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 early life, parents, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“It’s important for parents to watch for trouble and convey to their daughters that, if it comes, they are strong enough to deal with it. Parents who send their [adolescent] daughters the message that they’ll be overwhelmed by problems aren’t likely to hear what’s really happening.”
—Mary Pipher (20th century)
“Early rising is no pleasure; early drinking’s just the measure.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“The striking point about our model family is not simply the compete-compete, consume-consume style of life it urges us to follow.... The striking point, in the face of all the propaganda, is how few Americans actually live this way.”
—Louise Kapp Howe (b. 1934)