his visit is then recounted in all its absurd detail. The contrast between the synaesthetic theory and experiment and the incident which it provokes seems incongruous as does the juxtaposition of the elegant recluse and the common nuisance of a toothache. The description of the event continues uninterrupted until the narrator intervenes to observe that "ses sensations devenaient, des ce moment, confuses. Vaguement, il se souvenait de s'etre affaisse" (p. 81). Only this remark reminds the reader that the context of the narration is a dream; nothing else suggests uncertainty or vagueness. Again, at the end of the passage, the context is stated, when Des Esseintes feels "attriste par l'assaut de ces souvenirs" and stands up "pour rompre l'horrible charme de cette vision" to return to "la vie presente" (p. 82). Huysmans exercises the device of dreams and memory with the same nonchalance20 as the device of time. In each case he chooses to state rather than to evoke.

The novelty of A rebours arises from the absence of characters and development, from the distortion of time and space and the exaggerated importance of dreams and memories as technical devices. The work is not composed of two autonomous parts: Des Esseintes and essays on aesthetics; their relation is symbiotic and the essential source of A rebours' originality and fascination.

WELLESLEY COLLEGE 20. On only one occasion, memories are referred to in a context suggesting the vagueness and

confusion lacking from the previous examples. Des Esseintes, overwhelmed by his memories, begins to "relive" his entire existence; "maintenant incapable de comprendre un mot aux volumes qu'il consultait..." (p. 108). Remembrances begin "culbutant le present, l'avenir, noyant tout sous la nappe du passe" (ibid.). At that point the hero suffers his ultimate decline. The denoue- ment begins, if the term may be applied to a work without a climax. Des Esseintes has become the victim of his solitude through the persistence of his memories. Before he has fully withdrawn from reality, he is forced by his memories to return.

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Article Contentsp. 222p. 223p. 224p. 225p. 226p. 227p. 228p. 229p. 230p. 231p. 232p. 233

Issue Table of ContentsThe French Review, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Dec., 1975), pp. 167-318Front Matter [pp. 167-173]Crole et franais en Hati [pp. 174-185]Le Jeu de la rgle et du hasard, ou comment rhabiliter la grammaire en jouant avec la littrature [pp. 186-192]Training Prospective Teachers in the Correction of Student Errors [pp. 193-197]Thoughts for Food II: Culinary Culture in Contemporary France [pp. 198-205]Montaigne on the Noble Savage: A Shift in Perspective [pp. 206-211]"Marivaudage" as Self-Representation [pp. 212-221]Structural Techniques in A rebours [pp. 222-233]Tradition and Innovation in Paul Claudel's Cent Phrases pour ventails [pp. 234-246]Antonin Artaud: la recherche d'un nouveau langage potique [pp. 247-255]DepartmentsLe Coin du Pdagogue [pp. 256-258]Pedagogical News and Notes [pp. 258-260]Professional Notes [pp. 260-262]Announcements [pp. 262-265]

Association NewsChapter News [p. 266]Executive Secretary's Page [pp. 266-267]Financial Report [pp. 267-273]

ReviewsLiterary History and CriticismReview: untitled [pp. 274-275]Review: untitled [pp. 275-276]Review: untitled [pp. 276-277]Review: untitled [pp. 277-278]Review: untitled [p. 278]Review: untitled [p. 279]Review: untitled [pp. 279-280]Review: untitled [pp. 280-281]Review: untitled [pp. 281-282]Review: untitled [pp. 282-283]Review: untitled [p. 283]Review: untitled [p. 284]Review: untitled [pp. 284-285]Review: untitled [pp. 285-286]Review: untitled [p. 286]Review: untitled [pp. 286-287]Review: untitled [pp. 287-288]Review: untitled [pp. 288-289]Review: untitled [pp. 289-290]Review: untitled [pp. 290-291]

Creative WorksReview: untitled [pp. 291-292]Review: untitled [p. 292]Review: untitled [pp. 292-293]Review: untitled [pp. 293-294]Review: untitled [pp. 294-295]Review: untitled [pp. 295-296]Review: untitled [pp. 296-297]Review: untitled [pp. 297-298]Review: untitled [pp. 298-299]Review: untitled [p. 299]Review: untitled [pp. 299-300]Review: untitled [pp. 300-301]Review: untitled [pp. 301-302]

TextbooksReview: untitled [pp. 302-303]Review: untitled [pp. 303-304]Review: untitled [pp. 304-305]Review: untitled [pp. 305-306]Review: untitled [p. 306]Review: untitled [pp. 306-307]

CivilizationReview: untitled [pp. 307-308]Review: untitled [pp. 308-309]Review: untitled [p. 309]Review: untitled [p. 310]Review: untitled [pp. 310-311]Review: untitled [p. 311]Review: untitled [pp. 311-312]Review: untitled [pp. 312-313]

LinguisticsReview: untitled [pp. 313-314]Review: untitled [pp. 314-315]

Back Matter [pp. 316-318]

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