UNLIMITED Audiobooks and eBooks

Over 40,000 books & works on all major devices

Get ALL YOU CAN for FREE for 30 days!

The Cathedral

Joris-Karl Huysmans

Book Overview: 

It is the third of Huysmans' books to feature the character Durtal, a thinly disguised portrait of the author. He had already featured the character of Durtal in Là-bas and En route, which recounted his conversion to Catholicism. La Cathédrale continues the story. After his retreat at a Trappist monastery, Durtal moves to the city of Chartres, renowned for its cathedral. Huysmans describes the building in great detail.

How does All You Can Books work?

All You Can Books gives you UNLIMITED access to over 40,000 Audiobooks, eBooks, and Foreign Language courses. Download as many audiobooks, ebooks, language audio courses, and language e-workbooks as you want during the FREE trial and it's all yours to keep even if you cancel during the FREE trial. The service works on any major device including computers, smartphones, music players, e-readers, and tablets. You can try the service for FREE for 30 days then it's just $19.99 per month after that. So for the price everyone else charges for just 1 book, we offer you UNLIMITED audio books, e-books and language courses to download and enjoy as you please. No restrictions.

Book Excerpt: 
. . .Be watchful and pray;' well, I am more than willing, but the remedy is ineffectual, for aridity and outside influences deprive it of its efficacy!

"As for outside suggestions—they never seem to come to me but in prayer. It is enough that I kneel down and try to collect my thoughts, they are at once dissipated. The mere purpose of prayer is like a stone flung into a pool; everything is stirred up and comes to the top!

"And people who have not habits of religious practice fancy that there is nothing easier than prayer. I should like to see them try. They could then bear witness that profane imaginings, which leave them in peace at all other times, always surge up unexpectedly, during prayer.

"Besides, what use is therein disputing the fact? Merely looking at a sleeping vice is enough to wake it."

And his thoughts went back to that warm crypt. "Yes, no doubt, like all the buildings of the Romanesque period, i. . . Read More

Community Reviews

[Revised, pictures added 3/6/23]

In the first few pages the author tells us this is the story of a man who “died twice." Our hero, or anti-hero, is going nowhere in late 1800s Italy. He earns a pittance as the librarian in a backwater Italian town. He lives with screaming kids, a wife who has lost in

Άλλο ένα εξαιρετικό βιβλίο του Pirandello και σίγουρα πρωτότυπο, τόσο ως προς τα υπόλοιπα του που εποχών διαβάσει όσο και γενικότερα.

Κατ’αρχάς είναι υποδειγματικός αφηγητής, χρησιμοποιώντας το πρώτο πρόσωπο (Ματτία Πασκάλ) σαν να μη γράφει ο ίδιος. Αυτή την ικανότητα που δεν έχουν πολλοί συγγραφείς,

‎دوستانِ گرانقدر، داستانِ "مرحوم ماتیا پاسکال" با هنر و فرهوشی <لوئیجی پیراندلو> به گونه ای نگارش یافته است که هم از نکته هایِ غم انگیزِ زندگیِ انسانها سخن به میان آمده و هم دارایِ جستارهایِ خنده دار و خوش مزه است
-------------------------------------------
‎داستان در موردِ مردی به نامِ <ماتیا پاسکال>

Η πρώτη φορά που πέθανα...

"Τίποτα ή πολύ λίγα συγκράτησα από εκείνα που αρχικά είχα φανταστεί. Είναι αλήθεια πως τίποτα δεν είναι δυνατόν να επινοηθεί, που να μην έχει κάποια ρίζα, λίγο-πολύ βαθιά, στην πραγματικότητα∙ ακόμη και τα πιο παράξενα πράγματα μπορούν να είναι αληθινά, αντιθέτως καμία φαντ

شده با خودتون گهگاه آرزو کنین کاش میشد به جایی برم بدون آدم هایی که منو بشناسند و اون وقت همه چیز رو از نو شروع کنم؟خودم ، زندگی و حتی گذشته مو دوباره بسازم؟ تا حالا آرزو یا تصور همچین آزادی رو در ذهن داشتین؟

پیراندلو با این اثرش به این موضوع پرداخته. ماتیا زندگی خانوادگی چندان خوشایندی نداره. به مرو

View More Reviews