Was Leon Bloy Huysman’s “pédagogue providentiel" in Là-bas?

Until the end of his life, Bloy claimed to have dictated, when they were friends, “three-quarters” of Là-bas to Huysmans. This claim having never been verified, the present study seeks in the novel the possible trace of the major markers of Bloy’s thought: paracletism, the cult of the Salettine Virgin, the trial of the clergy. Forced to attribute to Boullan what does not belong to Bloy, it nevertheless discovers supporting texts, proof of his influence where it was hardly expected.