The Devils of Loudun

by Aldous Huxley

Overview

1643: In one of history’s most sensational cases of mass possession and sexual hysteria, Urbain Grandier, a handsome seducer of women, and priest of the parish of Loudon, was found guilty of being in league with the devil and burnt at the stake. Huxley gives a vivid account of this bizarre tale of religious and sexual obsession.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062272010
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/15/2015
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	149,156
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) is the author of the classic novels Brave New World, Island, Eyeless in Gaza, and The Genius and the Goddess, as well as such critically acclaimed nonfiction works as The Perennial Philosophy and The Doors of Perception. Born in Surrey, England, and educated at Oxford, he died in Los Angeles, California.

Editorial Reviews

A mirror in which modern man can see all that is rotten in his society and himself.

Saturday Review of Literature

A brilliant book . . . “The Devils of Loudun” shows Huxley’s genius at its best: It’s his scientific, almost forensic and detailed approach that makes us feel the truth and horror of what happened long ago in France. — Los Angeles Times

“Huxley’s masterpiece and perhaps the most enjoyable book about spirituality ever written. In telling the grotesque, bawdy and true story of a 17th-century convent of cloistered French nuns who contrived to have a priest they never met burned alive as a warlock . . . Huxley painlessly conveys a wealth of information about mysticism and the unconscious.” — Washington Post Book World

“Here is the stuff that bizarre historical novels are made, but it is solidly based on fact and painstaking research. . . . This peak achievement of Huxley’s career reveals his sharp skill at characterization, his ability to recreate the smell and flavor of vanished eras. . . . A story that sounds like fiction but isn’t.” — New York Times

“One of the best books by Aldous Huxley, both as a writer and as a thinker.” — The Guardian (UK)

“Masterful” — London Times

“An exciting and indeed compelling social-psychological interpretation of one of the strangest occurrences in history.” — Sociology and Social Research

From the Publisher

Masterful

London Times

Here is the stuff that bizarre historical novels are made, but it is solidly based on fact and painstaking research. . . . This peak achievement of Huxley’s career reveals his sharp skill at characterization, his ability to recreate the smell and flavor of vanished eras. . . . A story that sounds like fiction but isn’t.

New York Times

A brilliant book . . . “The Devils of Loudun” shows Huxley’s genius at its best: It’s his scientific, almost forensic and detailed approach that makes us feel the truth and horror of what happened long ago in France.

|Los Angeles Times

Huxley’s masterpiece and perhaps the most enjoyable book about spirituality ever written. In telling the grotesque, bawdy and true story of a 17th-century convent of cloistered French nuns who contrived to have a priest they never met burned alive as a warlock . . . Huxley painlessly conveys a wealth of information about mysticism and the unconscious.

Washington Post Book World

One of the best books by Aldous Huxley, both as a writer and as a thinker.

The Guardian (UK)

An exciting and indeed compelling social-psychological interpretation of one of the strangest occurrences in history.

Sociology and Social Research

Masterful

London Times

A brilliant book . . . “The Devils of Loudun” shows Huxley’s genius at its best: It’s his scientific, almost forensic and detailed approach that makes us feel the truth and horror of what happened long ago in France.

Los Angeles Times