Les Diaboliques

Barbey d’Aurevilly who despised his public, (while yet constantly seeking to shock and impress that public) thoughtfully provided his own preface to Les Diaboliques when it was first published in 1874. In it he claimed that he wrote as a Christian to demonstrate how good and evil are at war in the world. This is disingenuous apologetics. Barbey’s tales are really much closer to the black cinematographic fables of Luis Bunuel, and Barbey does himself a disservice by attempting to foist such a pious purpose on to the stories. The metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics of his writing are all, alike, more subtle than that.