8 h 54 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the evil you study begins to draw you into its own world?
In a Paris ruled by money, flesh and boredom, Durtal wants something beyond ordinary life. The restless novelist researches Gilles de Rais, the medieval lord who fought beside Joan of Arc and later faced trial for murdering children. But the past offers no safe distance from darkness.
His friend Des Hermies speaks of Satanism hidden within the city, while letters from a mysterious woman turn curiosity into desire. In The Damned, Joris-Karl Huysmans follows a writer whose hunger for belief draws him toward the forbidden. Research, intimate talk and spiritual unease bring the boundaries between study and life under strain.
What you’ll discover
- A city of shadows Explore a Paris where ordinary pleasures leave a deeper hunger unanswered.
- The past pressing close Follow Durtal's research as medieval crimes begin to echo through his own world.
- Desire and dangerous curiosity Meet Hyacinthe Chantelouve, whose letters draw Durtal toward intimacy and a darker circle.
- Refuge in the bell tower Find another kind of longing with Carhaix, keeper of old liturgy and plainchant.
- Faith beneath the horror Enter searching conversations about belief, boredom and the limits of a life built on pleasure.
Is it for you?
This is for readers who like dark, atmospheric fiction, the Paris of the 1890s, and novels of ideas about faith and doubt. It may suit you less if you want fast plots, since long stretches here are research, talk and dense description.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A novelist walks away from realism
- Gilles de Rais, saint's comrade and monster
- Friends of the old faith in a bell tower
- A mysterious woman writes to Durtal
- Paris hides a living cult of Satan
- Desire draws Durtal toward the forbidden
- What the novel says about boredom and belief
- A novel built from research and talk
- What to watch as the story tightens
Who’s who
- DurtalA Parisian novelist tired of naturalism, he researches Gilles de Rais and finds the subject pulling him into the occult and into his own desires.
- Des HermiesDurtal's friend, a doctor with a love of occult lore, who guides him toward the hidden world of modern Satanism.
- CarhaixThe bell ringer of Saint-Sulpice, a devout man who keeps the old liturgy and plainchant alive and offers Durtal a refuge.
- Hyacinthe ChantelouveA married woman of Paris society who writes to Durtal and becomes his lover, while keeping ties to a darker world.
- Canon DocreA priest turned to the black arts, whose cult in Paris echoes the crimes of Gilles de Rais.
- Gilles de RaisA medieval marshal of France who fought beside Joan of Arc and later fell into alchemy, devil worship and murder.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Damned
by Joris-Karl Huysmans· 1891
A writer studying medieval crimes is drawn toward Parisian Satanism.
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Language: English
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A novelist walks away from realism
The book opens in a Paris salon talk between Durtal and his friend Des Hermies. Durtal is a novelist who has spent years in the school of Zola. That school aims to record life as a scientist records facts, with every crude detail in place. Durtal now finds it shallow. It shows bodies and appetites, he says, but it never touches the soul.
Des Hermies is a doctor with a taste for odd books and old theories. He listens, argues and teases. Together they talk about what a new kind of novel might look like. Durtal wants to keep the sharp eye for detail that naturalism trained in him. He also wants a way to write about the mysteries that science leaves out.
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The author
Joris-Karl Huysmans
1848–1907 · French novelist and art critic
Joris-Karl Huysmans was a French novelist of the Decadent movement who began in Zola's naturalist circle before turning toward mysticism and, ultimately, Catholicism. Là-bas, his unsettling exploration of Satanism in nineteenth-century Paris, is interwoven with the story of the medieval knight Gilles de Rais.
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What is The Damned by Huysmans about?
It follows Durtal, a Paris novelist writing about the child murderer Gilles de Rais. His research leads him to modern Satanists, a mysterious lover and a struggle between sin and faith.
Is The Damned the same as Là-bas or Down There?
Yes. Là-bas is the original French title, meaning Down There. The Damned is one English title for the novel, which Huysmans published in 1891.
Was Gilles de Rais a real person?
Yes. He was a fifteenth century French nobleman and marshal who fought with Joan of Arc. He was tried and executed in 1440 for murdering children, and Huysmans draws on the historical records.
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