Parents and Early Life
He was born in Paris in 1848. His father Godfried Huysmans was Dutch and a lithographer by trade. His mother, Malvina Badin Huysmans, had been a schoolmistress. Huysmans' father died when the boy was eight years old. After his mother quickly remarried, Huysmans resented his stepfather, Jules Og, a Protestant who was part-owner of a Parisian book-bindery.
During childhood, Huysmans turned away from the Catholic Church. He was unhappy at school but completed his coursework and earned a baccalauréat.
Read more about this topic: Joris-Karl Huysmans
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