The spectre of Gilles de Rais, satanist and child-killer, eclipses French history like a dark star. A fallen general, once the champion of Jeanne d'Arc, de Rais' riches and experimentations led him to the very gates of Hell.
With quotations, essays and fiction, as well as a complete chronology and register of people and places in de Rais' brief but cataclysmic existence, Dark Star is a richevocation of the satanic allure of the most intriguing figure in the annals of mass murder.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
More Like "Dark Editing Room",
This review is from: Dark Star: The Satanic Rites of Gilles de Rais (Paperback)
There are a ridiculous number of typos within the first 50 pages alone. The punctuation is a mess too. Periods show. up mid-sentence all. over the. book. It makes for an unpleasant read.
It's a shame because I had high expectations for this one.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The second part is worth your time.,
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This review is from: Dark Star: The Satanic Rites of Gilles de Rais (Paperback)
Candace Black (ed.), Dark Star: The Satanic Rites of Gilles de Rais (Creation, 2004)
Eighteen months. Eighteen interminable months. That's how long it took me to get through this book, and it's a new record for me. I have to say, I'd have defenestrated this dog long ago were it not for the fact that the nonfiction comes in the second part of the book, and I figured that would be better. And it was; it's hard to believe that so much absolutely awful fiction has been written about one of the most interesting figures in European history. However, there you have it. Aside from the highlight of the fiction part of the book (Angela Carter's excellent "The Bloody Chamber") and a couple of passable pieces (some excerpts from Valentine Penrose, a play by Cendrars that's not completely awful), the first two hundred pages are terrible, terrible, terrible. I spent the bulk of that eighteen months trying to finish Richard Thoma's piece, which is simply unreadable in the extreme. It's joined here by an exceptionally long series of excerpts from Huysmans' endlessly boring La-Bas and a piece James Havoc wrote in all caps (which is the most interesting thing about it), among other small monstrosities. The nonfiction part of the book, which is a great deal smaller, is the part that's worth the price of admission. You've read a good portion of it already (for if you haven't yet read Georges Bataille's excellent The Trial of Gilles de Rais and you're considering spending money on this, go buy that instead immediately), but the rest of the pieces are more general notes on the customs and practices of the fifteenth century, and how they fit into twenty-first-century misconceptions about Gilles de Rais. They are invaluable, but I hesitate to recommend this book if you plan to read the whole thing. * ˝
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not a very good biography,
By
This review is from: Dark Star: The Satanic Rites of Gilles de Rais (Paperback)
Gilles de Rais is known as one of the most extreme serial killers ever to have walked this earth. A nobleman who fought alongside Jeanne d'Arc with great courage, de Rais eventually became one of the most famous, wealthy, and admired men in 15th century France.
However, there was another side to de Rais, a side very few knew about, a side that caused tremendous horror and destruction for a great many years. Because this nobleman took fancy in sacrificing little children, mostly young boys, murdering and mutilating them in the most horrible way imaginable, indulging in perverted sexual orgies that were nothing but indescribable. Not only that, he was also into black magic and alchemy, and spent enormous sums of money in his attempts to invoke demons and carry out various alchemical experiments. Some sources claim that de Rais in the end killed more than 800 children, but the exact number of victims will probably never be known. Dark Stark tells the story of this wicked Frenchman. But it does so in a strange way. Because this is both fiction AND non-fiction. The first half of the book (a half where the proof-reading at times is completely catastrophic) consists exclusively of fiction, while the second half is devoted to non-fiction. This latter half is without a doubt the more interesting of the two. Especially since the sections are easier to understand (some of the parts in the first half are just too obscure), but also since this is where it's possible to get at least some sort of understanding of what kind of man de Rais really was. But it's not enough. By far. And thus it's likely that many readers in the end will be quite disappointed. Tons of questions remain after the book is finished. For instance, why did he do all those despicable acts? And what was so "Satanic" about him? Sure, the book is worth buying, but only if you're one of those people who HAVE to have everything that's ever been written about him. A much cheaper and easier way to learn about this creepy Frenchman is to simply go online and read all the information available on the Web. Because if you've never heard of this man before, then Dark Star is a very bad choice if you're looking for some kind of introduction to the world of Gilles de Rais.
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