Aangeboden — al een poosje overigens — door de welbekende Lame Duck Books voor de schappelijke
prijs van 8375 euro. Kon ik het missen, dan had ik het gekocht:
‘À Rebours. Description: Paris: Charpentier, 1884 Small octavo, 294pp. First edition of
one of the greatest of all decadentnovels, the book which corrupted
Dorian Gray, and in many ways, one of the defining books of the epoch.
A presentation copy, inscribed by Huysmans: “Á M. Coulon, tres
cordialment, J.K. Huysmans.” Huysmans’s evocation of the hermetic sensualism
of his character, des Esseintes, epitomized a byzantine fin-de-siècle
aesthetic which would have an influence on Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley,
Burne-Jones, Swinburne, Gustave Moreau, etc.
A splendid near fine copy in a modern binding by Godillot, using old
materials and with the original wrappers bound in.’