Joris-Karl Huysmans

(1848 - 1907)

Joris-Karl Huysmans wrote many of his novels, including Against Nature and The Cathedral, while working for the Committee of General Security. “He lets the reader stay one step ahead of him,” novelist Michel Houellebecq wrote of Huysmans in 2015, “inviting us to laugh at him and his overly plaintive, awful, or ludicrous descriptions, even before he laughs at himself.”