The Devils Of Loudon Aldous Huxley, Dustwrapper By Biro

First edition, first printing hardback in dustwrapper. 20.5 × 13.5cm, 376pp. 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. Condition: The book is in good solid condition, though with a little tanning to the page edges and endpapers. The dustwrapper is quite heavily chipped to all edges and the rear joint, is tanned to the spine but has not been price-clipped and is now within a protective sleeve.