Year Published : 1891
Author : Joris Karl Huysmans
Nationality : French
Publisher : Penguin Classics
Genre : Gothic, Occult, French, 19th Century
Pages : 265
Blurb : “Durtal, a shy censorious man, is writing a biography of Gilles de Rais, the monstrous fifteen-century child murderer thought to be the original for ‘Bluebeard’. Bored and disgusted by the vulgarity of everyday life, Durtal seeks spiritual solace by immersing himself in another age. But when he starts asking questions about Gilles’s involvement in Satanic rituals and is introduced to the exquisitely evil Madame Chantelouve, he is soon drawn into a twilight world of black magic and erotic devilry in fin-de-siecle Paris. Published in 1891, The Damned cemented Huysmans’s reputation as a writer at the forefront of the avant garde and as one of the most challenging and innovative figures in European literature
312 BOOK REVIEW: Huysmans is best known in the English speaking world for his extraordinary novel ‘A rebours’ which broke virtually every novel writing convention of its day and which still vexes and delights according to taste. In fact such are the idiosyncrasies of ‘A rebours’ that it is almost impossible to discuss Huysmans without making reference to them.
The novel dispensed completely with story, plot and featured only one major character who mostly remained silent. Its strength rested on incredibly in depth descriptive passages on what would otherwise be mundane objects or events. Few authors have devoted 20 pages to describing the aroma of a perfume, the colour of a gem stone or a collection of house plants. Even if they had, few authors could transfix the reader with swirling syntax, mind bending, almost hallucinogenic use of language and a masterly command of a vast and varied vocabulary as Huysmans does in ‘A rebours’.
However ‘The Damned’ follows the conventional model of a novel much more than ‘A rebours’. It has spoken dialogue, a number of characters who interact with one another and a well-structured and paced plot that maintains a feeling of forward movement and momentum, something ‘A rebours’ deliberately dispensed with. However, this being Huysmans things are not completely straight forward in terms of the books structure.
The book is really two books in one with something of a metaphysical twist. It is the story of an author researching satanic rituals for a book he is writing about the medieval serial killer Gilles de Rais but the book alternates between the story of the events surrounding his research and the text of the book that he himself is writing. These dual stories lie parallel to each other and with one set in medieval France and the other in then contemporary Paris, the reader is encouraged to compare and contrast these two eras, one where faith in religion is almost unquestioned, the other wallowing in the spiritual dearth of materialist atheism.
The battle between spiritual faith and modernism is perhaps the overriding theme of the book, Huysmans himself was a conflicted Catholic who eventually and not without struggle rejected atheism, but it also raises questions concerning good and evil and the thinly delineated lines that separate them, as well as the murky regions of the human psyche were superstition, science both known and unknown and age old human irrationalities intermingle.
The sexual politics of the book are also notable and although it is difficult to determine if they are Huysmans own views, (they are mostly expressed through the relationship between Durtal, a thinly veiled autobiographical Huysmans, and Madame Chantelouve) or a knowing denouncement of the Church doctrine that considers sexually promiscuous women, especially those breaking wedding vows, and homosexuals as not just ungodly but possessed by devils and outright satanic.
Huysmans does not employ his descriptive powers as freely here as in ‘A rebours’ but there are wonderfully evocative gothic scenes as Durtal explores the ruined castle of Gilles de Rais by moon light or his mysterious and slightly surreal first encounter with the devout Carhaix in the bell tower of a church. The scenes of sexual congress between Durtal and the amorous adultress Madame Chantelouve are erotic, indeed sinful, but are not over done or laden with cringy clinches as with much literary love making. In fact the relationship is convincing and the Madame Chantelouve character is surprisingly well drawn when her main role is as a sexual foil to the monk like Durtal, who’s preference is to remain cloistered in his lodgings.
‘The Damned’ does not hit the heights of ‘A rebours’ at its best but neither does it hit its lows at its worst. Although in spells it may bore some with its fascination for arcane medieval Catholicism the story unfolds nicely, firstly concerning Durtal’s relationship with Madame Chantelouve and latterly as the inevitable meeting with the fallen priest and satanic sorcerer Docre unfolds. Overall ‘The Damned’ is a good novel that probably requires to be read through two or three times to disentangle its rich and complex, oscillating belief system and rich symbolism.
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