Christa Giles

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Thematically, the dream enabled Wilde and Huysmans to
focus on their interest in psychology as well as to affirm
their belief in the powers of the imagination and by
extension, art. Thus Huysmans and Wilde emphasise the
suggestive and mysterious in their work, ˝dégageant du
reél le suprasensible.˝ 334 Their interest in satanism is in part
a product of their rejection of the materialistic ethos which
denies the life of the unconscious and the impulse towards
art. The dream is therefore extolled not only as an escape
but as a superior mode of being. Durtal in Là-bas
encapsulates this idea when he says: ˝daydream is the only
good thing in life. Everything else is vulgar and empty.˝ 335
Similarly, Madame Chantelouve tells Durtal that they
should not become lovers, as in any case whatever she
would dream would be superior to reality:
I have possessed Byron, Baudelaire, Gérard
de Nerval, those I love…I have only to desire
them…before I go to sleep… And you would
be inferior to my chimera, to the Durtal I
adore, whose caresses make my nights
delirious! 336
The dream is not only superior to reality, it is the sole
province of art for, according to Wilde,
The only beautiful things are things that do
not concern us. As long as a thing is useful or