Welcome to this cyberplace, set up as a space for news and reviews of A Gentleman of Pleasure and occasional jottings about John Glassco. Five years have now passed since publication, and I've moved on to other projects, but I'm leaving this up with the thought that those drawn to Glassco's writing will find something of interest.

06 September 2011

J.-K. Huysmans' Against the Grain (1930)


Against the Grain [À rebours]
J.-K. Huysmans
New York: Boni, 1930

The edition of Huysmans' Decadent masterpiece that so influenced Glassco's fiction. His copy came courtesy of H. Burton Bydwell, the “fat little lecher” in Memoirs of Montparnasse. Loaned in 1935, it was never returned.

After finishing the novel for the first time, Glassco turned to his journal, describing the work as one of the best things he’d ever read: "it even gave me a bit of a set-back – just a slight jolt – to see how thoroughly, conclusively, & beautifully the spirit of Perversity has found expression."


The sixth of thirty posts focussing on images not found in A Gentleman of Pleasure.
The entire series can be found here.

1 comment:

  1. I am delighted to see the cover of this particular edition. My parents owned a copy and the picture has stayed in my memory since childhood. I finally read Huysmans's book ... but in a different edition.

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