1931 Against the Grain Huysmans, 1st Illustrated U.S. Edition, Zaidenberg Plates

Description: Against the Grain (A Rebours) By J. K. Huysmans. With an Introduction by Havelock Ellis. Illustrated by Arthur Zaidenberg. New York: Illustrated Editions Company, 100 Fifth Avenue. 1931. First Illustrated American Edition. No dust jacket (as issued). 339 pp, 9.25 x 6.25", 8vo. In fair condition. Dark blue cloth boards normally scuffed at edges and worn/bumped at corners. Head and tail of black cloth spine bumped; gilt lettering on spine dulled, but legible. Front gutter split at head of half-title page - binding exposed. Light toning throughout text-block; mostly at edges of leaves. Some light off-setting on leaves adjacent to woodcuts. Sticker residue found on bottom edge of rear paste-down. Binding intact; hinges fragile. Please see photos. À rebours (translated Against Nature or Against the Grain) is an 1884 novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848 - 1907). The narrative centers on a single character: Jean des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive, ailing aesthete. The last scion of an aristocratic family, Des Esseintes loathes nineteenth-century bourgeois society and tries to retreat into an ideal artistic world of his own creation. The narrative is almost entirely a catalogue of the neurotic Des Esseintes's aesthetic tastes, musings on literature, painting, and religion, and hyperaesthesic sensory experiences. À rebours 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, inspiring works such as Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)'s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). In his preface for the 1903 publication of the novel, Huysmans wrote that he had the idea to portray a man "soaring upwards into dream, seeking refuge in illusions of extravagant fantasy, living alone, far from his century, among memories of more congenial times, of less base surroundings ... each chapter became the sublimate of a specialism, the refinement of a different art; it became condensed into an essence of jewellery, perfumes, religious and secular literature, of profane music and plain-chant." The original French Edition was published in lurid yellow wrappers to warn of the salacious content, is believed to have been the source of the name of The Yellow Book (published from 1894 to 1897), the British literary journal associated with decadence and aestheticism. First Illustrated American Edition! COLI1931ADDB 07/24 - HK1830

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