This is the final part of Huysmans' alter ego Durtal's spiritual journey. From the satanism of La-Ba (1891) he makes his way to the foot of the cross by a retreat in a Trappist monastery in En Route (1895), and by living in Chartres in The Cathedral(1898) until finally he embraces Roman Catholicism in The Oblate (1903).

Durtal is a modern anti-hero: solitary, agonised and alienated. His spiritual Journey confronts the problems of our age. Art, architecture and music light Durtal's path to God. Although a novel about spiritual redemption The Oblate is rich in the atmosphere of fin-de-siècle decadence which has dominated Huymans' previous novels.