Christa Giles

166
which the unity of the book is decomposed to
give place to the independence of the page, in
which the page is decomposed to give place
to the independence of the phrase, and the
phrase to give place to the independence of
the word. 440
Thus the long catalogue of jewels in A rebours and its
counterpart in The Picture of Dorian Gray may seem
unnecessary, even gratuitous, but in fact, in the decadent
view, this is what endows such a catalogue with value.
Indeed the very choice of subject matter for the catalogue
(in this case jewels, but it applies equally to Huysmans’
catalogue of monsters in the article ˝Les Monstres˝) is
valuable, as we have seen, because the catalogue exists
outside the realm of utility. It is for this reason, also, that
Des Esseintes speaks approvingly of Lucan’s ˝enamelled
and jewelled verse,˝ his ˝exclusive preoccupation with
form.˝ 441 Thus Ernest, in ˝The Critic as Artist,˝ uses the
vocabulary of jewels when he speaks of the artist re-
creating the world through ˝form and colour˝:
All subtle arts belonged to him also. He held
the gem against the revolving disk, and the
amethyst became the purple couch for