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Product Description
Product Description
J.-K. Huysmans's gaudy, shocking, and largely autobiographical novel, The Damned (Là-Bas) was quickly condemned and just as quickly achieved cult status. It follows Durtal, a shy, censorious man, who is writing a biography of Gilles de Rais, the fifteenth-century nobleman, child-murderer, and supposed model for "Bluebeard." Bored and disgusted by the vulgarity of everyday life, Durtal seeks spiritual solace by immersing himself in another age. But when he meets the exquisitely evil Madame Chantelouve, he is drawn inextricably into the twilight world of black magic and erotic devilry in fin-de-siècle Paris.
About the Author
Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907) is now recognized as one of the most challenging and innovative figures in European literature and an acknowledged principal architect of the fin-de-siècle imagination. He was a career civil servant who wrote ten novels, most notably A Rebours and Là-Bas.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The lure of darkness,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Damned (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
This book is about late nights in dark garrets, intelligent discussions on the practice of satanism, and the imperious power of sexual dreams. The hero, Durtal, is writing a biography of Bluebeard- that Gilles de Rais who was both a Marshall of France and the killer of so many children at Tiffauges castle. The subject matter unbalances Durtal and he is himself driven towards exploring the darkness. I recommend it highly to those looking for unusual books, and the decadent fringes of C19th Paris. La Bas is part of a trilogy in which Durtal appears to lose himself and then comes back to God, in the second volume, after a stay at the Monastery of La Trappe (for which read 'En Route').
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not For Everyone,
By M. Dowden (London, UK) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Damned (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
Huysmans' novel is a bit different from most books that you buy. If you are expecting a gory type of horror novel then you will be sorely disappointed.
This book is about Durtal, who is writing a biography of Gilles de Rais and his attrocious crimes. He spends most of the novel talking about his book, writing styles, religion, and mysticism. He usually discourses amongst his friends at a bell ringer's apartment. Over half way through the book there is a bit of sex thrown in, and Durtal eventually gets to witness a Black Mass. So why would you read this book? The book ranges from the ridiculous to the absurd, with its arcane subject matter. The actual story isn't really what holds this book together but rather Huysmans' writing technique and narrative style. To be honest, Huysman could have written about going to buy a loaf of bread, and he would have still produced an emminently readable book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aesthetic Mediaevalism & the 'Supernatural of Evil'.,
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This review is from: The Damned (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
I first read the infamous 'Messe Noir' scene from this novel in a Peter Haining anthology during my 1970s boyhood and by the age of 20 had sought out this most unusual and exquisite work in the Dover edition and devoured it with avidity and fascination - I still love it, along with all the Master's novels (which form an integral whole) and they are amongst my all-time favourite books. Joris Karl Huysmans' 'La Bas' (Down There) is a novel set in the night-shrouded Paris of the fin-de-siecle imagination, the nocturnal facade of darkness behind which the deathless power of Evil lurks in strange places. Our hero Durtal is wearied by the positivistic modern world and the crass materialism and vulgarity of his age - he retreats into the High Middle Ages, absorbed in the life of the mass-murderer, paederast, pervert and demoniac Gilles de Rais about whom he is writing a biographical study - thus throughout the novel we are treated to the episodes of De Rais' career and infamies, a dark Symboliste evocation of the medieval world of Tiffauges, illuminated with exquisite literary artistry and in essence constituting a prolonged spiritual meditation upon Evil and the Satanic principle. Other episodes are set at those wonderful homely banquets on snow-swept nights in the tower of the bell-ringer Carhaix, an eccentric Catholic in the austere mediaeval mould - what one would give to have been present at those wintry evening gatherings with Durtal, Des Hermies and company...their erudite conversations are a pure delight. The other tale running through the book is that of Durtal's erotic affair with the glacial, seductive and feline Madame Chantelouve who at length and reluctantly introduces our hero to the sordid diabolistic underworld of Paris, a descent which leads to the most famous scene of the novel, a uniquely powerful description of the celebration of the Black Mass and its squalid celebrants, for which the book is justly renowned. We are drawn into the nighted subterranea of Paris with Durtal and into the devilish domain of the sinister Canon Docre, against whom is pitted the power of the white magus Dr Johannes. All these intertwined narratives are replete with pleasures in profusion but throughout we find the most delicious disquisitions, arch aesthetic contemplations, incisive analyses of modernity and its ills and drily acute observations upon the world and human nature which only a supreme novelist and art critic like JKH could unfold - for example Durtal's reverie on money in the first chapter and those magnificent passages on Matthias Grunewald's 'Crucifixion' - these are but a few of the nocturnal delights of Huysman's 'black novel' La Bas - the necessary precursor to his 'white novel' 'En Route', for as Huysmans said himself it was the 'supernatural of evil' which led him ultimately to the 'supernatural of good' and thus to his eventual spiritual home within the bulwark of traditional Catholic orthodoxy...
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