A neurasthenic aristocrat turns his back on the vulgarity of modern life and retreats to an isolated country villa. Here he pursues his obsessions with exotic flowers, rare gems and perfumes and embarks on a series of increasingly strange aesthetic experiments.

This is a new translation after half a century of Huysmans' earliest masterpiece. It includes the short story, 'The Retreat of Monsieur Bougran', translated for the first time into English. 'With the Flow' describes the minutiae of misery and boredom in the day in the life of a man who - for a moment - refuses to go with the flow.

Follows Durtal, a shy, censorious man, who is writing a biography of Gilles de Rais. Bored by the vulgarity of everyday life, he seeks spiritual solace by immersing himself in another age. But when he meets the exquisitely evil Madame Chantelouve, he is drawn into the twilight world of black magic and erotic devilry in fin-de-siecle Paris.

A masterpiece of city writing in which Huysmans did in words what the impressionists did in paint. Translated by Brendan King.

A new translation of this important landmark in Huysman's career, which propelled him into the ranks of the Naturalist movement, this is one of the first French novels to tackle head-on the subject of prostitution. Broadsheet reviews expected.

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