Huysmans' Benevolent Malice

It was Richard Hell in a Melody Maker interview back in probably 1977 that turned me on to the wonderful Huysmans book À Rebours . A word of advice try and read the translation entitled 'Against The Grain' as opposed to the more common Penguin edition 'Against Nature'.

Those of you who know the Dim Stars cover of the precious stone encrusted tortoise will find its sorry tale in this novel also.

Finally I do seem to recall reading that Oscar Wilde based his character Dorian Gray on his idea of who Huysmans could have been when in fact all the time he was a lowly civil servant in 19th Century France.