Abstract: In À Rebours, Jean des Esseintes appears as a nobleman, but he is poor, without filiation, decadent. He is detached from his environment and serves as a foil for his author. The nobleman distances himself from naturalist works, like an alter ego of the author. À Rebours becomes the book of an artist in which, as the character reveals himself –lost nobility, the retreat, the backdrop of his tastes, and his attraction for the artificial–, the author displays his aesthetic tastes through his character.
