19th century novel by a French writer with a Dutch name, Joris-Karl Huysmans, A Rebours was first published in 1884. It has been translated into English as Against the Grain and, more recently, as Against Nature. The novel tells the story of the young dandy and aesthete, Jean, Duc des Esseintes, who becomes disgusted with the society of his day and tries to escape from it by constructing a "refined Thebaid" - a house where he lives completely alone, surrounded by the artistic objects and books that obsess him and living out his aesthetic daydreams. "Story" is perhaps pushing it a bit; this is one of the more plotless novels of its age and duels, love affairs, court cases over wills and characters who turn out to be each other's long lost relatives are pretty much absent. The real conflict