Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans
Published 1884 · 288 pages · 79,200 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Modernist & Experimental Fiction, Satire & Humor
How hard is Against Nature to read?
Against Nature scores 61 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 82 out of 100
- Huysmans packs the prose with rare terms for gems, perfumes, flowers, church Latin and art, so a dictionary is useful on most pages. It reaches toward the ornate register of Lolita, with more specialized catalogues.
- Sentence structure: 68 out of 100
- Long, piled-up sentences list sensations and objects in clause after clause. Dense but more navigable than Proust.
- Abstraction: 66 out of 100
- The book is full of concrete objects, yet it is driven by aesthetic theory and a philosophy of artifice against nature. It sits between Gatsby and Notes from Underground.
- Information density: 72 out of 100
- Each chapter packs in references to authors, painters, perfumers and botanists. Close to Lolita in texture but heavier in allusion.
- Narrative indirection: 45 out of 100
- The narration is clear about Des Esseintes's actions and thoughts, but the reader must judge how far Huysmans shares his hero's tastes. Little is hidden.
- Symbolic density: 65 out of 100
- The gilded tortoise, Moreau's Salome and the orchestrated liqueurs all stand for decadence and artifice. Less pervasive than in Gatsby's symbols, but intense.
- Ironic distance: 66 out of 100
- Huysmans treats his hero's fastidiousness with relish and mockery at once, leaving a gap between admiration and satire. Comparable to The Great Gatsby's simultaneous sympathy and critique.
- Resolution withholding: 58 out of 100
- The ending sends Des Esseintes back to Paris with a despairing prayer, leaving his faith and future open. Closer to Gatsby's open meaning than to Crime and Punishment's closure.
- Structural complexity: 50 out of 100
- Each chapter is a self-contained study of one obsession, flashbacks fill in his past, and there is almost no plot. Simpler than Midnight's Children but unusual for its time.
How Against Nature is regarded
Against Nature holds a literary regard score of 76 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.