Christa Giles

137
much of which was translated in the 1890s in French
reviews. In Carlyle’s view:
All visible things are emblems; what thou
seest is not there on its own account; strictly
taken, is not there at all; Matter exists only
spiritually and to represent some idea, and
body it forth… 373
The symbol represented some idea and had the quality of
revelation and therefore mystery so precious to Wilde and
Huysmans. Dreams, like art, were perceived as symbolic
and therefore requiring interpretation. The idea that
symbols were thoughts made sensible allowed for endless
interpretative speculation. In A rebours Des Esseintes,
dreaming before the portrait of Salomé, wonders as to the
significance of the lotus-blossom held in Salome’s hand:
Had it the phallic significance which
the primordial religions of India attributed to
it? Did it suggest to the old Tetrarch a
sacrifice of virginity, an exchange of blood, an
impure embrace asked for and offered on the
express condition of a murder? Or did it
represent the allegory of fertility, the Hindu
myth of life, an existence held between the
fingers of woman and clumsily snatched
away by the fumbling hands of man, who is