A review by mattycakkes28
The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley

2.0

On paper this book had everything- history, demons, nuns (I have a weird obsession with religious fanatics throughout history). Unfortunately, everything is not what it seems here. What looked to be a fairly straight-forward examination of a historical event in 17th century France, is in fact a vehicle which Huxley uses to expound upon his own particular theological and philosophical ideas ad nauseam. The narrative of the possessions and the circumstances in which they occurred were interesting enough- and probably the only reason I didn’t give this book one star- however, throughout the book I was often bogged down by Huxley’s tangential asides concerning his own ideas of theology and philosophy. These digressions are frequent throughout and are usually so convoluted that I often couldn’t tell if I’d accidentally picked up a copy of Deepak Chopra. I’ve later come to find out that Huxley was a believer in parapsychology and spiritualism, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; however, I did find it difficult taking seriously an author that would on one hand dismiss the idea of demonic possession while on the other suggesting that the nuns were probably just experiencing ESP or psychokinesis or communion with ghosts. Add to that the outdated psychology (he frequently suggests that the nuns suffered from hysteria, a diagnosis that was discontinued in the 80s) and I could barely make it through more than 3 pages without wanting to throw this book through a wall. Even the much lauded epilogue was aggravating with it’s questionable statements concerning sexuality, drugs, and music. I’m not dismissing Huxley here simply because I disagree, but because he makes these statements as though they are self-evident while providing little in the way of proof, other than outdated studies and unreliable sources (see; F.W.H Myers and JD Unwin). To anyone looking to this book as a scholarly examination of history but aren’t interested in the peculiar spirituality of Aldous Huxley, I would suggest going somewhere else, it's simply not worth your time.