Customer Reviews:
 Recommended November 27, 2008
I suppose this is a lesser work from the author of Against Nature, but it's very enjoyable. I rarely re-read books, but to due to this book's brevity and atmosphere I've read this twice and feel like reading it again. I enjoy the main character's state of mind and the period detail of his lodgings, work and eating habits.
I once read a term, maybe a German word, for the stereotype of unhappy office clerk that Kafka used to write about. If anyone know what this word is, please leave a comment.
It is a word which would have been useful when writing this review.
 Familiar ground July 20, 2003
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is, overall, a charming new addition to the small number of works by Huysmans currently available in English. It deals with familiar territory for readers of the celebrated novels, A Rebours, and La-Bas. Huysmans himself, civil servant and part-time epicurean, is the face behind the mask of his disaffected leading characters. The two texts collected here describe the strange, introspective efforts of two solitary, frustrated men who feel out of place in a vulgar world which seems to taunt them for their sensitivity. The realistic influence of earlier French writers, explored in early works such as Marthe, and reflected in an on-going obsession with Parisian low-life, is felt in these texts more keenly than the learned, florid style of the later novels. The translation is generally faithful to the tone of Huysmans's style, but does feature several strangely anachronistic turns of phrase. This does not spoil the reader's appreciation of the texts, however, and the introductory material is informative and appropriate.
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