En ménage

En ménage (English: Married Life) is a novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, first published in February 1881 by Charpentier.

When he finds out Berthe has been unfaithful, he leaves her to live first with a high-class prostitute called Blanche then with a working-class woman, Jeanne, with whom he had had a love affair five years before.

When Jeanne is forced to leave for a job in London, André decides he cannot cope with life on his own and returns to his wife.

According to Robert Baldick, it differs from its predecessors, Marthe and Les Soeurs Vatard in that "its most impressive feature is its characterization rather than description.

This shift from pictorial to psychological interest is illustrated by the number of perceptive character studies - notably those of Berthe Jayant, her uncle M.Désableau, and the maidservant Mélanie - which are to be found in the novel.