If any biography of Huysmans could be considered definitive, this is it. The product of years of research and access to previously unpublished sources, Robert Baldick’s Life continues to be compulsory reading for anyone studying Huysmans, despite the fact that it is nearly 50 years since its first publication. France has paid Baldick the ultimate compliment: his biography was translated into French by Marcel Thomas in 1959, reprinted in 1975, and is equally considered the definitive source book on the biographical facts of Huysmans’ life.