Là-Bas by J.-K. Huysmans
The Parisian author Durtal is hard at work on his biography of the French knight Gilles de Rais, but the question of how a confidant of Joan of Arc became such a notorious figure is difficult to answer. Turning to his friend and confidant Des Hermies, he gradually discovers that the Satanism of de Rais' time is not only still active in the Paris of the 1890s, but that there are practitioners in his social circle.
J.-K. Huysmans, already famous from the success of Against the Grain, wrote Là-Bas (alternatively translated as Down There) at a time when he was struggling with his journey back to Catholicism, and the character of Durtal is a fairly unsubtle autobiographical portrait. Each character represents an allegorical faction in the religious debates of the time, and their conversations and interactions with Durtal help him navigate his own spiritual truth. The novel's vivid descriptions of Satanic ceremonies shocked fin de siecle France, and it remains a landmark work of French Decadent literature.
This Standard Ebooks edition presents Keene Wallace's 1924 translation from Huysmans' original French.
A cornerstone of the Decadent movement, Là-Bas blends occult intrigue with psychological depth, offering readers a haunting portrait of fin de siecle Paris caught between faith and depravity.
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