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This is the very best example of what the French naturalists wanted a novel to be. It is also the shortest and most autobiographical of Huysmans' works and therefore serves as a wonderful introduction for the contemporary reader to the pleasures of Huysmans. In this dark and mordantly comic masterpiece of everyday pessimism about a Parisian clerk seeking spiritual contentment, the author evokes all the little miseries of urban life while expressing his utter contempt for life in the country. Huysmans' exquisite style is the most perfect remedy for tedium vitae.