Drifting

"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 Floressas des Esseintes, the aristocratic anti-hero of Huysmans' Decadent classic Against Nature, written just two years later in 1884. But the two men share more than just a first name: like des Esseintes, Folantin is in the throes of an existential crisis: alienated from a Paris undergoing rapid modernisation, the pace of social change leaves him feeling out of place, impotent, a small cog in an impersonal commercial world. Through the distorting lens of Huysmans' dark sense of humour, the dyspeptic Folantin is transformed into a modern-day Ulysses, and his tortuous quest through the streets of Haussmann's Paris to find a capable housekeeper and a decent meal reaches its conclusion in one of the most daring anti-climaxes - literally speaking - in the whole of nineteenth century fiction."--Provided by publisher.