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If you loved
Books like À rebours
A plotless, suffocatingly lush descent into the ultimate aesthetic obsession and aristocratic decay. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with À rebours.
- claustrophobic
- opulent
- languid
- artificial
- decaying
- 01
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
A seductive descent into vanity and moral decay, wrapped in velvet and poisoned with wit.
- 02
Là-bas
Joris-Karl Huysmans · 2001
A dense, decadent descent into the occult underbelly of 19th-century Paris, steeped in morbid history and spiritual malaise.
- 03
La nausée
Sartre, Jean-Paul; Translated by Robert Baldick · 2005
A visceral, diary-style descent into the overwhelming, suffocating realization that existence is entirely without inherent meaning.
- 04
Nana
Zola, Emile
A glittering, feverish descent into the opulent rot of a society consuming itself through desire.
- 05
Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu
Balzac, Honore de
A philosophical and tragic exploration of the fine line between transcendental genius and absolute failure in the pursuit of art.
- 06
L'immoraliste
André Gide · 1930
A sun-drenched, feverish confession of a man shedding his moral constraints in pursuit of absolute, destructive freedom.
- 07
Oscar Wilde's The picture of Dorian Gray
oscar-wilde-ian-edginton-ian-culbard · 2008
A visually striking descent into vanity, hedonism, and the terrifying psychological cost of eternal youth.
- 08
Sodome et Gomorrhe
Marcel Proust
A microscopic, devastating dissection of high-society hypocrisy and the agonizing paranoia of hidden desires.
- 09
Querelle de Brest
Jean Genet · 1953
A lush, hallucinatory descent into a shadowy port town where crime, betrayal, and homoerotic desire are elevated to sacred rituals.
- 10
Therese Raquin
Zola, Emile · 1886
A claustrophobic, feverish descent into the psychological rot that follows a crime of passion.
- 11
The gutter in the sky
Jean Genet · 1955
A feverish, poetic descent into a Parisian underworld where crime, filth, and queer desire are elevated to religious ecstasy.
- 12
Trilby
George du Maurier · 1977
A dark, spellbinding descent into bohemian Paris where innocence is consumed by sinister magnetism and occult obsessions.
