Sublime

The woman Huysmans looked for all his life he had already described when he was twenty-seven or -eight, in Marthe, his first novel, published in Brussels in 1876. He wanted a good little cook who could also turn herself into a whore, and he wanted this on a fixed schedule.

You will not offend me, you know,’ said Mr Farebrother, quite unaffectedly. ‘I don’t translate my own convenience into other people’s duties. I am opposed to Bulstrode in many ways. I don’t like the set he belongs to: they are a narrow ignorant set, and do more to make their neighbours uncomfortable than to make them better. Their system is a sort

Le plus médiocre libertin a rêvé des sultanes ; chaque notaire porte en soi les débris d’un poète.