La littérature décadente au-delà des frontières
The Decadent literature beyond frontiers

The case of "À Rebours"

Author(s): Paul Matei Christian Botez
Subject(s): French Literature, Cultural Essay, Philology
Published by: Editura Junimea
Keywords: decadence; dandy; artifice; dream; art; pleasure;
Summary/Abstract: Considered to be an emblematic book for the decadent spirit of the late 19th century, “À Rebours” tells the story of a young dandy, a pessimist anti-hero, whose only desire is to retreat from the world and create his own artistic universe, where he can live in peace. This paper will examine the manner in which nobleman Jean des Esseintes builds an entirely artificial life for himself, one which involves overstepping many of the symbolic frontiers we establish in our day to day lives: between reality and dreams, between past and present, between nature and artifice, even between health and illness. I will also examine the extent to which the collapse of the novel's only physical frontier - namely the one between the house in Fontenay-aux-Roses and the outside world - illustrates the failure of the protagonist's daring aesthetic project.

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