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Against Nature
Paperback / softback
Main Details
Title |
Against Nature
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Authors and Contributors |
By (author) Joris-Karl Huysmans
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Introduction by Patrick McGuinness
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Notes by Patrick McGuinness
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Translated by Patrick McGuinness
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Physical Properties |
Format:Paperback / softback | Pages:288 | Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129 |
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Category/Genre | Classic fiction (pre c 1945) |
ISBN/Barcode |
9780140447637
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Classifications | Dewey:843.8 |
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Audience | |
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Publishing Details |
Publisher |
Penguin Books Ltd
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Imprint |
Penguin Classics
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Publication Date |
1 May 2003 |
Publication Country |
United Kingdom
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Description
The hero of this curious novel is des Esseintes, a neurasthenic aristocrat who has turned his back on the vulgarity of modern life and retreated to an isolated country villa. Here, accompanied only by a couple of silent servants, he pursues his obsessions with exotic flowers, rare gems, and complex perfumes and embarks on a series of increasingly strange aesthetic experiments, starting with the decision to give his giant pet tortoise a jewel-encrusted shell...
Author Biography
Patrick McGuinness (Introducer, Translator) Patrick McGuinness is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St Anne's College. Born in Tunisia and raised in Belgium, he is a poet, novelist and translator. His novel The Last Hundred Days was longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2011 Costa First Novel Award, and his second novel, Throw me to the Wolves, won the 2020 Encore Award. His other books include two collections of poems, The Canals of Mars (2004), and Jilted City (2010), and a memoir, Other People's Countries (2015), which won the Duff Cooper Prize. He was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2011, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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