Chapter 2 , after stating that ``Des Esseintes considered , furthermore , that artifice was the distinguishing characteristic of human genius , being the central concept of decadence , Huysmans indulges in self-parody : ``Does there , in this world , exist a being conceived in the joys of fornication and born of the birth pangs of a womb , of which the model and type is more dazzling or more splendid than those of the two locomotives now in service on the railroad of Northern France (Huysmans , 20...











SUBJECTS

