21 Days of a Neurasthenic (Paperback)

Octave Mirbeau, author of the classic satires 'The Torture Garden' and 'Diary of a Chambermaid' (the latter made into films by both Jean Renoir and Luis Bunuel), wrote this scathing novel on the cusp of the twentieth century. Driven mad by modern life, Georges Vasseur heads off for a rest cure. At a spa town, though, he encounters precisely those things he has been trying to escape: corrupt politicians, amnesiac coquettes, cheerfully sadistic killers, imperialist generals, and quack psychiatrists. Hypocrites are eternal, and not much has changed since Mirbeau wrote this acid portrait of his era."