En Route

A novel, translated by W. Fleming, and introduced by David Blow. The second in Huysmans' series of four autobiographical novels (the others being La-Bas, La Cathedrale, and The Oblate of St. Benedict), En Route tells of the religious dissolution and spiritual reedification of Durtal, the decadent anti-hero par excellence. Huysmans' decadence, Blow writes in his introduction, "was a moral predicament, an artistic posture, and the natural outcome of his loss of religious faith." The novel narrates Durtal's progression from a crisis of faith, through Trappism, to a new inspiration in the art, architecture, and music of Rome.