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The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - Researching the Occult

Further research / 3 : fiction ... J .K. Huysmans 'La-Bas' ('Down There')



A surviving page of DW's research notes

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'Down There' by J.K. Huysmans
DW's copy

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A surviving page of DW's research notes shows that he consulted J.K. Huysmans celebrated novel from 1891 'La-Bas' ('Down There'), of which he owned a copy of the 1930 limited English edition.

In his study of Gilles de Rais, the principal character discovers that Satanism is alive and flourishing in modern France, and the story contains a detailed description of a Black Mass.

The novel was subsequently published in DW's 'Library of the Occult', where DW's introduction ended with the statement that "few finer descriptions of this obscene ritual have ever been written."

Further reading : See the Wikipedia entry on La-Bas.

Provenance:Private Collection