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
Famous quotes containing the words parents, early and/or life:
“Children now expect their parents to audition for approval.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“Our role is to support anything positive in black life and destroy anything negative that touches it. You have no other reason for being. I don’t understand art for art’s sake. Art is the guts of the people.”
—Elma Lewis (b. 1921)