Drifting

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
The 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 Floress...