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Drifting

Published by Dedalus Books in November 2017

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blue  Translated with an introduction and notes by Brendan King.

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The misfortunes of Jean Folantin, a downtrodden clerk working for the Ministry of the Interior in Paris, form the subject of J.-K. Huysmans’ blackly comic novella, Drifting (À vau-l’eau).

At first glance, Folantin’s problems seem to be a world away from those of Jean Floressas des Esseintes, the aristocratic anti-hero of Huysmans’ Decadent classic Against Nature, written just two years later in 1884. But the two men share more than just a first name: like des Esseintes, Folantin is in the throes of an existential crisis: alienated from a Paris undergoing rapid modernisation, the pace of social change leaves him feeling out of place, impotent, a small cog in an impersonal commercial world. Through the distorting lens of Huysmans’ dark sense of humour, the dyspeptic Folantin is transformed into a modern-day Ulysses, and his tortuous quest through the streets of Haussmann’s Paris to find a capable housekeeper and a decent meal reaches its conclusion in one of the most daring anti-climaxes — literally speaking — in the whole of nineteenth century fiction.

This new translation by Brendan King features an introduction and comprehensive notes, and also includes, for the first time in English, a contemporary profile of Huysmans’ life and work in which the author plays both interviewer and interviewee, and which was published pseudonymously for the journal, Les Hommes d’aujourd’hui (Men of Today) in 1885.

"Folantin's...condemnation of the world around him are ultimately comic and inspiriting, and are given piquancy by Brendan King's new translation, which preserves the sheer delectability of the language even when it's describing something disgusting. That, along with King's introduction, notes, with their intelligence on everything from lead oxide used to adulterate nineteenth-century wines to the ubiquity of syphilis in the French capital, makes A Vau-l'eau a good place in which to consort with Huysmans' miserable creations." (Matt Sturrock, Times Literary Supplement.)

“A masterly essay in everyday pessimism…and its hero one of the great types in French literature.” Robert Baldick, The Life of J.-K. Huysmans

“[The] Iliad of indigestion.” James Huneker, Unicorns

“At first glance another study in banality, [À vau-l’eau] is turned into a minor masterpiece by humour and gentle self-mockery.” Michael Scott, Struggle for the Soul of the French Novel