Against Nature J. K. Huysmans "Against Nature is one of the great fictions of the "fin de siecle and a virtual text book for what the critics of the time called "decadent" literature. The victim of over-wrought nerves, of neuralgia and dyspepia, Des Esssintes retires for a season from Paris to the solitude of his country house at Fontennay, to soothe his fantasy and to gratify his complex aesthetic sensations.