Huysmans' dark masterpiece, published in the same year as The Picture of Dorian Gray, is a serious, uncompromisingly learned depiction of the Hell through which the search for spiritual meaning must lead. The protagonist, Durtal, is investigating the life of Gilles de Rais, mass-murderer and unlikely - or not so unlikely - companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. Long meditations on the nature of art, guilt, the satanic and the divine take him to a black mass. This superb new translation by Brendan King vividly recalls the allusive, proto-expressionist vigour of the original; images snarl and spring at the reader. A fine introduction shows where Huysmans' mystical quest ended, and the notes prove vital.
