{"product_id":"drifting-9781915568748","title":"Drifting","description":"This is a Ulysses of the eatery, whose Odyssey, limited to voyages from one dish in which rancid butter surrounds uneatable meat to another, is heartbreaking, touching and despairing.\" -- Guy de Maupassant in Le Gaulois \u003cbr\u003eThe 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 (a 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis new translation by Brendan King 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e J. -K Huysmans\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Dedalus\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/10\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeries:\u003c\/b\u003e Dedalus European Classics\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 112\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.23lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.81h x 5.11w x 0.36d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781915568748\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e2nd Edition\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Dedalus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45463112319113,"sku":"9781915568748","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_bd6348fb-90ab-485b-acbe-a839b3a4ddd4.jpg?v=1774997000","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/drifting-9781915568748","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}