A fin-de-siècle Augustine? Durtal in the mirror of Confessions

En route reads like a naturalist and decadent rewriting of Confessions. A fin-de-siècle Augustine, as René was a romantic Augustine, Durtal reproduces the inner progression of the saint. The departures from the Augustinian paradigm nonetheless highlight the originality of Durtal’s own progress, which can be described as a delinearized process of conversion. The main cause is an “aesthetic sin”, something like a misappropriation of the transcendent aesthetics of the Church Father.