La-Bas, Lower Depths Book

“Really, when I think it over, literature has only one excuse for existing; it saves the person who makes it from the disgustingness of life.”
― Joris-Karl Huysmans, Là-Bas

Barbey d'Aurevilly compared Joris-Karl Huysmans to Baudelaire, recalling: "After Les Fleurs du mal I told Baudelaire it only remains for you to choose between the muzzle of the pistol and the foot of the Cross. But will the author of À rebours make the same choice?"

His prediction eventually proved true when Huysmans converted to Catholicism in the 1890s. Là-Bas was published in 1891. Perhaps this novels serves as the author's statement on just how far he wanted to separate himself from Émile Zola and naturalism. Indeed, Là-Bas has a particular Catholic flavor, but remains within the tradition of Decadent literature. Here are several Decadent themes one will find within its pages:

Hatred of positivism, materialism and commercialism
The first chapter of Là-Bas begins with a serious rip into Émile Zola, naturalism and the "the Americanization of culture." Those French Decadents like Huysmans could see cable cars, telegraph wires, mass production, gadgets of every stripe taking over cities, reducing culture to reading newspapers, a round of vulgar, utilitarian tastes, shallow optimism and a complete lack of spirituality. On several occasions throughout the novel, Huysmans-like main character, Durtal, bemoans the mechanized, routinized, money-grubbing modern world.

Rise above the grimy ruck
After ascending a church tower to listen to the bells and meet Carhaix, the bell ringer, Durtal reflects, “What inconceivable happiness it would be to escape from the age, and, while the waves of human folly were breaking against the foot of the tower, to sit up here, out of it all, and pore over antique tomes by the shaded light of a lamp.” By his desire to transcend to a higher, more rarified, refined aesthetic plane, Durtal expresses perfectly the Decadent affinity with German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

Explore extreme sensations and intense enjoyments
Durtal is both repelled and fascinated by Satanism, sadism and the Black Mass. The interplay of mysticism and the diabolical arts is at the core of Là-Bas. A hefty portion of the novel follows Durtal’s current writing project – the life of Gilles de Rais, nobleman, captain, supported Joan of Arc, who in middle age, as if someone flipped a modern-day electrical switch, transformed into a sadistic demon and coward. And, to add a fascinating twist, Durtal reports how Gilles de Rais was a connoisseur and collector of fine art and arcane books, luxurious fabric and rare gems, aromatic wines and spiced foods, that he was “the Des Esseintes of the fifteenth century!” (Des Esseintes being the main character in À rebours, cult favorite for aesthetes both then and now).

Rich language
Ah, the lavish, lush, luxuriant vocabulary of those French Decadents, writers like Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Jean Lorrain. As one would suspect, Là-Bas maintains the gold standard – from the first pages: patois, ferruginous, tetanic, lenitive, perfervid, vituperate, fluvial, tumefied, gimsy, exsurrected, pusillanimous, ecstasized.

La femme
“She was so mysterious, so enticing,” Durtal resumed to himself. “Her eyes, remote, deep as space, and reflecting cemeteries and festivals at the same time. And she has shown herself up for all she is, within an hour. All the nastiness of women unite in her to exasperate me.” No surprise, being a novel of decadence, at the heart of the heart of Là-Bas is one Hyacinthe Chantelouve.

The horrible and disturbing
Là-Bas is soaking in the horrible and the disturbing. One quote from Mms. Chantelouve will suffice to whet a reader’s appetite: “I know that my ideas are not the ideas of the world I live in, and they appear not to be yours, but I have an iron will and bend the people who love me.” Spirit possession, anyone? On a personal note, I myself was not raised Catholic nor do I have any connection with the Catholic church or Catholic religion, but, having said that, reading this novel was one powerful, gripping experience.