Customer Reviews

The Devil (The Art of the Novella series)

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The devil in this diminutive drama is the gnawing need of an otherwise good husband to have sex with another man's wife or it is, at least from the good husband's perspective, the adulterous wife herself. Eugene Irtenev was a good son and brother. When his father died he took over his father's estate and scrupulously paid his father's debts, supported his mother and gave his brother his fair share of the property. Eugene recognized that he had a need for sex, only for health reasons, of course. He developed a relationship with the beautiful wife of a peasant who was frequently away from home, which he piously discontinued when he decided to marry another woman. Eugene's wife was ideal in every way, except for beauty. She treated him exceptionally well. Eugene did all in his power to avoid his prior consort even though she gave birth to a male child who was probably his. But then he saw her again and wanted her again with all his being.
Tolstoy describes the "horrors" of his "torment" very well and how he repeatedly tried to overcome it and what happened to him, his wife and the wife of the other man. He offers two alternative endings to his story and readers can choose which of the two they like best.

I read this while also reading the tail end of Tolstoy's War & Peace and so have this juxtaposition in mind.

The folks at Melville House Press have produced a beautiful little book in The Devil. Here, Tolstoy paints the characters just as vividly, but with an appropriately singular--relentless--focus. You are with the protagonist, Yvegeny, throughout his struggles with fidelity and like him, the poor fellow, have nothing to distract you from Stepanida's dark eyes.

In the Melville House edition, you'll have both of Tolstoy's endings which are very different and yet land with the same two final paragraphs, and the cover has end flaps that serve as bookmarks--assuming you can put the book down. I see myself eating Melville House Press' entire Art of the Novella series, book by book.