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Richard Stooker
La-Bas (Down There)
La-Bas (Down There)
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In 1888, an alienated writer plunges into a spiritual darkness.
*** NOTE: This is a new edition of the original classic. The Table of Contents is fully clickable.
To seek the meaning of human existence, the researches the life of the vilest serial killer known to history . . . a knight who fought bravely beside Saint Joan of Arc at Orleans and was inspired by her . . . yet who, to offend God and call upon demons, tortured and killed hundreds of young children before he was caught, convicted and hanged.
LA-BAS has clearly been neglected in the field of horror, at least in the English language (I can't speak for French language works).
Like many horror fans, the protoganist (I can't bring myself to call him a "hero") Durtal and his friends are depressed and left empty by the modern world. Never mind that it's 1888.
Paris has democracy (and General Boulanger whom they disdain), the "giant chandelier" the Eiffel Tower, and business people who understand only buying and selling are taking over.
They are depressed by the modern world and seek to escape it in various ways.
As he studies Gilles de Rais and Satanism in the Middle Ages, Des Hermies gives him hints that Satanism still exists even in modern day Paris.
Eventually he winds up attending a black mass which must have been quite shocking for the time. Even the idea of Satanism in Paris must have been shocking to modern Parisians of 1888 who would have been either orthodox Catholics or intellectual nonbelievers.
Quite possibly it's autobiographical. The occult-oriented characters are fictional representations of real world people, and Huysman himself believed in the occult and was active in this world.
Sexuality Most Passionate in the Spirit
The idea of the incubus (spirit in male form who seduces women in their sleep) and the succubus (spirit in female form who seduce men in their sleep) runs through LA BAS like an underground river.
It especially plays a part when Durtal begins receives passionate letters from an anonymous woman. Even though he has no idea who she is or what she looks like, he becomes desperately attached to his fantasies of her.
Clearly LA-BAS deserves our recognition and inclusion, though it is not in the mainstream of English-language horror. It doesn't seem to have been influenced by Edgar Allen Poe and didn't seem to have influenced H.P. Lovecraft or anyone who came later.
Yet LA-BAS evokes the same sense of wonder and fear we seek.
*** NOTE: This is a new edition of the original classic. The Table of Contents is fully clickable.
To seek the meaning of human existence, the researches the life of the vilest serial killer known to history . . . a knight who fought bravely beside Saint Joan of Arc at Orleans and was inspired by her . . . yet who, to offend God and call upon demons, tortured and killed hundreds of young children before he was caught, convicted and hanged.
LA-BAS has clearly been neglected in the field of horror, at least in the English language (I can't speak for French language works).
Like many horror fans, the protoganist (I can't bring myself to call him a "hero") Durtal and his friends are depressed and left empty by the modern world. Never mind that it's 1888.
Paris has democracy (and General Boulanger whom they disdain), the "giant chandelier" the Eiffel Tower, and business people who understand only buying and selling are taking over.
They are depressed by the modern world and seek to escape it in various ways.
As he studies Gilles de Rais and Satanism in the Middle Ages, Des Hermies gives him hints that Satanism still exists even in modern day Paris.
Eventually he winds up attending a black mass which must have been quite shocking for the time. Even the idea of Satanism in Paris must have been shocking to modern Parisians of 1888 who would have been either orthodox Catholics or intellectual nonbelievers.
Quite possibly it's autobiographical. The occult-oriented characters are fictional representations of real world people, and Huysman himself believed in the occult and was active in this world.
Sexuality Most Passionate in the Spirit
The idea of the incubus (spirit in male form who seduces women in their sleep) and the succubus (spirit in female form who seduce men in their sleep) runs through LA BAS like an underground river.
It especially plays a part when Durtal begins receives passionate letters from an anonymous woman. Even though he has no idea who she is or what she looks like, he becomes desperately attached to his fantasies of her.
Clearly LA-BAS deserves our recognition and inclusion, though it is not in the mainstream of English-language horror. It doesn't seem to have been influenced by Edgar Allen Poe and didn't seem to have influenced H.P. Lovecraft or anyone who came later.
Yet LA-BAS evokes the same sense of wonder and fear we seek.
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