HUYSMANS, Jorris Karl. Down There [Là-Bas]. London: The Fortune Press. [1930.]
8vo. Original black buckram, spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed, with the original dust jacket; pp. xi, [1], 387, [1]; jacket with a few small stains and mild dust-soiling, slight rubbing to extremities, otherwise a near-fine copy.
First UK edition, limited to 2050 numbered copies, this copy no. 165, printed on antique laid paper – rare, especially in such lovely condition.
First published in French in 1891, Là-Bas follows the disillusioned writer Durtal, who turns from the vulgarity of modern life to the study of medieval mysticism, Satanism, and the occult. With the help of his lover, Madame Chantelouve, he begins to explore the hidden, esoteric world of contemporary devil worship, while researching the notorious French child-murderer Gilles de Rais (c. 1405-1440).
The first English translation of Là-Bas, by Keene Wallis, was published in New York in 1924 by Albert & Charles Boni, and privately reprinted in Paris in 1928. This first UK edition does not credit a translator. It was produced using sheets from a limited Paris edition by Groves & Michaux (apparently never commercially distributed), with new title and limitation pages added by the Fortune Press. Although the colophon states 2050 copies, it is generally believed that R.A. Caton, proprietor of the Fortune Press, acquired only around 500 sets of sheets from the original French publishers.
Down There was among the books seized during a 1934 police raid on the Fortune Press, on suspicion of publishing obscene material. The event curtailed its distribution and rendered extant copies particularly rare.
D’Arch Smith, 297-9
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