This novel is the classic of Satanism. It caused a sensation when it first appeared in 1891 because of its extraordinarily detailed and vivid descriptions of the Black Mass. These descriptions are also authentic, for J. K. Huysmans, who has been called the greatest of the French decadents, had firsthand knowledge of the satanic practices, witch cults, and the whole of the occult underworld thriving in late nineteenth-century Paris. At its center is Durtal, a writer obsessed with the life of one of the blackest figures in history, Gilles de Rais. The legendary crimes, trial, and confession...
This novel is the classic of Satanism. It caused a sensation when it first appeared in 1891 because of its extraordinarily detailed and vivid descript...
Published in 1891, LA-BAS is Huysmans' best-selling novel; its success was due, in part, to its sensational contents. It is in this novel that Huysmans' character, Durtal, is introduced for the first time. This character is thought to be a semi-autobiographical depiction of the author and is used in his next three books which chart Durtal's (and Huysmans') search for religious truths and his ultimate conversion to Roman Catholicism. The journey begins with the viewing of an extremely realistic painting: "In Germany, before a Crucifixion by Matthaeus Grunewald, he had found what he was...
Published in 1891, LA-BAS is Huysmans' best-selling novel; its success was due, in part, to its sensational contents. It is in this novel that Huys...
The Virgin had appeared to two children on a hill. By another coincidence, this Saturday was the eve of the Festival of Our Lady of Seven Dolours. And she appeared as Our Lady of Tears in that desert landscape of stubborn rocks and dismal hills. Weeping bitterly, She had uttered reproofs and threats. The fame of this event spread far and wide; frantic thousands scrambled up fearful paths to a spot so high that trees could not grow there. Suddenly the peaks parted, a wide opening brought the train out into broad daylight; the scene lay clear before them, terrible on all sides. "Le Drac "...
The Virgin had appeared to two children on a hill. By another coincidence, this Saturday was the eve of the Festival of Our Lady of Seven Dolours. ...
"There was only one living scion of this family which had once been so numerous that it had occupied all the territories of the Ile-de-France and La Brie. The Duc Jean was a slender, nervous young man of thirty, with hollow cheeks, cold, steel-blue eyes, a straight, thin nose and delicate hands." Thus we are introduced to the character of Des Esseintes in a novel that has been banned and censored for years, but still lives on as being one of the finest examples of the "decadent" literature written by fin-de-siecle (late nineteenth century) writers. Oscar Wilde, himself, called the novel...
"There was only one living scion of this family which had once been so numerous that it had occupied all the territories of the Ile-de-France and L...
The Virgin had appeared to two children on a hill. By another coincidence, this Saturday was the eve of the Festival of Our Lady of Seven Dolours. And she appeared as Our Lady of Tears in that desert landscape of stubborn rocks and dismal hills. Weeping bitterly, She had uttered reproofs and threats. The fame of this event spread far and wide; frantic thousands scrambled up fearful paths to a spot so high that trees could not grow there. Suddenly the peaks parted, a wide opening brought the train out into broad daylight; the scene lay clear before them, terrible on all sides. "Le Drac "...
The Virgin had appeared to two children on a hill. By another coincidence, this Saturday was the eve of the Festival of Our Lady of Seven Dolours. ...
"There was only one living scion of this family which had once been so numerous that it had occupied all the territories of the Ile-de-France and La Brie. The Duc Jean was a slender, nervous young man of thirty, with hollow cheeks, cold, steel-blue eyes, a straight, thin nose and delicate hands." Thus we are introduced to the character of Des Esseintes in a novel that has been banned and censored for years, but still lives on as being one of the finest examples of the "decadent" literature written by fin-de-siecle (late nineteenth century) writers. Oscar Wilde himself called the novel "the...
"There was only one living scion of this family which had once been so numerous that it had occupied all the territories of the Ile-de-France and L...
Published in 1891, "La-bas" is Huysmans' best-selling novel; its success was due, in part, to its sensational contents (descriptions of Satanism in late 1880 France.) It is in this novel that Huysmans' character, Durtal, is introduced for the first time. This character is thought to be a semi-autobiographical depiction of the author and is used in his next three books which chart Durtal's (and Huysmans') search for religious truths and his ultimate conversion to Roman Catholicism. The journey begins with the viewing of an extremely realistic painting: "In Germany, before a Crucifixion by...
Published in 1891, "La-bas" is Huysmans' best-selling novel; its success was due, in part, to its sensational contents (descriptions of Satanism in la...
Out of curiosity and to kill time, after so many years of forgetfulness, he enters a church and hears the Vespers for the Dead. Heavily upon his ears the music falls -- psalm after psalm, in antiphonal chant, as the singers toss up, like ditch-diggers, their shovels-full of verses -- and shakes his soul to its depths Disgusted with life, Durtal turns to the church. Family history and his own atavistic feelings are among them the influences that have brought him here at last -- but most powerful are the forces of art and music. Durtal makes a round of the churches during Holy Week -- "and...
Out of curiosity and to kill time, after so many years of forgetfulness, he enters a church and hears the Vespers for the Dead. Heavily upon his ea...
Huysmans was a French novelist noted for his vast scope of language, his sensuous descriptions and satirical wit. His pessimistic outlook showed a deep disgust for modern life. Des Esseintes is the main character. He is an exocentric antihero who despises 19th century upper=class society. Des Esseintes tried to create his own artistic world. This novel is an excellent example of decadent literature.
Huysmans was a French novelist noted for his vast scope of language, his sensuous descriptions and satirical wit. His pessimistic outlook showed a dee...
Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans is a novel in which very little happens; its narrative concentrates almost entirely on its principal character, and is mostly a catalogue of the tastes and inner life of Jean Des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive aesthete and antihero, who loathes 19th century bourgeois society and tries to retreat into an ideal artistic world of his own creation. Against Nature containes many themes which became associated with the Symbolist aesthetic. In doing so, it broke from naturalism and became the ultimate example of decadent literature. Jean Des Esseintes is the...
Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans is a novel in which very little happens; its narrative concentrates almost entirely on its principal character, ...
