Restoring the
missing passages.

What the Time Warp
Edition offers.

Aurélie Chambord’s translation of Joris-Karl Huysmans’s Against Nature (1884) includes all sixteen chapters. Lee Raymond’s introduction and the chapter endnotes accompany the text. Huysmans’s 1903 preface, Field Notes of the Decadence, a biography, chronology and contemporary responses offer further ways to explore the novel’s history.

The restored text in Aurélie Chambord’s translation

The whole of Chapter VI and the passages cut from Chapter IX are included, giving readers the episodes about cruelty and desire missing from the abridged 1922 Howard translation.

Lee Raymond’s introduction and chapter endnotes

The introduction provides a way into the novel; the notes explain its artists, writers, religious references and sensory experiments. The sample shows both the translated prose and the kind of explanation that accompanies it.

Field Notes of the Decadence

A separate section gives further context for the Decadent movement, extending the discussion beyond the references encountered in individual chapters.

Huysmans’s later reflections and early reception

The 1903 preface lets readers encounter Huysmans’s own later view of the novel. Contemporary responses, an author biography and a chronology place it alongside its first readers and the events of his life.

The Time Warp Edition brings this translation and editorial material together in a 357-page paperback. The restored passages are part of Huysmans’s novel; the introductions, endnotes and historical sections provide additional context for reading it.