The Crowds of Lourdes

J.-K. Huysmans

The Crowds of Lourdes, first published in 1906, was J.-K. Huysmans last book, and certainly his greatest work of non-fiction. Written in a style that is at once precise and brutal, this Naturalist study of the pilgrim-crowds of Lourdes, presented as a series of closely connected vignettes full of highly coloured description, is sometimes somber, sometimes scathing, and often touching.

In these pages the reader will find a whole-hearted tribute to Our Lady of Lourdes–but one that is a far from conventional, and the penetrating analysis of the author, who offers here some of his finest passages, is full of a fervent emotion and tenderness that is not the least at odds with his fiery spirituality.

About the Author
Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907) published two overlapping collections of prose poems, Le drageoir aux épices (1874) and Croquis Parisiens (1880; tr. as Parisian Sketches), producing two Naturalist novels, Marthe (1876) and Les Soeurs Vatard (1879) in between. À rebours (Charpentier, 1884) represented a dramatic change of direction, and became the handbook of Decadent lifestyle fantasy. Là-Bas (1891), based on the author’s flirtation with the Parisian Occult Revival, became equally archetypal in its fascinated but horrified account of contemporary Satanism. The author dressed as a monk for the rest of his semi-reclusive life.

Paperback, 266 pages
Release date, March 24, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1-64525-033-3
USA: $19.00

Hardcover, 268 pages. Limited to 100 copies
Release date, March 24, 2020
USA: $34.00