{"product_id":"a-dilemma","title":"A Dilemma","description":"\u003cbody\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTitle: \u003c\/b\u003eA Dilemma\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor: \u003c\/b\u003eJoris Karl Huysmans\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN: \u003c\/b\u003e9781939663115\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/b\u003eWakefield Press\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished: \u003c\/b\u003e2015\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding: \u003c\/b\u003ePaperback\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage: \u003c\/b\u003eEnglish\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEdition: \u003c\/b\u003eReissue\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Note: \u003c\/b\u003eNew from the publisher\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher Description: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA mordantly satiric and cruel account of bourgeois greed\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOriginally published in book form in French in 1887, Joris-Karl Huysmans' \u003ci\u003eA Dilemma\u003c\/i\u003e remains a particularly nasty little tale, a mordantly satiric and cruel account of bourgeois greed and manipulation that holds up as clear a mirror to today's neoliberalist times as it did to the French fin-de-siècle. Written smack in-between Huysmans' most famous works--his 1881 \u003ci\u003eAgainst Nature\u003c\/i\u003e, which came to define the Decadent movement, and his 1891 exploration of Satanism, \u003ci\u003eDown There\u003c\/i\u003e--\u003ci\u003eA Dilemma\u003c\/i\u003e presents some of Huysmans' most memorable characters, including Madame Champagne, the self-appointed Parisian protector of women in need, and the carnal would-be sophisticate notary Le Ponsart, who wages a war of words with the bereft pregnant mistress of his deceased grandson with devastating consequences. In its unflinching portrayal of how authoritarian language can be used and abused as a weapon, this novella stands as Huysmans' indictment of the underlying crime of the novel itself: a language apparatus employed to maintain the appetites of the ruling class. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEarning a wage through a career in the French civil service, \u003cb\u003eJoris-Karl Huysmans\u003c\/b\u003e (1848-1907) quietly explored the extremes of human nature and artifice through a series of books that influenced a number of different literary movements: from the grey and grimy Naturalism of books like \u003ci\u003eMarthe\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDownstream\u003c\/i\u003e to the cornerstones of the Decadent movement, \u003ci\u003eAgainst Nature\u003c\/i\u003e and the Satanist classic \u003ci\u003eDown There\u003c\/i\u003e, the dream-ridden Surrealist favorite, \u003ci\u003eBecalmed\u003c\/i\u003e, and his Catholic novels, \u003ci\u003eThe Cathedral\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Oblate\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/body\u003e","brand":"Wakefield Press","offers":[{"title":"A Dilemma | Joris Karl Huysmans | Paperback | 9781939663115 | New | Fiction 1605914","offer_id":50676162232578,"sku":"1605914","price":28.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/3327\/5906\/files\/61R14rOM5TL.jpg?v=1791353165","url":"https:\/\/boswellsbooks.com\/products\/a-dilemma","provider":"Boswell's Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}