The lowly, downtrodden Paris civil servant Jean Folantin seeks respite from the boredom and isolation of his life in the small joys of food and the occasional embraces of a prostitute. But whatever he does, wherever he turns in his quest for some pleasure, his dissatisfaction only increases, until he is forced to realize that he has to abandon all hope and just "go with the flow". This 1882 novella, a key work in Huysmans' literary development - prefiguring in its protagonist the figure of Jean des Esseintes, the hero of A rebours, written two years later - is accompanied here by another masterly study of human despair, 'M. Bougran's Retirement'.

This new edition presents With the Flow followed by The Retreat of Monsieur Bougran. Together, Huysmans' two studies of institutionalized boredom brilliantly evoke the social fetters that force us to go "with the flow".

About the Author
Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907) was a central figure of the French decadent movement at the end of the nineteenth century. Today he is best remembered for the novel A rebours (Against Nature or Against the Grain), which had a huge influence on contemporary writers, including Oscar Wilde, as well as on subsequent generations of novelists.

Reviews
With the Flow is the most complete expression of that pessimism which, even at the start of the twenty-first century, remains central to our self-perception. -- Simon Callow



Book Information
ISBN 9781847498342
Author Joris-Karl Huysmans
Format Paperback
Page Count 128
Imprint Alma Classics
Publisher Alma Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 154g