HUYSMANS

huysmans, joris karl (1848-1907), french novelist, was born at paris on the 5th of february 1848. he belonged to a family of artists of dutch extraction; he entered the ministry of the interior, and was pensioned after thirty years' service. his earliest venture in literature, _le drageoir a epices_ (1874), contained stories and short prose poems showing the influence of baudelaire. _marthe_ (1876), the life of a courtesan, was published in brussels, and huysmans contributed a story, "sac au dos," to _les soirees de medan_, the collection of stories of the franco-german war published by zola. he then produced a series of novels of everyday life, including _les soeurs vatard_ (1879), _en menage_ (1881), and _a vau-l'eau_ (1882), in which he outdid zola in minute and uncompromising realism. he was influenced, however, more directly by flaubert and the brothers de goncourt than by zola. in _l'art moderne_ (1883) he gave a careful study of impressionism and in _certains_ (1889) a series of studies of contemporary artists, _a rebours_ (1884), the history of the morbid tastes of a decadent aristocrat, des esseintes, created a literary sensation, its caricature of literary and artistic symbolism covering much of the real beliefs of the leaders of the aesthetic revolt. in _la-bas_ huysmans's most characteristic hero, durtal, makes his appearance. durtal is occupied in writing the life of gilles de rais; the insight he gains into satanism is supplemented by modern parisian students of the black art; but already there are signs of a leaning to religion in the sympathetic figures of the religious bell-ringer of saint sulpice and his wife. _en route_ (1895) relates the strange conversion of durtal to mysticism and catholicism in his retreat to la trappe. in _la cathedrale_ (1898), huysmans's symbolistic interpretation of the cathedral of chartres, he develops his enthusiasm for the purity of catholic ritual. the life of _sainte lydwine de schiedam_ (1901), an exposition of the value of suffering, gives further proof of his conversion; and _l'oblat_ (1903) describes durtal's retreat to the val des saints, where he is attached as an oblate to a benedictine monastery. huysmans was nominated by edmond de goncourt as a member of the academie des goncourt. he died as a devout catholic, after a long illness of cancer in the palate on the 13th of may 1907. before his death he destroyed his unpublished mss. his last book was _les foules de lourdes_ (1906). see arthur symons, _studies in two literatures_ (1897) and _the symbolist movement in literature_ (1899); jean lionnet in _l'evolution des idees_ (1903); eugene gilbert in _france et belgique_ (1905); j. sargeret in _les grands convertis_ (1906).