The Three Cities Trilogy (LOURDES Volumes 1 - 5)

"'Lourdes' came to be written by mere accident. In 1891 I happened to be travelling for my pleasure, with my wife, in the Basque country and by the Pyrenees, and being in the neighbourhood of Lourdes, included it in my tour. I spent fifteen days there, and was greatly struck by what I saw, and it then occurred to me that there was material here for just the sort of novel that I like to write a novel in which great masses of men can be shown in motion un grand mouvement de foule a novel the subject of which stirred up my philosophical ideas.