Synopses & Reviews
Aldous Huxley's acclaimed and gripping account of one of the strangest occurrences in history
In 1632 an entire convent in the small French village of Loudun was apparently possessed by the devil. After a sensational and celebrated trial, the convent's charismatic priest Urban Grandier—accused of spiritually and sexually seducing the nuns in his charge—was convicted of being in league with Satan. Then he was burned at the stake for witchcraft.
In this classic work by the legendary Aldous Huxley—a remarkable true story of religious and sexual obsession considered by many to be his nonfiction masterpiece—a compelling historical event is clarified and brought to vivid life.
Synopsis
"HUXLEY'S MASTERPIECE AND PERHAPS THE MOST ENJOYABLE BOOK ABOUT SPIRITUALITY EVER WRITTEN. ."
-- Washington Post Book World
Aldous Huxley's "brilliant" (Los Angeles Times) and gripping account of one of the strangest occurrences in history, hailed as the "peak achievement of Huxley's career" by the New York Times
In 1632 an entire convent in the small French village of Loudun was apparently possessed by the devil. After a sensational and celebrated trial, the convent's charismatic priest Urban Grandier--accused of spiritually and sexually seducing the nuns in his charge--was convicted of being in league with Satan. Then he was burned at the stake for witchcraft.
A remarkable true story of religious and sexual obsession, The Devils of Loudon is considered by many to be Brave New World author Aldous Huxley's nonfiction masterpiece.
Synopsis
First published in 1952, The Devils of Loudun is Aldous Huxley's thrilling account of one of
history's most sensational cases of mass demonic possession. In seventeeth-century France, an entire Catholic convent is apparently possessed by the devil. Urban Grandier, a charismatic priest, is accused of being in league with Satan and seducing the nuns - both spiritually and sexually. After a much-publicized trial, Grandier is burnt at the stake for witchcraft. This gripping true history of Grandier and the nuns of Loudun is told by one of the master storytellers of the 20th century.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) was born in Surrey, England, and is the author of many critically acclaimed books of fiction and nonfiction, including Brave New World, The Doors of Perception, and Island.
"Huxley's masterpiece and perhaps the most enjoyable book about spirituality ever written. In telling the grotesque, bawdy and true story of a 17th-century convent of cloistered French nuns who contrived to have a priest they never met burned alive as a warlock ... Huxley painlessly conveys a wealth of information about mysticism and the unconscious."
- Washington Post Book World
About the Author
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) is the author of the classic novels Brave New World, Island, Eyeless in Gaza, and The Genius and the Goddess, as well as such critically acclaimed nonfiction works as The Perennial Philosophy and The Doors of Perception. Born in Surrey, England, and educated at Oxford, he died in Los Angeles, California.