Oscar Wilde's Love Affair with A Rebours

Created by Snag Flynn on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 02:09

Part of Group:

Columbia College Chicago - Oscar Wilde and British Aestheticism

A brief timeline of the history between J.K. Huysmans's novel A Rebours and the work of Oscar Wilde

Timeline

A Rebours is Published

May 1884

A Rebours (Against the Grain), an aesthetic novel written by the French author Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907), is published in 1884. Husysmans was a popular poet and well known writer of naturalism; A Rebours was Huysmans's first venture into aestheticism and swiftly aligned him with the growing movement of French Decadents. The novel follows a young aristocrat named Jean Des Essientes who retreats from busy city life to a home in the country to spend the rest of his days pursuing aesthetic philosophy. The novel contains waxing descriptions of a multitude of surrealist experiences, including the death of a tortoise and the blooming of a garden. A Rebours also contains descriptions of several prominent works of art, including French symbolist artist Moreau's Salome Dancing before Herod.


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Snag Flynn

Loading

A Picture of Dorian Gray is Published

Jul 1890

In July of 1890, Oscar Wilde published A Picture of Dorian Gray for the first time in Lippincott's Magazine. Lippincott's was a prominent literary publication from which WIlde had been denied in the past. The novel follow the life and downfall of a young man named Dorian Gray. Gray befriends a painter and falls in with a lazy bourgeois cast of hedonistic characters. A point in Gray's corruption is punctuated by the gift of a novel from one of his mentors; a small yellow book that ruins what's left of Dorian's conscious. The yellow book is apparently confirmed by Wilde to be a thematic allusion to Huysmans's A Rebours in Richard Ellman's biography of Oscar Wilde. 


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Snag Flynn

Loading

Salome is Published

Feb 1893

     Salome was already in rehearsals for a 1892 London premiere, but was banned by the Lord Chamberlain's Office for its portrayal of BIblical figures on stage. In 1893, the play was published in its original French. Wilde is quoted as having said to an interviewer with the Pall Mall Gazette in 1892, "My idea of writing the play was simply this: I have one instrument that I know I can command, and that is the English language. There was another instrument to which I had listened all my life, and I wanted once to touch this new instrument to see whether I could make any beautiful thing out of it". Salome follows the step-daughter of King Herod (named Salome, if you couldn't guess). She performs a dance for King Herod, the Dance of Seven Scarves, and afterwords she requests the head of John the Bapitist on a silver platter. The main focus of the play was the dance, in which seven silk scarves work as extensions of the performers body. The sexuality of Wilde's version of Salome's dance differs greatly from that mentioned in the New Testament. This is believed to be directly linked to Huysmans writing about the story of Salome in A Rebours. Huysmans's surrealist interpretation of Salome's performance for Herod is brought to life via Wilde's script. 


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Snag Flynn

Loading

Trials of Oscar Wilde

Apr 1895 to May 1895

Wilde is brought to court in April of 1895 on charges of gross indecency. During the trial, Wilde's affinity for Huysmans's A Rebours is brought as evidence against his character. A specific passage in A Rebours in which Huysmans alludes to multiple places homosexual men were known to meet-up through-out Paris is used against Wilde in court; in A Rebours, Huysmans suggests a sexual relationship between the protagonist, Des Esseintes, and a young man he meets asking directions towards Rue de Babylon. During trial, Wilde denies the yellow book given to Dorian by Lord Henry in his novel is A Rebours, even to the point of including purposefully incorrect chapter references, but the description in the text makes very clear exactly what French novel unravels Dorian's conscious. Wilde is sentenced to two years of hard labor. 


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Snag Flynn

Loading

A Rebours is Published

A Picture of Dorian Gray is Published

Salome is Published

Trials of Oscar Wilde

1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Dec.
March
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
TimelineJS

Chronological table

Displaying 1 - 4 of 4
Date Event Created by Associated Places
May 1884

A Rebours is Published

1st edition A Rebours
1884 (1st Edition) A Rebours

A Rebours (Against the Grain), an aesthetic novel written by the French author Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907), is published in 1884. Husysmans was a popular poet and well known writer of naturalism; A Rebours was Huysmans's first venture into aestheticism and swiftly aligned him with the growing movement of French Decadents. The novel follows a young aristocrat named Jean Des Essientes who retreats from busy city life to a home in the country to spend the rest of his days pursuing aesthetic philosophy. The novel contains waxing descriptions of a multitude of surrealist experiences, including the death of a tortoise and the blooming of a garden. A Rebours also contains descriptions of several prominent works of art, including French symbolist artist Moreau's Salome Dancing before Herod.

 Snag Flynn
Jul 1890

A Picture of Dorian Gray is Published

In July of 1890, Oscar Wilde published A Picture of Dorian Gray for the first time in Lippincott's Magazine. Lippincott's was a prominent literary publication from which WIlde had been denied in the past. The novel follow the life and downfall of a young man named Dorian Gray. Gray befriends a painter and falls in with a lazy bourgeois cast of hedonistic characters. A point in Gray's corruption is punctuated by the gift of a novel from one of his mentors; a small yellow book that ruins what's left of Dorian's conscious. The yellow book is apparently confirmed by Wilde to be a thematic allusion to Huysmans's A Rebours in Richard Ellman's biography of Oscar Wilde. 

 Snag Flynn
Feb 1893

Salome is Published

Illustration of Salome by Audrey Beardsley
Salome by Audrey Beardsley

     Salome was already in rehearsals for a 1892 London premiere, but was banned by the Lord Chamberlain's Office for its portrayal of BIblical figures on stage. In 1893, the play was published in its original French. Wilde is quoted as having said to an interviewer with the Pall Mall Gazette in 1892, "My idea of writing the play was simply this: I have one instrument that I know I can command, and that is the English language. There was another instrument to which I had listened all my life, and I wanted once to touch this new instrument to see whether I could make any beautiful thing out of it". Salome follows the step-daughter of King Herod (named Salome, if you couldn't guess). She performs a dance for King Herod, the Dance of Seven Scarves, and afterwords she requests the head of John the Bapitist on a silver platter. The main focus of the play was the dance, in which seven silk scarves work as extensions of the performers body. The sexuality of Wilde's version of Salome's dance differs greatly from that mentioned in the New Testament. This is believed to be directly linked to Huysmans writing about the story of Salome in A Rebours. Huysmans's surrealist interpretation of Salome's performance for Herod is brought to life via Wilde's script. 

 Snag Flynn
Apr 1895 to May 1895

Trials of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Wilde is brought to court in April of 1895 on charges of gross indecency. During the trial, Wilde's affinity for Huysmans's A Rebours is brought as evidence against his character. A specific passage in A Rebours in which Huysmans alludes to multiple places homosexual men were known to meet-up through-out Paris is used against Wilde in court; in A Rebours, Huysmans suggests a sexual relationship between the protagonist, Des Esseintes, and a young man he meets asking directions towards Rue de Babylon. During trial, Wilde denies the yellow book given to Dorian by Lord Henry in his novel is A Rebours, even to the point of including purposefully incorrect chapter references, but the description in the text makes very clear exactly what French novel unravels Dorian's conscious. Wilde is sentenced to two years of hard labor. 

 Snag Flynn