Là-Bas · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Là-Bas by J.-K. Huysmans.
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Durtal
major
Also known as III Durtal, M. Durtal, Monsieur Durtal
Durtal lives alone with his notes on Gilles de Rais, having traded naturalist fiction for the fifteenth century and its monsters. His senses, dormant for years, reignite over a correspondent he has never met — and a visit to an old prostitute leaves him more haunted, not less. His research into a child-killer and his hunger for an unknown woman pull him in the same direction: toward the forbidden, and toward a faith he cannot quite name.
Gilles de Rais
major
Also known as Gilles, Undoubtedly Gilles, de Rais
Gilles de Rais is the subject Durtal cannot put down: a baron so powerful that peasants flee at his approach and his liege lord shields him for the sake of his lands. Only the Church, in the person of the Bishop of Nantes, finally moves against him — after Gilles commits sacrilege at Saint-Étienne by seizing a tonsured clerk in the middle of mass. He is the novel's true center of gravity: the monster Durtal studies, and the abyss Durtal keeps circling.
Carhaix
supporting
Also known as Mme, Mme . Carhaix, mama Carhaix, Mama Carhaix
Carhaix and his wife bow under the paternal despotism of the priests, and Durtal, watching them, cannot decide whether their simplicity is sanctity or servility. He climbs the tower to sit with them, drawn to their unsmirched souls even as his own skepticism picks at the fat, jovial abbé below. Their cramped, curtained room above the square is the one place in the novel where belief is not argued but simply lived.
Des Hermies
supporting
Also known as Monsieur Des Hermies, Monsieur des Hermies
Des Hermies is the friend who tells Durtal the truth: that he execrates the age while the other realists worship it, and that Gilles de Rais was the escape hatch his exhausted talent needed. He moves through cafés and consulting rooms with the same dry precision, collecting the era's superstitions and maladies without ever quite catching the disease himself. He is Durtal's sounding board — and the novel's clearest-eyed witness to what is happening to him.
Mme Chantelouve
supporting
Also known as Mme . Chantelouve, the Chantelouve
Durtal spends a whole day tidying his apartment and buying exotic liqueurs for her first visit, only to find himself exhausted before she arrives. She is married to a sugary, calculating hagiographer who almost certainly knows about her goings-on and says nothing. She draws Durtal toward a world of séances, satanism, and appetite that his research into Gilles de Rais had only prepared him to recognize, not to resist.
Canon Docre
supporting
Also known as Docre
Docre appears in the Chantelouve household as a smooth, rotund man of affairs, pink cotton in his ears, capable of doing one a bad turn behind his pious smile. He speaks of saints and their filth with the same detached fluency he brings to everything else, and Durtal senses in him a cool unscrupulousness that the drawing-room setting only half conceals. He is the door through which the novel's occult underworld begins to open, and he knows exactly what he is doing.
Dr. Johannès
supporting
Also known as Johannès, Only Dr. Johannès
Dr. Johannès moves between the consulting room and the séance, a man of medicine who takes seriously what his colleagues would dismiss as superstition. He is the one Durtal can confess to about the anonymous letters and the sensual fever they have ignited, since a doctor meets scores of people and can ask the questions a friend cannot. His willingness to treat the occult as a real force gives Durtal both a confidant and a push toward the darker experiments that structure the novel's middle.
Gévingey
minor
Also known as Monsieur Gévingey
An astrologer and associate of Des Hermies.
Hyacinthe Chantelouve
supporting
Also known as Hyacinthe, Chantelouve, another Hyacinthe
Hyacinthe Chantelouve first arrives as handwriting and obsession, then as flesh: a woman Durtal prepares for with cedar essences and exotic liqueurs, tidying his apartment like a bridegroom. She is married, elusive, and clearly more than the melancholy blonde he has imagined, and the gap between his fantasy and her reality is the engine of his unraveling. Her presence drags Durtal out of scholarly solitude and toward the satanic circles that give the novel its title.
Jean de Malestroit
minor
Also known as de Malestroit, Jean
A historical bishop involved in the trial of Gilles de Rais.
Père Rateau
minor
Also known as Rateau
A priest and friend of Carhaix.
Charles VII
minor
Also known as Charles
King of France during the time of Gilles de Rais.
Francesco Prelati
minor
Also known as Prelati
An Italian alchemist and accomplice of Gilles de Rais.
Gilles de Sillé
minor
Also known as de Sillé, Sillé, Gilles de
An accomplice of Gilles de Rais.
Satan
minor
The devil, invoked in black masses and occult discussions.
Michelet
minor
A historian whose work on Gilles de Rais is referenced.
Triphine
minor
A saint associated with the legend of Bluebeard.
Jean Sans Peur
minor
Duke of Burgundy, a historical figure mentioned in context.
Jean V
minor
Duke of Brittany, a contemporary of Gilles de Rais.
Eliphas Levi
minor
A famous occultist whose works are discussed.
Melchisedek
minor
A biblical figure referenced in occult contexts.
Matthæus Grünewald
minor
Also known as Grünewald
A painter whose crucifixion scene is admired by Durtal.
Bodin
minor
Also known as the benevolent Bodin
A demonologist whose writings are cited.
Zola
minor
A novelist criticized by Durtal for naturalism.
Bluebeard
minor
Also known as the real Bluebeard
The folkloric figure identified with Gilles de Rais.
Nicolas Flamel
minor
A legendary alchemist mentioned in occult discussions.
Robin Guillaumet
minor
An accomplice of Gilles de Rais.
Roger de Bricqueville
minor
Also known as Bricqueville
A nobleman and accomplice of Gilles de Rais.
Eustache Blanchet
minor
Also known as Eustache, Blanchet
A priest and accomplice of Gilles de Rais.
General Boulanger
minor
Also known as Boulanger
A contemporary political figure mentioned in passing.
Guibourg
minor
Also known as abbé Guibourg
A priest involved in black masses.
Vintras
minor
A heretical priest and occultist.