The Devils of Loudun

Aldous Huxley's 1952 account of the Loudun possessions is non-fiction told in a novelistic style. At its centre is Urbain Grandier, a priest in the small French town of Loudun, charged with making a pact with the devil to seduce a whole convent of Ursuline nuns. Huxley traces a story of mass hysteria, religious fanaticism and sexual repression that brought public exorcisms and saw Grandier tortured and burned at the stake in 1634, still maintaining his innocence. A church tribunal had earlier acquitted him; a new trial followed his public criticism of Cardinal Richelieu. John Whiting's dramatization of the book later became the basis for Krzysztof Penderecki's 1969 opera.

Robert Greene posted it on Instagram among a few favorite biographies he was reading for his new book.