I just finished Remy de Gourmont's 'Les chevaux de Diomède', and my head is still spinning. It's one of those books that feels less like a story and more like a direct line into a very peculiar mind.

The Story

The book follows a philosopher named Bertrand D'Entragues. He's brilliant but completely disillusioned with human society, language, and even his own thoughts. In a radical experiment, he decides to reject everything that makes him human. He moves to the countryside, stops speaking, and tries to live purely by instinct and sensation, aiming for the simple, direct existence of a horse. The plot is the internal journey of his mind as it unravels and rewires itself, observing the world without the filter of words or complex ideas.

Why You Should Read It

This isn't a light read, but it's incredibly rewarding. Gourmont doesn't just tell you about a man rejecting civilization; he makes you feel the claustrophobia of too much thinking and the eerie silence that comes after. The tension comes from watching a sharp intellect deliberately blunt itself. It’s a powerful, almost painful, exploration of whether we can ever truly escape our own minds. The prose is dense and poetic, demanding your full attention, but the ideas it explores are startlingly modern.

Final Verdict

This book is perfect for readers who love philosophical fiction and don't mind a challenging narrative. Think of it as a companion to works by Dostoevsky or Huysmans—it's for anyone who's ever felt overwhelmed by the noise of the modern world and wondered about the price of true simplicity. It’s a haunting, brilliant, and deeply weird classic.