num_pages: 400
description: In 1634 Urbain Grandier, a handsome and dissolute priest of the parish of Loudun was tried, tortured and burnt at the stake. He had been found guilty of conspiring with the devil to seduce an entire convent of nuns in what was the most sensational case of mass possession and sexual hysteria in history. Grandier maintained his innocence to the end and four years after his death the nuns were still being subjected to exorcisms to free them from their demonic bondage. Huxley's vivid account of this bizarre tale of religious and sexual obsession transforms our understanding of the medieval world.
language: English
title: The Devils of Loudun
titlecomplete: The Devils of Loudun
characters: Urbain Grandier
genres: Religion, Historical, Philosophy, Literature, Psychology, Horror, Classics, Nonfiction, History, France
ratings_count: 2987
places: Loudun
publisher: Vintage Classics