Christa Giles

l’extase, il voit resplendir les féeriques
visions, les sanglantes apothéoses des autres
âges. 352
127
The artist, trapped by base physical and social
determinism, forced to exist within a materialistic society
which upholds the tyranny of the majority (democracy)
and faced with the indifference of the natural world, seeks
solitude. This at any rate was the popular conception of the
dilemma which faced artists at the period. Consequently,
solitude was considered to be a necessary precondition of
artistic creation or pastimes. Thus A rebours was born from
Huysmans’ desire to describe a solitary figure who
a découvert, dans l’artifice, un dérivatif au
dégoût que lui inspirent les tracas de la vie et
les moeurs américaines de son temps; je le
profilais fuyant à tire d’aile dans le rêve, se
réfugiant dans l’illusion d’extravagantes
féeries, vivant, seul, loin de son siècle, dans le
souvenir évoqué d’époques plus cordiales, de
milieux moins vils. 353
By concentrating on a solitary inner world, the decadent
attempted to escape an unbearable or commonplace reality,
often by creating an alternate reality, a dream world
through the refinement of the sensations. Des Esseintes is