Queneau's Fiction: An Introductory Study, and: Representation in Contemporary French Fiction, and: Claude Simon, and: Politics, Writing, Mutilation: The Cases of Bataille, Blanchot, Roussel, Leiris, and Ponge (review)
literature than is Julien Green, but his reputation is, I suspect, still based primarily on the book that became the "bible" of the decadent movement, A Rebours. Huysmans is usually classified in the manuals as a naturalist writer and disciple of Zola who later became disillusioned with naturalism and broke with his mentor. It is this simplified view of Huysmans that Ruth Antosh proposes to correct. After an opening chapter in which she recapitulates the doctrine of "naturalisme spiritualiste," Huysmans' attempt in LÃ -Bas to define a naturalism which is not confined to the material world and of which the foremost exemplar in Huysmans' view was the painter Mathis GrÃ1⁄4newald, the author searches for evidence of this spiritualism in the early works, that is, in works antedating the break with Zola. She identifies a characteristic and ever-present theme, namely Huysmans' descriptions of the rooms that his characters inhabit. These rooms represent the psyche of the character, his flight from the real world, and provide the locus for his reveries and debilitating self-contemplation. This concern with the inner life, in particular the dreams, hallucinations, reveries, and spiritual yearning of his characters, a concern evident in the earliest novels, is the sign for the author that Huysmans was never a true naturalist. But from this standpoint, can even ZoIa be considered a true naturalist? Emile Zola's reputation as a novelist has risen steadily over the past few years. Research carried out since the 1950s has focused primarily on the epic and mythic aspects of Zola's work, research to which Philip Walker has made important contributions.