Abstract: In 1877 and 1886, the Bièvre, a particularly polluted Parisian river, inseparable from its poverty-stricken surroundings, was the subject of two emblematic prose poems by Huysmans, a flâneur and painter who captured the spirit of this modern place to which he felt intimately attuned. The melancholy he feels there bears witness to an acute awareness of the place’s seemingly inevitable disappearance. In the meantime, the prose poet draws beautiful treasures from the decay of the site.
