À rebours, œuvre romantique ou romanesque ? Une lecture girardienne des désirs de Des Esseintes

This article suggests a reading of À rebours that is based on the theory of mimetic desire developed by René Girard. Des Esseintes is similar to a romantic character whose acts are determined by an internal mediation in a world henceforth without God. Yet while the character is romantic, Huysmans’ novel is not. Through the excesses of his hero, the author reveals the mechanisms of metaphysical desire. The aesthete already announces Durtal: À rebours reveals itself to be a profoundly fictional work.