Against The Grain
by Joris-Karl Huysmans | 
The Black Sheep
by Honore de Balzac | 
Bouvard and Pecuchet
by Gustave Flaubert | 
The Charterhouse of Parma
by Stendhal | 
Lost Illusions
by Honore de Balzac | 
Sentimental Education
by Gustave Flaubert | 
Bel-Ami
by Guy de Maupassant | 
The Beast Within
by Emile Zola | 
Cousin Pons
by Honore de Balzac | 
Lucien Leuwen
by Stendhal | 
The Red and the Black
by Stendhal |
The Damned
by Joris-Karl Huysmans | 
The Lily of the Valley
by Honore de Balzac | 
The Man Who Laughs
by Victor Hugo | 
Pierre and Jean
by Guy de Maupassant | 
A Woman's Life
by Guy de Maupassant | 
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck | 
Nine Stories
by J. D. Salinger | 
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens | 
Stoner
by John Williams |
With a title translated either as Against Nature or as Against The Grain, this wildly original fin-de-siecle novel follows its sole character, Des Esseintes, a decadent, ailing aristocrat who retreats to an isolated villa where he indulges his taste for luxury and excess. Veering between nervous excitability and debilitating ennui, he gluts his aesthetic appetites with classical literature and art, exotic jewels (with which he fatally encrusts the shell of his tortoise), rich perfumes, and a kaleidoscope of sensual experiences. The original handbook of decadence, Against Nature exploded like a grenade (in the words of Huysmans) and has enjoyed a cult readership from its publication to the present day.