Against Nature
Page 31
CHAPTER 15
1. and he was well aware… with impunity: Huysmans was writing at a time of high Wagnerism. Baudelaire and Mallarmé had written powerful meditations on Wagner’s music and its implications for poetry, and the French Revue wagnérienne published a number of Symbolist texts inspired by or in response to Wagner’s music. Huysmans was also a contributor to the review. It should be noted that at the time Wagner’s music was heard in extracts at concerts rather than performed integrally. It is interesting in this respect that Des Esseintes, always ready to extract and anthologize and decontextualize, does not approve of these practices for music.
2. of Auber and Boïeldieu, of Adam and Flotow: All represent the French comic opera tradition.
3. Des Mädchens Klage: (‘The Young Girl’s Lament’), a poem by Schiller set to music by Schubert.
CHAPTER 16
1. But then, the decayed nobility was done for… classes: Huysmans here refers to the scandals that preceded the 1848 revolution.
2. Among the Dominicans… certain dealers: Rouard de Card’s book was published in 1856. This preoccupation of Des Esseintes takes up the theme explored in the chapter on scents of real or ‘essential’ substances and fake, industrially produced versions.