The Cathedral (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Joris-Karl Huysmans

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9780331013443: The Cathedral (Classic Reprint)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0331013444 ISBN 13: 9780331013443

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

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Excerpt from The Cathedral

There are those to whom the characters in good fiction are far more real than the men and women whom we encounter in life: nor is this illusion confined to readers alone; it is shared by authors, who see in the children of their brain many of their own features, as their physical peculiarities are reproduced and at times exaggerated in their succeeding generations. To those who were fascinated by En Route, Durtal, the hero, became living and true we rejoice to meet him again, and recognize that his creator takes the same pride in his mental and spiritual development as a parent takes in those of his children, both when they repeat and differ from his own traits.

In leaving Durtal at the close of En Route, he stood at the parting of the ways, and it was uncertain whether he would drift back to his wallowing in the mire, or pursue the steep path of penance and virtue to the end. It is with a relief from tension and of satisfied hope that in The Cathedral are no signs of wavering, his change of life continues; he is occasionally wearied with the monotony of a provincial but he feels the hand of God is on him, turning his steps towards righteousness, his eyes and thoughts to mediaeval mysticism, to the rapt meditation of the Cloister rather than to the more modern Catholicism which is ready to make a pact with the world.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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