Huysmans's lurid and shocking account of diabolism and the occult was described as 'even more disquieting' to the normal mind than Huysmans's first novel, A Rebours, and quickly acquired cult status. The novel follows Durtal, a retiring and censorious biographer, as he investigates the life and crimes of Gilles de Rais, a fifteenth-century nobleman, sadist and Satanist who was the supposed original for 'Bluebeard'. Durtal's pursuit of de Rais also leads him into the dangerous world of black and white magic in his contemporary Paris.