139
…
suffering from a certain indisposition
. The implication in the original text, though not stated as openly as it is here, is that Cyprien is recovering from a touch of ‘the pox’.
140
…emptied his barrel-organ
. This slightly strange-sounding metaphor is in fact quite a literal description. Barrel-organs of the period worked by feeding through a continuous sheet of music, stored in a compartment below the mechanism, which would then come out and pile up at the other end.
140
…
Cabanel and Gérôme
. Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889) was a French artist, one of the leading figures in Academic painting and an exponent of what would later and derisively be termed
l’art pompier
, originally because historical subjects such as those depicted in Jacques-Louis David’s
Leonidas at Thermopylae
(1814) wore helmets not dissimilar to those of firemen (
pompiers
). Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) was another leading Academic painter and sculptor. Huysmans was unsparing in his criticisms of
l’art pompier
, and in
L’Art moderne
(1883) he called for the over-polished work of Cabanel and Gérôme to be thrown in the bin, along with ‘all those cardboard cut-out goddesses and all that devotional rubbish of the past!’
141
…Venus de Medici
. This lifesize sculpture of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, her left arm attempting to cover her breasts and her right hand trying to cover her genitals, was an iconic model of the kind of cold, classical beauty that Huysmans detested in art.
141
…
so-called ‘paintings of the nude’
. The kind of painting Huysmans is attacking here is admirably represented by the neoclassical work of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), whose nudes are characterised by flawless skin and not even a hint of bodily hair.
142
…
glazed their vulgarity
. In the original, Huysmans uses the word
frottée
, which ordinarily means ‘rubbed’. However,
frottée
is also a painting term, meaning to scumble or apply a thin glaze to the surface of a painting.
143
…
boutiques of secondhand clothes
. The
marchandes à la toilette
were a type that often figured in Balzac’s works, such as
Splendeur et misères des courtisanes
(1847). They not only provided secondhand clothes, jewelry and trinkets for courtesans or women who’d come down in the world, but also, by implication, filled the role of procuress.
143
…
began to squeal
. In the original Huysmans uses a rare metaphor,
poussa des cris de merluche
. Zola used the same expression in
L’Assommoir
. Although
merluche
can refer either to a fish, like a hake, or a Provençal fish dish, it also has a slang definition meaning a loose woman.
X
146
…
medlars
. An apple-like fruit that needs to be left for several weeks until it begins to decay (a process known as bletting) before it is ready to eat. Medlars were more common in the past than they are today. Huysmans mentions them several times in his work, and in a piece written for
La Cravache parisienne
in December 1876, he describes them as being ‘as black as a dog’s arse’.
146
…
Horsey, horsey
. In the original Huysmans quotes part of a children’s nursery rhyme,
A dada sur mon bidet, prout, prout, prout, cadet!
which is an onomatopoeic rhyme much like ‘Horsey, horsey don’t you stop’, but in which the noises mimic the farting of a horse. The pun comes from the fact that in French, aside from its everyday definition,
bidet
can also refer to a small pony or horse.
148
…
the only man who’d keep you is Private Punter
. Huysmans uses a slang name
Général Pavé
, meaning any man walking the street (
pavé
) looking to pick up a prostitute. After the roads were macadamised, the term
Général Macadam
was also used to mean the same thing.
150
…
knocking back a glass of Kir
. Huysmans uses the slang expression
étouffait son Pierrot de vin blanc
. The term derived from a wine merchant who sold cassis and white wine for one sous a glass, and which was popularly known as
un pierrot
.
152 …
perforated steel spoons
. The traditional way to prepare absinthe is to put a sugar cube on a perforated spoon that rests over the glass. Water is then poured over the sugar which dissolves into the absinthe, the water turns the absinthe cloudy and the sugar helps sweeten its bitter taste.
XI
158
…
La Belle Polonaise
. Until recently La Belle Polonaise (‘The Beautiful Polish Girl’) was located at 21 Rue de la Gaité, Paris 75014. It has now been converted into a Japanese restaurant. Although the cypress and pine trees bordering Montparnasse cemetery that Huysmans mentions later are still there, the restaurant garden in which Auguste and Désirée have their meal no longer exists.
161
…dusty treelets.
Huysmans uses a neologism,
arbricules,
from the word
arbre
, meaning tree.
XII
167
…
Hey, wench!
Huysmans uses the word
limande
in the original, which usually refers to a kind of fish, but which was also slang for prostitute.
169 …
You thought you could break with me
. I have freely translated this paragraph as the sense is difficult to make out. Huysmans uses a series of obscure metaphors and slang phrases, such as
tu as cassé l’agrafe
, which can mean to snap a metal joint (i.e. a reference to the rupture between Céline and Anatole), and the expression
faire une soudure
in the next sentence, which is another metalworking term meaning to solder or weld a joint back together. This extended metaphor is continued in a subsequent paragraph, where Anatole talks about heating up the glue that will bind him and Céline back together again (
chauffer la colle qui doit nous réparer
).
169
…
putting vinegar on it
. A remedy for removing glue was to apply vinegar.
172
…
Rue du Champ d’Asile
. Now the Rue Froideveaux, a street in the 14
th
arrondissement that connects the Avenue du Maine and the Place Denfert-Rochereau, and which runs all the way along the south wall of Montparnasse cemetery.
XIII
179
…
framed advertisements
. Huysmans refers in the original to
chromolithographies
, and although new techniques in colour lithography were used to good effect by renowned artists such as Chéret and Toulouse-Lautrec, the word has a pejorative connotation here. This was because the use of colour lithography was widespread in advertising, in popular illustrated magazines, and in cheap prints and reproductions of art.
180
…
a little boy in his nightshirt
. This is most likely another reference to colour lithographic prints and their use in popular advertising, presumably for skin cream in this case, hence the joking allusions to cucumbers and cold-cream.
182
…
spout innumerable blunders
. Huysmans has Céline mistake a number of common expressions: instead of
quart d’heure de Rabelais
, which refers to the embarrassment one feels when you realise you can’t afford to pay a restaurant bill, she uses the word
rabais
(discount); instead of
roses trémières
(hollyhocks) she uses the word
cremière
(dairy-woman); instead of
l’oeil de lynx,
meaning to have very good eyesight, she uses the word
larynx
; and instead of
cedre du Liban
(Lebanon cedar), she uses the word
zèbre
(zebra). I have adapted the references slightly to suit English turns of phrase or expressions.
XIV
187
…
after he’d satisfied himself
. This not-so oblique reference to masturbation was daring even for Naturalists of the period, and anticipates Paul Bonnetain’s novel on the subject
Charlot s’amuse
(1883).
187
…
not even Joseph
. This is probably an allusion not to Joseph the father of Jesus, but to the Old Testament Joseph who is sold into slavery by his brothers and bought by Potiphar the Egyptian. Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph, and when he refuses she accuses him of attempting to rape her.
188
…
the Château-d’eau theatre
. A Parisian music hall located at 50 Rue de Malte in the 11
th
arrondissement. Inaugurated in 1867, the theatre went through a number of directors and name changes before becoming the Alhambra in 1904. At the time of
The Vatard Sisters
, the theatre was run by Eugène Dejean and staged a number of dramas, revues and pantomimes. After Dejean went bankrupt, the theatre added operetta and light opera to its repertoire, but this never really took off. The direction of the Théâtre du Château-d’Eau passed to George de Lagrenée in 1883 and the theatre’s name changed to the Opéra-Populaire.
189
…
Hervé’s quadrilles.
Louis-Auguste-Florimond Ronger, known as Hervé (1825-1892) was a composer, playwright, singer and director. The author of numerous popular operettas he was also a friend of Jacques Offenbach’s, who he rivalled in popularity.
190
…
in places like Clamart
. Clamart is a commune south of Paris between Montrouge and Versailles. Served by rail and by bus, its expanses of countryside were a convenient place for Parisians to picnic or take country walks in the nineteenth century.
191
…
the factory where it had been made
. The list that follows comprises some of the most famous engineering works in France, Belgium and Germany at the time.
XV
193
…
Rue de Picpus
. The Rue de Picpus is to the east of Paris in the twelfth arrondissement. The Picpus quarter borders the Bois de Vincennes, so it represents a good hour’s walk from Saint-Sulpice.
196
…
the Halle aux Vins on the Quai Saint-Bernard
. The Halle aux Vins comprised a series of warehouses, storage facilities and yards for the wine trade, situated on the south side of the Seine between the Pont de Sully and the Pont d’Austerlitz. It was demolished and the area redeveloped in the 1950s, and is now the site of the Faculty of Science of the University of Paris, and the Institute de la Monde Arabe.
200
…
Boulevard de Mazas.
Now the Boulevard Diderot, the Boulevard de Mazas opened on the Place de Mazas at the angle of the Quai de la Rapée in the eleventh arrondissement, and went on in a straight line till it reached the Place du Trône, now the Place de la Nation.
XVI
202-3
…
the Moulin de la Galette
. The last remaining windmill in Paris, the Moulin de la Galette in the Montmartre district became the site of a famous restaurant and café-concert during the nineteenth century. It was one of the favoured haunts of artists such as van Gogh and Pissarro, and its ambiance was most notably captured by Renoir, in one of his most famous Impressionist works,
Bal du Moulin de la Galette
of 1876. It is significant that Huysmans here is associating Cyprien with the Impressionist movement, which at the time of the novel’s composition hadn’t achieved the kind of public recognition and acceptance it would later do.
203
…
the Cirque d’Été
. Formerly the Cirque nationale, the Cirque d’Été was located at the Carré Marigny on the Avenue Champs-Élysées, more or less where the Théâtre Marigny stands now. The circus experienced a period of success up to the 1880s, but in the 1890s its popularity declined and the building was demolished in 1900.
203
…
a spot near the Place Pinel, behind the abattoir.
The ancient abattoir of Villejuif was situated near the Place Pinel in the thirteenth arrondissement, not far from the Place de l’Italie. It was demolished and in 1909 the École Municipale des Arts et Métiers was built on the site.
XVII
214
…
her head bare
. A woman outside not wearing a hat of some kind was not considered proper, so her bare head is a signifier of her profession.
216
…
the grandiose word ‘anemia’
. Huysmans made frequent use, often in an ironic context, of the word anemia. In
En ménage
(1881), Cyprien Tibaille (who reprises his role as an artist in the novel) is described as anemic, as is des Esseintes in
À rebours
(1884). In his pseudonymous mock-biography of himself for
Les Hommes d’Aujourd’hui
(1885), Huysmans described himself as being identical to the anemic-neurotic characters he wrote about.
222
…
beat the whole table at whist
. In the original Huysmans calls the card game
rheimps
, but as little is known of what this game entailed, I have substituted ‘whist’ instead.
XVIII
227
…
the Virgin of the Rue Mouf-mouf
. The Rue Mouf-mouf was a nickname for the Rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter.
233
…
When the wine’s been poured
. This is perhaps an allusion to an old proverb made famous during the 1870s by the success of Alphonse Daudet’s
Lettres de Mon Moulin
(1870), in which it appeared. The full expression runs
Quand le vin est tiré, il faut le boire
(When the wine’s been poured, it must be drunk).
XIX
245
…
The Handsome Mexican
,
April
,
My Titles of Nobility
. These were all popular songs of the period.
Le Joli Mexicain
was written by Antoine Queyriaux with music by Louis Gregh (1843-1915), who also used the pseudonym Louis Bonardi. Quite a few songs of this period contained
Avril
(April) in the title, possibly referring to the April of 1871, when the Commune took control of Paris. Although Huysmans gives the title of the last piece as
Mes Titres de Nobless
e (literally
My Titles of Nobility
) this is probably a song by Gaston Villemer and Louis Gabillaud from 1875, entitled
La Noblesse des Travailleurs,
which praises the workers of the Republic, one of its couplets runs: ‘Work, Progress and Liberty/Those are my Titles of Nobility.’