Deep down

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Tief Below (original title: Là-bas ) is a novel by the French author Joris-Karl Huysmans . The work, published in 1891, describes the failure of a life-weary, decadent literary figure in the fin de siècle who, by preoccupation with Satanism, seeks redemption from his present, which is perceived as ugly and senseless. A broad reception can be demonstrated for the detailed description of a black mass , which is designed as the highlight of the novel.

action

The suicidal writer Durtal, who, like his author, adheres to the ideal of literary decadence and wants to overcome the materialistic and anti-aristocratic naturalism of his time, is writing a novel about the multiple child murderer Count Gilles de Rais (approx. 1404–1440), who because of was hanged for his crimes and bloody rituals. Durtal is obsessed with the idea of ​​Satanism, which he considers to be an apotheosis of the Middle Ages and what he believes is Manichaean religiosity. To get more information, he meets with various people with a good knowledge of occultism , alchemy , astrology and Satanism, each of which is broadly developed in the novel in conversations. Durtal begins an affair with Hyacinthe Chantelouve, an equally suicidal admirer of his books, who reveals herself to be a participant in black masses. After she has taken him after long pressure to such a ritual, which consists of sexual debauchery and desolate host crimes , he breaks off the relationship in horror. He withdraws into solitude and comes to the disillusioning realization that, unlike de Rais, he cannot hope for the forgiveness of the church and a return to the Christian faith.

Emergence

The novel was first published as a serial in the Catholic newspaper L'Écho de Paris , beginning with the February 15, 1891 issue. In an editorial note placed at the top of the reprint, the editors claimed that the novel was based on fact and owe his "information to the former superior of a religious brotherhood, one of the most learned priests, one of the most mysterious miracle healers of our time". The informer for this novel is the Catholic priest Joseph-Antoine Boullan (1824-1893), accused of Satanism , to whom Huysmans was in a close relationship and whose information he believed to be reliable.

reception

The novel was not well received by literary critics. Paul Valéry accused Huysman's sensationalism: he is mainly interested in unusual occurrences and is delighted to spread his meticulous knowledge of "the visible rubbish and the tangible nonsense". Huysmans, who went to a monastery as a lay brother a year after the novel was published , intended with his book to warn of the dangers of Satanism. Ironically, however, it was just received by Satanists, who were actually using Tief below as instructions for their Black Masses, since no reliable original sources were available for it. Also Léo Taxil , an anticlerical swindler used the book as a template for his mystification of an alleged satanic, "Palladian" branch of Freemasonry , the long faith was given.

Adaptations

literature

expenditure

  • Deep down (Là-Bas). German by Victor Henning Pfannkuche. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Potsdam 1921.
  • Deep down. Translated and edited by Ulrich Bossier. Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994 ISBN 3150089840 .
  • The school of the satanists . New translation by Caroline Vollmann. Haffmans Verlag bei Zweiausendeins, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 9783963180088 .

Secondary literature

  • Bossier, Ulrich: Epilogue to Deep Below . Reclam-Verlag 1994, pp. 351-374.

Web links

Wikisource: Là-bas (original French text)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kindlers Literatur Lexikon , sv Là-bas . Paperback edition, dtv, Munich 1986, vol. 7, p. 5446.
  2. ↑ Ulrich Bossier: epilogue to deep below . Reclam-Verlag 1994, p. 355.
  3. ^ Massimo Introvigne : Huysmans, Joris-Karl (Charles-Marie-Georges) . In: Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Ed.): Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2005, p. 579.
  4. ^ Kindlers Literatur Lexikon , sv Là-bas . Paperback edition, dtv, Munich 1986, vol. 7, p. 5446.
  5. ^ Massimo Introvigne: Huysmans, Joris-Karl (Charles-Marie-Georges) . In: Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Ed.): Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2005, p. 579.