于斯曼的小说《逆流》(Against the Grain or Against Nature or Wrong Way; 1884)成为他最著名的作品,或者说是臭名昭著的作品。这部小说以一个美学家德·埃辛特为主角,果断地与自然主义决裂。它被看作是 "颓废 "文学的一个例子。对德·埃辛特与一个 "樱桃嘴青年 "的 "诱人的联系 "的描述被认为影响了颓废主义运动的其他作家,包括奥斯卡·王尔德。
于斯曼开始远离自然主义者,并在象征主义和天主教作家中找到了新的朋友,他曾在《逆流》中赞扬过这些作家的作品。他们包括儒勒·巴贝·德·奥雷维利、维利耶·德·莱尔·亚当和莱昂·布洛伊。斯特凡·马拉美对自己的诗作从这部小说中得到的宣传非常满意,他将自己最有名的诗作之一《Prose pour des Esseintes》献给了小说的主人公。Barbey d'Aurevilly告诉于斯曼,在写完《逆流》后,他将不得不在 "手枪的枪口和十字架的脚下 "之间做出选择。于斯曼在童年时接受了世俗教育并放弃了天主教,八年后他回到了天主教会。
Addleshaw, S. (1931). "French Novel and the Catholic Church," Church Quarterly Review, Vol. CXII, pp. 65–87.
Antosh, Ruth B. (1986). Reality and Illusion in the Novels of J-K Huysmans. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Baldick, Robert (1955). The Life of J.-K. Huysmans. Oxford: Clarendon Press (new edition revised by Brendan King, Dedalus Books, 2006).
Léon Bloy (1913). Sur la tombe de Huysmans. Paris: Collection of Literary Curiosities. (On Huysmans' Tomb: Critical reviews of J.-K. Huysmans and À Rebours, En Rade, and Là-Bas. Portland, OR: Sunny Lou Publishing, 2021. Includes Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly's review of À rebours from Le Constitutionnel, 28 July 1884, in appendix.)
Cevasco, George A. (1961). J.K. Huysmans in England and America: A Bibliographical Study. Charlottesville: The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia.
Symons, Arthur (1892). "J.–K. Huysmans," The Fortnightly Review, Vol. LVII, pp. 402–414.
Symons, Arthur (1916). "Joris–Karl Huysmans." In: Figures of Several Centuries. London: Constable and Company, pp. 268–299.
Thacker, Eugene (2014). "An Expiatory Pessimism." In: Transactions of the Flesh: An Homage to Joris-Karl Huysmans Bucharest: Ex Occidente Press, pp. 132-143.
Thorold, Algar (1909). "Joris–Karl Huysmans." In: Six Masters of Disillusion. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, pp. 80–96.
Ziegler, Robert (2004). The Mirror of Divinity: The World and Creation in J.-K. Huysmans. Newark: University of Delaware Press.