Immortal Literary Combat Against Nature vs. Thoreau

I am thoroughly convinced that if Henry David Thoreau could have read Joris-Karl Huysmans’s book, â€Å"Against Nature,† he would have been assiduously disgusted by it. Des Esseintes represented and admired everything that Thoreau tried to leave behind when he escaped to Walden Pond; and Des Esseintes was appalled by the aspects of life which Thoreau held most dear. Though Des Esseintes and Thoreau were men of the same century, they lived in entirely different worlds from one another; Des Esseintes in a world of expenditure and materialism, and Thoreau in one of essence and simplicity. Des Esseintes buried himself in a personalized hole of riches because he loathed the human race and sought to obscure himself from his fellow mankind. The disdain Des Esseintes had for the members of his species was directly correlated with his vanity and conceit; he saw himself as superior being, and yet he required constant assistance and care. He regarded the people around him as unint ellectual bohemians who were not worthy of his esteemed presence. Thoreau went to the woods to live pleasantly and simply, he welcomed visitors, and he had many. While Thoreau did find himself to be much wiser than anyone else he had encountered, he was not conceited about it, and did not give up on the world because of it, as Des Esseintes did. Thoreau was intrigued by people, whether they were intelligent, ignorant, wise, or foolish; and spoke to them so that he may gather their thoughts and apply them to his