The Novelist Durtal is disgusted by the emptiness and vulgarity of the modern world. He seeks relief by turning to the study of the Middle Ages and begins to research the life of the notorious 15th-century child murderer, sadist, necrophile, and practitioner of all the black arts - Gilles de Rais. Through his contacts in Paris Durtal finds out that Satanism is not simply a thing of the past but alive in turn of the century France. He embarks on an investigation of the occult underworld with the help of his lover Madame Chantelouve. Durtal's preoccupation with Gilles de Rais's lascivious brutalities begets in him the urge to find out if similar satanic practices are still performed; so he persuades Madame Chantelouve to take him to the house of a notorious renegade priest named Canon Docre. Together they witness there the celebration of a Black Mass, and few finer descriptions of this obscene ritual have ever been written. French Victorian Gothic as its best.

One who seeks to discover the brutal reality of fin-de-siecle French bourgeoisie society, will find it here, in Huysmans's melancholy tale. Class struggles form the background of this harrowing tale; Huysmans uses steadily devolving arguments over family fortune to comment on interclass inequality in 19th century France. The greed of bourgeoisie men prevail: their dilemma vastly disparate to those of lesser fortune. A truly mordant tale, A Dilemma reflects the deeply depressing reality of class prejudice. This translation is brought to you by Aaron J. Clarke, whose tireless work allows this story to be read here, in contemporary Australia. Clarke sees the value of this profoundly moving tale and its ironic prevalence today.

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One of the first French novels to tackle the subject of prostitution, this story centres on would-be actress Marthe who lives in one of the lowest dives in Paris and her ultimately doomed relationship with Leo, a romantic searching for something to take place of lost illusions."

First published in 1880, same year as Edgar Degas' "The Dancing Lesson and Edouard Manet's solo show, these "Parisian Sketches share the Impressionist fascination with the contemporary life of Paris, the exuberant Paris of the Opera Garnier and the Folies-Bergers. Like the striking images of the early Impressionists, "Parisian Sketches is an assault on the visual senses. Composed of a series of intense, meticulously observed literary impressions--of cafe concerts and circus performers, of streetwalkers and hot-chestnut sellers, of forgotten quarters in the grimy, shiny 'City of Light'--"Parisian Sketches recreates Paris with an intimacy and immediacy that confirms Huysmans as one of the masters of 19th century French prose.

Against Nature is Huysmans's great fin-de-sicle novel anticipating many strains of modernism in its appreciation of Baudelaire, Moreau, Redon, Mallarm and Poe. A novel like no other, it features a hero, des Esseintes, a neurasthenic aristocrat who has turned his back on the vulgarity of modern life and retreated to an isolated country villa. Here, accompanied only by two silent servants, he pursues his obsessions with exotic flowers, rare gems, and complex perfumes, embarking on a series of increasingly strange aesthetic experiments, starting with the decision to give his giant pet tortoise a jewel-encrusted shell.

J.-K. Huysmans' Stranded (En Rade 1887), published just three years after the iconoclastic Against Nature, sees him again breaking new ground and pushing back the boundaries of the novel form. Stamped throughout with his characteristic black humour, Stranded is one of Huysmans' most innovative, most imaginative works. Jacques' waking reveries and daydreams are balanced by a succession of dreams and nightmares that explore the seemingly irrational, often grotesque, world of unconscious desire, producing a series of images that are as unforgettable and unsettling as anything to be found in the decadent fantasies of Against Nature, or the satanic obsessions of L -bas.Hounded by creditors and gripped by a deep existential gloom, Jacques Marles decides to flee Paris for the countryside, hoping to find shelter from the financial storms raging around his head, hoping to find peace. But Jacques soon discovers he cannot escape the problems of modern city life by hiding in the country. Stuck with his sick wife, Louise, in an abandoned ch teau that seems to be rotting to pieces around them, Jacques waits for money to arrive with nothing to do but give himself up to his increasingly disturbing dreams