La-bas by Joris-Karl Huysmans, Fiction, Classics, Literary, Action & Adventure

by Joris-Karl Huysmans, Keene Wallace (Translator)

Overview

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 seeking."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598181319
Publisher:	Aegypan
Publication date:	08/01/2006
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (1848 - 1907 in Paris) was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. He is most famous for the novel À rebours (1884, published in English as Against the Grain or Against Nature). He supported himself by a 30-year career in the French civil service. Huysmans' work is considered remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, large vocabulary, descriptions, satirical wit and far-ranging erudition. First considered part of Naturalism, he became associated with the decadent movement with his publication of À rebours. His work expressed his deep pessimism, which had led him to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. In later years, his novels reflected his study of Catholicism, religious conversion and becoming an oblate. He discussed the iconography of Christian architecture at length in La cathédrale (1898), set at Chartres and with its cathedral as the focus of the book.

Editorial Reviews

The classic tale of satanism and sexual obsession in nineteenth-century Paris, in an attractive new edition. The novel's enervated anti-hero, Durtal, is writing a book about Gilles de Rais, child-murderer and comerade in arms of Joan of Arc. When he's not swotting up on alchemy, visiting Rais' ruined clastle and fantasizing about a mystery woman, he is pondering Catholicism with his friends. But his sexual adventures and historical studies mesh when he's invited to witness a black mass.

Time Out