huysmanns and catholicism

[John King <john.king@st-johns.oxford.ac.uk>]

Recently found the following -

Kirchhorster Blaetter, SW III, entry of 27 February 1945, p. 376: 'Kurz
nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg hat [Huysmanns La-Bas] einen gewissen Einfluss
auf mich geuebt, rief die Tendenz zu einem expressionistischen
Katholizismus wach, die dann ueberdeckt wurde'.

Siebzig verweht IV, entry of 28 June 1987, p. 171: 'Huysmanns hat diese
Kathedrale [von Chartres] als Vorbild fuer alle anderen gesetzt: "La"
Cathedrale. Das Werk hat in mir nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg eine fluechtige,
vielleicht auch in der Erbanlage [!] begruendete Neigung fuer den
Katholizismus erweckt'.

So, in other words, he maintains that he nearly converted to an
aesthetically tinged Catholicism in the early 1920s. At the same time that
he was taking all sorts of drugs, reading demonologies, Spengler, all of
Goethe more besides, writing Expressionistic poetry, hanging out with Paul
Steegemann and others in Hannover... of these it was obviously Catholicism
that had the longest lasting influence.

Other signs of his early predeliction for Catholicism are buried in the
first edition of "Das Waeldchen 125" and in his reviews of Bernanos's
novels.

Thought people might be more interested in this than more bibliographical
references (of which there are a few more to come).

Regards,

JK

==============================================================================
John King
St. John's College	
GB - Oxford OX1 3JP
==============================================================================