faith."

End of Project Gutenberg's Against The Grain, by Joris-Karl Huysmans

[Transcriber's Note, to forestall future queries:

This translation, as printed, omits two sections: chapter 6 entirely,
and a few paragraphs near the end of chapter 9 (totalling 2500 words,
or about 4%).

In chapter 6, Des Esseintes is relaxing in a wing-chair in front of
the fire, remembering an event. One evening in the Rue de Rivoli he
had befriended a young man, taken him to an expensive brothel, and
paid for his entertainment. He had explained to the madam how he
planned to turn the innocent young man into a murderer: by paying for
regular visits and making him accustomed to a luxury he could not
afford, then after three months stopping all payment. To maintain his
habit, he would be driven to burglary, and perhaps kill someone who
happened upon him. Des Esseintes' reflections have only the regret
that he did not pursue his scheme closely enough to ensure its
success.

Near the end of chapter 9, after musing upon the ventriloquist, Des
Esseintes recalls walking along the Avenue de Latour-Maubourg when he
was approached by a young man. He remembers this leading to an intense
relationship that he looks back upon with a disturbing ambivalence.

Huysmans expressed antipathy to the moral content of these passages in
a postface of 1903. ]

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