# Against Nature

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/j-k-huysmans/against-nature/9780140447637

JSON version (same data): https://www.bookquiver.com/j-k-huysmans/against-nature/9780140447637.json

![Against Nature](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/joris-karl-huysmans/against-nature_978-01-4044-763-7.jpg?v=2026-04-23%2005%3A51%3A04)

- Book: [Against Nature](https://www.bookquiver.com/j-k-huysmans/against-nature) ([Against Nature.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/j-k-huysmans/against-nature.md))
- Authors: [J. K. Huysmans](https://www.bookquiver.com/j-k-huysmans)
- Publisher: Penguin Classics
- ISBN: 978-01-4044-763-7
- Pages: 288
- Published: 2003-05-01
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

The hero of this curious novel is des Esseintes, a neurasthenic aristocrat who has turned his back on the vulgarity of modern life and retreated to an isolated country villa. Here, accompanied only by a couple of silent servants, he pursues his obsessions with exotic flowers, rare gems, and complex perfumes and embarks on a series of increasingly strange aesthetic experiments, starting with the decision to give his giant pet tortoise a jewel-encrusted shell...