Joris-Karl Huysmans: Against Nature (1884–) [FR, CZ, DE, EN, ES, PL, NO, IT]
Filed under book, fiction | Tags: · bourgeoisie, decadence, fin de siècle, symbolism
“The narrative of this novel concentrates almost entirely on its principal character and is mostly a catalogue of the tastes and inner life of Jean Des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive aesthete and antihero who loathes 19th-century bourgeois society and tries to retreat into an ideal artistic world of his own creation. The novel contains many themes that became associated with the Symbolist aesthetic. In doing so, it broke from Naturalism and became the ultimate example of ‘decadent’ literature.” (Wikipedia)
French edition
With illustrations by Auguste Leroux
Publisher A. Ferroud – F. Ferroud, Paris, 1920
219 pages
English edition: Against the Grain
Translated by John Howard
Introduction by Havelock Ellis
Publisher Lieber & Lewis, New York, 1922
331 pages
English edition: Against Nature
Translated by Robert Baldick, 1956
With an Introduction and Notes by Patrick McGuinness
Publisher Penguin Books, 2003
ISBN 9780141906607
À rebours (French, 1884/1920), HTML, IA
Na ruby (Czech, trans. Arnošt Procházka, in Moderní revue, 1896, pages 9-16, 44-53, 69-76, 116-124, 148-152 and 174-183, added on 2015-2-5)
Gegen den Strich (German, trans. Hans Jacob, 1921/1978, added on 2015-2-5)
Against the Grain (English, trans. John Howard, 1922), IA
Al revés (Spanish, trans. Rodrigo Escudero, 1977, 12 MB, added on 2015-2-5)
Na wspak (Polish, trans. Julian Rogoziński, 1977, 40 MB, added on 2015-2-5)
Mot strømmen (Norwegian, trans. Jan Olav Gatland, 1998, requires Norwegian IP)
Against Nature (English, trans. Robert Baldick, 2003, EPUB)
Controcorrente (Italian, 2014, EPUB, added on 2015-2-5)
E. M. Cioran: A Short History of Decay (1949–) [ES, EN, RO, PT]
Filed under book | Tags: · decadence, philosophy, science
E. M. Cioran confronts the place of today’s world in the context of human history—focusing on such major issues of the twentieth century as human progress, fanaticism, and science—in this nihilistic and witty collection of aphoristic essays concerning the nature of civilization in mid-twentieth-century Europe. Touching upon Man’s need to worship, the feebleness of God, the downfall of the Ancient Greeks and the melancholy baseness of all existence, Cioran’s pieces are pessimistic in the extreme, but also display a beautiful certainty that renders them delicate, vivid, and memorable. Illuminating and brutally honest, A Short History of Decay dissects Man’s decadence in a remarkable series of moving and beautiful pieces.
Originally published in French as Précis de decomposition, Gallimard, 1949
English edition
Translated by Richard Howard
First published by Seaver Books, 1975
Publisher Penguin, 2010 (PDF)
Publisher Arcade Publishing, New York, 2012 (EPUB), with a Foreword by Eugene Thacker
ISBN 161145736X, 9781611457360
181 pages
publisher (EN)
google books (EN)
Breviario de podredumbre (Spanish, trans. Fernando Savater, 1972)
A Short History of Decay (English, trans. Richard Howard, 1975/2010, PDF, added on 2013-9-26)
A Short History of Decay (English, trans. Richard Howard, 1975/2012, EPUB)
Tratat de descompunere (Romanian, trans. Lisandru Neamtu, 1992, updated on 2013-5-31, via sorin)
Breviário da decomposição (Portuguese, trans. José Thomaz Brum, 1995, no OCR)