{"product_id":"2940012944580","title":"La-Bas (Down There)","description":"In 1888, an alienated writer plunges into a spiritual darkness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e*** NOTE: This is a new edition of the original classic. The Table of Contents is fully clickable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLA-BAS has clearly been neglected in the field of horror, at least in the English language (I can't speak for French language works). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eParis 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey are depressed by the modern world and seek to escape it in various ways.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEventually 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQuite 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSexuality Most Passionate in the Spirit\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eClearly 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet LA-BAS evokes the same sense of wonder and fear we seek.","brand":"Richard Stooker","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068699558128,"sku":"2940012944580","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012944580_p0.jpg?v=1763574651","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012944580","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}