%0 Journal Article
%T Satisfying one's hunger: destiny, purpose and vocation in À vau l'eau by Joris-Karl Huysmans
%A Sadkowska-Fidala, Agata
%J Cahiers ERTA
%V 2023
%R 10.4467/23538953CE.23.017.17934
%N Numéro 34
%P 171-187
%K hunger, research, suffering, disappointment
%@ 2300-4681
%D 2023
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/cahiers-erta/article/satisfaire-sa-faim-destin-dessein-et-vocation-dans-a-vau-leau-de-joris-karl-huysmans
%X In his short novel published before À Rebours, entitled À vau-l’eau, Huysmans tells a story of a protagonist unable to find good food. His quest for a passable restaurant remains unfulfilled, and joins other unfulfilled needs linked to his social life. It becomes clear that behind this quest, told with numerous details and a significant emphasis, there are other, more profound needs that Huysmans will name, more and more directly, in his post-naturalist novels. At the deepest level, the quest comes down to the impossibility to accept life’s difficulties, its duality, and to the wound of an unhappy childhood and a lost mother, so little named and therefore so present in Huysmans’ works.