En Route by Joris-Karl Huysmans, Fiction, Classics, Literary, Action & Adventure

Out of curiosity and to kill time, after so many years of forgetfulness, he enters a church and hears the Vespers for the Dead. Heavily upon his ears the music falls -- psalm after psalm, in antiphonal chant, as the singers toss up, like ditch-diggers, their shovels-full of verses -- and shakes his soul to its depths Disgusted with life, Durtal turns to the church. Family history and his own atavistic feelings are among them the influences that have brought him here at last -- but most powerful are the forces of art and music. Durtal makes a round of the churches during Holy Week -- "and they open to him like palaces ruined, like cemeteries laid waste by God."

About the Author
Huysmans, Joris-Karl: - "Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (1848 - 1907) was a French novelist who published his works as J.K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans. He supported himself by a 30-year career in the French civil service. Huysmans' work is considered remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, large vocabulary, descriptions, satirical wit and far-ranging erudition. First considered part of Naturalism, he became associated with the decadent movement with his publication of A rebours. His work expressed his deep pessimism, which had led him to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. In later years, his novels reflected his study of Catholicism, religious conversion and becoming an oblate. He discussed the iconography of Christian architecture at length in La cathedrale (1898), set at Chartres and with its cathedral as the focus of the book."Huysmans, Joris Karl: - "Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (1848 - 1907 in Paris) was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. He is most famous for the novel À rebours (1884, published in English as Against the Grain or Against Nature). He supported himself by a 30-year career in the French civil service. Huysmans' work is considered remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, large vocabulary, descriptions, satirical wit and far-ranging erudition. First considered part of Naturalism, he became associated with the decadent movement with his publication of À rebours. His work expressed his deep pessimism, which had led him to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. In later years, his novels reflected his study of Catholicism, religious conversion and becoming an oblate. He discussed the iconography of Christian architecture at length in La cathédrale (1898), set at Chartres and with its cathedral as the focus of the book."