"Ah, but my courage fails me, and my heart is sick within me! - Lord, take pity on the Christian who doubts, on the skeptic who would fain believe, on the galley slave of life who puts out to sea alone, in the darkness of night, beneath a firmament no longer illumined by the beacon fires of the ancient hope."
from A Rebours, by J.K. Huysmans
"Baudelaire, the satanic Baudelaire, who died a Christian, must surely be one of M. Huysmans' favourite authors, for one can feel his presence, like a glowing fire, behind the finest pages M. Huysmans has written. Well, one day, I defied Baudelaire to begin Les Fleurs du mal over again, or to go any farther in his blasphemies. I might as well offer the same challenge to the author of A Rebours. 'After Les Fleurs du mal,' I told Baudelaire, 'it only remains for you to choose between the muzzle of a pistol or the foot of the Cross.' Baudelaire chose the foot of the Cross. But will the author of A Rebours make the same choice."
- Jules Barbey d' Aurevilly
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