# Miss Urania — Against the Grain character guide

> Miss Urania in Against the Grain by J.-K. Huysmans.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Urania

**First appearance:** 0009-vii

## Snapshot

An American trapeze artist whose muscular, androgynous act inflames Des Esseintes until the reality of her dullness destroys the fantasy.

## Who they are

Miss Urania is the living woman on whom Des Esseintes tries to hang his dream of a hard, brutal, virile beauty, reading his own inverted desires into the fixed smile she wears while turning on her trapeze. She courts him practically, knowing his wealth and name can advance a career, and once his wishes are granted his disappointment is total: she is merely stupid, greedy, and feminine. Their affair is the book's sharpest demonstration that the imagined object always outshines the real one.

## Relationships

### [Des Esseintes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/characters/des_esseintes)

_psychological_

Des Esseintes is obsessed with Miss Urania as a symbol of masculine strength in a female form, using her to fuel his fantasies of power inversion.

## In the story

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/chapters/vi)

Mentioned as the 'handsome Jewess' Vanda at Madame Laure's establishment.

### [Chapter IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/chapters/ix)

An American acrobat who becomes the first in a procession of remembered mistresses.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/characters/miss_urania
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/characters