HUYSMANS, Joris Karl. The Oblate. Trans. from the French by Edward Perceval. New York: E. P. Dutton. 1924. 8vo. First American edition, published simultaneously as the first British edition by Kegan Paul. Publisher’s navy cloth lettered in gilt to the spine and front board, in the rare dust jacket. A very good example, the cloth clean and bright, the gilt to backstrip slightly dulled, the corners and tips just a trifle bumped. The binding tight and square, the contents clean and bright throughout. The dust jacket price-clipped, gently bumped at corners and tips, the spine panel slightly toned and faded with some tape reinforcement to verso, but a smart example overall.
The fourth and final instalment of the author’s thinly-veiled portrait of his own life, told through his deeply pessimistic character, the writer Durtal. The cycle includes Là Bas [Down There], En Route [En Route], La cathédrale [The Cathedral], and L’oblat [The Oblate]. From the first volume, Durtal seeks escape from the disgusting modernity of France and delves into the study of the 15th-century child serial killer, Gilles de Rais, delving deeper still, into the occult world of Satanic worship. His journey through this darkness leads here, to life as an oblate in a Benedictine monastery, reflecting Huysmans’ own journey. The four volumes all very scarce in dust jacket.
HUYSMANS, Joris Karl. The Oblate. Trans. from the French by Edward Perceval. New York: E. P. Dutton. 1924. 8vo. First American edition, published simultaneously as the first British edition by Kegan Paul. Publisher’s navy cloth lettered in gilt to the spine and front board, in the rare dust jacket. A very good example, the cloth clean and bright, the gilt to backstrip slightly dulled, the corners and tips just a trifle bumped. The binding tight and square, the contents clean and bright throughout. The dust jacket price-clipped, gently bumped at corners and tips, the spine panel slightly toned and faded with some tape reinforcement to verso, but a smart example overall.
The fourth and final instalment of the author’s thinly-veiled portrait of his own life, told through his deeply pessimistic character, the writer Durtal. The cycle includes Là Bas [Down There], En Route [En Route], La cathédrale [The Cathedral], and L’oblat [The Oblate]. From the first volume, Durtal seeks escape from the disgusting modernity of France and delves into the study of the 15th-century child serial killer, Gilles de Rais, delving deeper still, into the occult world of Satanic worship. His journey through this darkness leads here, to life as an oblate in a Benedictine monastery, reflecting Huysmans’ own journey. The four volumes all very scarce in dust jacket.
