The Crowds of Lourdes, first published in 1906, was J.-K. Huysmans last book, and certainly his greatest work of non-fiction. Written in a style that is at once precise and brutal, this Naturalist study of the pilgrim-crowds of Lourdes, presented as a series of closely connected vignettes full of highly coloured description, is sometimes somber, sometimes scathing, and often touching. In these pages the reader will find a whole-hearted tribute to Our Lady of Lourdes–but one that is a far from conventional, and the penetrating analysis of the author, who offers here some of his finest passages, is full of a fervent emotion and tenderness that is not the least at odds with his fiery spirituality.