This is the final part of Huysmans' alter ego Durtal's spiritual journey. From the satanism of La-Ba (1891) he makes his way to the foot of the cross by a retreat in a Trappist monastery in En Route (1895), and by living in Chartres in The Cathedral(1898) until finally he embraces Roman Catholicism ...

This is the final part of Huysmans' alter ego Durtal's spiritual journey. From the satanism of La-Ba (1891) he makes his way to the foot of the cross by a retreat in a Trappist monastery in En Route (1895), and by living in Chartres in The Cathedral(1898) until finally he embraces Roman Catholicism in The Oblate (1903).

Durtal is a modern anti-hero: solitary, agonised and alienated. His spiritual Journey confronts the problems of our age. Art, architecture and music light Durtal's path to God. Although a novel about spiritual redemption The Oblate is rich in the atmosphere of fin-de-siècle decadence which has dominated Huymans' previous novels.