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Title: DEVILS OF LOUDUN by Random House ISBN: 0-7011-0795-2 Publisher: Random House UK Distribution Pub. Date: 29 May, 1992 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.9 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Hard to find book, but well worth the wait.
Comment: My first experience w/this story was the movie, The Devils, w/Vanessa Redgrave and Olvier Reed (directed by Ken Russell, need I say more?) which is a bit of a warped account of the book which is vastly superior. I also found a play by Whiting based on the book and an opera by Penderecki! What prompted so much interest and imitation? An outstand and very spiritual book. I actually enjoyed the narration and the way it would "interrupt" the voice of the book. It was somewhat similar to Camus' The Plague. It was in these passages of narration that Huxley really shows the profound message this book has to offer. To find that message, you must find a copy, it's worth it!
Rating: 5
Summary: Shocking yet instructive
Comment: This book in an account of the strange events in the French town of Loudun in the early seventeenth century. It's a tale of religious hysteria, sexually frustrated nuns, scheming in-fighting clerics and ambitious politicians. Huxley describes the hyprocisy of the time, and the uses to which apparent devil-possession and witchcraft were put, not only by the exorcists, but by the "possessed" themselves.
The first 100 pages are interesting, yet merely set the scene for the rest of the book, and as such the reader has to be prepared to read in anticipation of a quicker pace and more gripping account later on.
But this is not a tale along the lines of "The Exorcist" (though Huxley does not spare the reader the grisly details) - it's a more reflective and scholarly work than a mere sensationalist entertainment. Huxley relates the history of the events in Loudun, but tries to place those events in a wider historical context, examining what they meant to contemporaries, and contrasting them with later attitudes, and the common beliefs of his own era. Huxley's standpoint is that although the events in Loudun appear gruesome and unacceptable now, beneath what we consider our own "culture" and humanity lurk more sinister latent tendencies:
"Few people now believe in the devil; but very many enjoy behaving as their ancestors behaved when the Fiend was a reality as unquestionable as his "Opposite Number"."
No doubt Huxley's psychological and historical analyses will appear out-of-date to modern experts, but his approach is nontheless a deeply humane one - seeking to understand some of the most base and basic features of the dark side of our behaviour. Given the present state of the world, who would disagree with:
"Montaigne concludes with one of those golden sentences which deserve to be inscribed over the altar of every church, above the bench of every magistrate, on the walls of every lecture hall, every senate and parliament, every government office and council chamber. "After all" (write the words in neon, write in letters as tall as a man!) "after all it is rating one's conjectures as a very high price to roast a man alive on the strength of them"."
Write them in the East and in the West too.
Rating: 5
Summary: State, society, and spirituality in 17th century France
Comment: The Devils of Loudun is a wonderful study of state, society, and spirituality in 17th century France. By closely examining the events surrounding a case of satanic possession of a cloister of nuns in the village of Loudun, Aldous Huxley writes knowledgably and entertainingly about French history and Roman Catholicism of this period.
The book begins with the coming of a new priest, Urbain Grandier, to the village church. He is young, handsome, intelligent, and sophisticated. Grandier is a worldly priest who has the village women enthralled, and he is not committed to a life of celibacy. After a series of affairs, he falls in love with and "marries" in a secret ceremony Madeleine de Brou.
One of the women who has become infatuated by Grandier is the Mother Superior of the Ursuline convent, Sister Jeanne des Anges, an ambitious young woman who is unstable emotionally. She starts talking of her dreams and obsessive thoughts about Grandier to the other nuns and to her confessor. He sees the influence of the devil in these compulsive thoughts and begins an exorcism that lasts for six years.
Fantasies about the local priest turn into accusations that he is in league with the devil. Huxley describes Grandier' powerful enemies and their motives for wanting him punished. Grandier is accused of witchcraft, found guilty, and burned at the stake.
The close relationship between Sister Jeanne and her exorcist, the Jesuit mystic Joseph Surin, rounds out the book. Huxley presents a learned and intriguing discussion of christian mysticism and its relationship with the concept of satanic possession as it was understood at the time.
Although it is the basis for the Ken Russell movie The Devils, the book provides a much more detailed and less sensationalistic approach to the material than the movie. An excellent study that continually compares the 20th century with the topics under discussion, this book is a wonderful view into this period. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the history of France, witchcraft, mysticism, or the Catholic Church. Huxley doesn't believe in the nuns' possession, but provides a well-reasoned explanation of his own interpretation of events.
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Title:The Devils ASIN: 6300268918 Publisher: Warner Studios Pub. Date: 25 September, 1991 List Price(USD): $19.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $19.99 |
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Title: The Possession at Loudun by Michel De Certeau, Michael B. Smith, Stephen Greenblatt, Michel de Certeau ISBN: 0226100359 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: July, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans by Malachi Martin ISBN: 006065337X Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: October, 1992 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett ISBN: 0451166892 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ISBN: 0385504209 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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