Against the Grain

Disgusted with society and exhausted by excess, one man retreats from the world to create a private universe devoted entirely to beauty, artifice, and sensation.

Jean des Esseintes, the last descendant of a declining aristocratic family, abandons Paris and withdraws to a secluded house at Fontenay. Determined to escape everything he considers vulgar and ordinary, he surrounds himself with rare books, strange works of art, exotic plants, precious stones, elaborate perfumes, unusual music, and...