La-Bas: Down There (Decadence from Dedalus S.)
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Product Description
Time Out
The classic tale of satanism and sexual obsession in nineteenth-century Paris, in an attractive new edition...Strong meat for diseased imaginations
(Murrough O'Brien in The Independent on Sunday)
This superb new translation by Brendan King vividly recalls the allusive, proto-expressionist vigour of the original.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Huysmans is best known for his novel `A Rebours', a fascinating book which, if nothing else, demonstrates the author's detachment of the intellectual from the realities of life. `La-Bas' follows `A Rebours' at a respectful distance, and it is a harder book, attempting to establish a literary style to lead on from the late nineteenth naturalism of French literature, of which Zola was a major part. The principal character, Durtal, whose independent means allow him considerable introspective luxury, is writing a book on the child-murderer Gilles de Rais. `La-Bas' actually gives a usefully succinct account of Gilles de Rais. Durtal's writing sets the context for an examination of the Catholic Church in France in Huysmans' times and in de Rais' times, and deep considerations of the perversion of religion by `black' forces. The book contains a magnificent description of a black mass, one of the components which make `La-Bas' best known, but it also gives considerable detail about what we are likely to assume is Huysmans' sexuality and his probable misogyny. Couplings are described that are horrifyingly repressed and full of self-disgust, his adulterous partner appearing as a malevolent succubus. Not an easy book, but one that is particularly informative in many areas.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a good translation from Brendan King and as I started I was impressed by how modern the prose feels. This unfortunately begins to drag though and aspects of the plot, although necessary, become slightly tedious and drawn out.
There's plenty of good stuff though to ensure you persist. It's imoprtant to note though that the plot is simple and quite thin in all honesty but it's not really that kind of novel. This is about those last few years before a century ends and all kinds of strange beliefs become common currency and how the author seeks meaning in old and strange experiences.
Descriptions that I am sure would have been shocking in the day are tame (bar a few disquieting moments refering to Gilles de Rais activity) so don't expect anything of the calibour of say a Naked Lunch.
Some of the characters are intriuging (the bell ringer is oddly fascinating) as you would suspect when the main character is writing a book about infamous child killer of the middle ages, Gilles de Rais.
The first third of the novel really peaked my interest, the second was a little too slow to be enjoyable but it does pick up again towards the end and some of the chunks of description about satanism, Gilles de Rais and the art and symbolism of bellringing (yes, I know it deosn't sound interesting but it is) is quite brilliant.
A strong 3 out of 5.
There's plenty of good stuff though to ensure you persist. It's imoprtant to note though that the plot is simple and quite thin in all honesty but it's not really that kind of novel. This is about those last few years before a century ends and all kinds of strange beliefs become common currency and how the author seeks meaning in old and strange experiences.
Descriptions that I am sure would have been shocking in the day are tame (bar a few disquieting moments refering to Gilles de Rais activity) so don't expect anything of the calibour of say a Naked Lunch.
Some of the characters are intriuging (the bell ringer is oddly fascinating) as you would suspect when the main character is writing a book about infamous child killer of the middle ages, Gilles de Rais.
The first third of the novel really peaked my interest, the second was a little too slow to be enjoyable but it does pick up again towards the end and some of the chunks of description about satanism, Gilles de Rais and the art and symbolism of bellringing (yes, I know it deosn't sound interesting but it is) is quite brilliant.
A strong 3 out of 5.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Better than the mis-translations of Keene Wallace
30 Sep 2002
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's unfortunate that the 1924 Keene Wallace translation is still so popular. Here is an example of why this new translation by Brendan King is better:
Keene Wallis:
"Asphalt from the street, leaves of henbane, datura, dried nightshade, and myrrh. These are perfumes delightful to Satan, our master."
Brendan King:
"Rue, leaves of henbane and thorn-apple, dried nightshade and myrtle, all fragrances pleasing to Satan, our master."
One can only wonder how many generations of unfortunate satanists, not knowing French, suffered serious trauma from inhalation of asphalt from the streets, instead of rue, due to Keene Wallis' erroneous translation...
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
LA - Bas = interesting social phenomenon...
5 May 2000
Format:Paperback
I found this book more than engrossing, both with the protagonist as well as his research. However, more interesting to me was the general social outlook portrayed in this piece... we see a man discontent with the mass produced and the mediocre, a view on consumerism before it was called that. The book was writen in 1891 during the Industrial Revolution, and even though the factories do not even play a role in this book, you can clearly see their influence.
This book, although somewhat more introspective and more annoyingly sensationalized that is absolutely necessary, makes it abundantly clear how little we have progressed in thought in the last 100 years.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant Translation, Beautiful Edition
21 April 2007
Format:Paperback
Dedalus publishers has outdone itself: this brilliant translation of JK Huysman's darkest and most controversial work arrives housed in a gorgeous softcover edition with cover art by fin-de-sicle artist Aubrey Beardsley.
Huysmans was an unapologetic royalist whose simultaneous lives in bohemia and the Church led to some rather perverse artistic output. "A Rebours", an earlier work, was heavily influenced by the poetry of Baudelaire and served as a strong influence on Oscar Wilde. "La Bas" is far beyond that worthy text -- it embraces depravity with a slow, sure stranglehold that you don't notice until it leaves you gasping for breath.
If you are interesting in reading and collecting historic decadent or transgressive literature, this edition will serve your needs well. As always with material from this era, it is very helpful to have a cursory knoweldge of fin-de-siecle' art and culture if you wish to reach a full understanding of the text.
Huysmans was an unapologetic royalist whose simultaneous lives in bohemia and the Church led to some rather perverse artistic output. "A Rebours", an earlier work, was heavily influenced by the poetry of Baudelaire and served as a strong influence on Oscar Wilde. "La Bas" is far beyond that worthy text -- it embraces depravity with a slow, sure stranglehold that you don't notice until it leaves you gasping for breath.
If you are interesting in reading and collecting historic decadent or transgressive literature, this edition will serve your needs well. As always with material from this era, it is very helpful to have a cursory knoweldge of fin-de-siecle' art and culture if you wish to reach a full understanding of the text.
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