The Academy
July 31, 1880.
PARIS LETTER
One of the authors of the Soirées, M. J. K. Huysmans, has just published separately a little volume of Parisian Sketches (Vaton), in which are found some curious pictures of the poor and of the gay quarters of Paris. M. Huysmans’ prose is certainly the most Byzantine product of our epoch. Extremely elaborate, full of rare words, sometimes crude to banality, sometimes refined to enervation, this prose is akin to that of Baudelaire and the brothers Goncourt, but preserves a very original note which secures for its author a place apart. M. Huysmans, who is a passionate admirer of Dickens, often employs the method of the great novelist in depicting the smallest details of miserable objects.
PAUL BOURGET.