J.K. Huysmans Against Nature by Robert Baldick

Joris-Karl Huysmans' Against Nature (À rebours), translated by Robert Baldick, is a seminal Decadent novel about the reclusive aristocrat Jean Des Esseintes, who rejects modern society's vulgarity for an isolated villa, creating a world of artificial beauty through exotic art, literature, rare perfumes, and obsessive sensory experiences, notably encrusting a tortoise's shell with jewels, all while battling failing health and profound ennui, serving as a catalogue of aesthetic tastes and a pivotal text for literary decadence.