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The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation (P.S.)
 
 
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The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation (P.S.) (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: hotel landlady, ten gold bars, rogue wolf, Miss Prym, Leonardo da Vinci
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The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation (P.S.) + The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession (P.S.) + By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: A Novel of Forgiveness
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

New to the U.S. but first published in Europe in 1992, Coelho's latest (following the bestselling The Zahir) is an old school parable of good and evil. When a stranger enters the isolated mountain town of Viscos with the devil literally by his side, the widow Berta knows (because her deceased husband, with whom she communicates daily, tells her) that a battle for the town's souls has begun. The stranger, a former arms dealer, calls himself Carlos and proposes a wager to the town: if someone turns up murdered within a week, he'll give the town enough gold to make everyone wealthy. Carlos ensures people believe him by choosing the town bartender, the orphan Chantal Prym, as his instrument: he shows her where the gold is, confides that his wife and children have been executed by kidnapper terrorists (remember: 1992), and that he is hoping his belief that people are basically evil will be vindicated. Chantal would like nothing better than to disappear with the gold herself and thus faces her own dilemmas. Add in corrupt townspeople (including a priest), sometimes biting social commentary and, distastefully, a very heavily stereotyped recurring town legend about an Arab named Ahab, and you've got quite a little Garden of Eden potboiler. But the unsatisfying ending lets everyone off the hook and leaves questions hanging like ripe apples. (July 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From Booklist

Internationally acclaimed author and contemporary fabulist Coelho concludes his excellent And on the Seventh Day trilogy with another provocative morality tale centered on a "week in the life of ordinary people, all of whom find themselves suddenly confronted by love, death, and power." As in By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1996) and Veronika Decides to Die (2001), the characters who populate the author's fictional village, a moribund community struggling to maintain its ever-elusive spiritual identity, are immediately thrust into the center of the timeless conflict between right and wrong when a stranger bearing 11 bars of gold and accompanied by the devil arrives in Viscos prepared to challenge the citizens of the town with an intriguing moral dilemma. Will the townsfolk succumb to temptation, confirming that man is inherently evil; or will goodness triumph over evil, proving that every human being has the capacity to make his own choices and decide his or her own destiny? These and other philosophical questions are posed by Coehlo in the same mesmerizing, lyrical style he employed in The Alchemist (1993). A natural choice for book clubs and discussion groups. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (April 10, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060528001
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060528003
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,203 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Paulo Coelho
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The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation (P.S.)
65% buy the item featured on this page:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation (P.S.) 3.6 out of 5 stars (37)
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By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: A Novel of Forgiveness 3.8 out of 5 stars (121)
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Customer Reviews

37 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A story old as time itself, August 11, 2006
By Rebecca M (Somerville, MA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation (Hardcover)
Once again, Coelho deftly uses his gifts as a storyteller to delve into the meat of the human condition. This "novel of temptation" is in the same vein as Coelho's The Alchemist, wherein he uses a simple narrative technique to approach some very difficult questions.
Although one might think it would be impossible to explore good vs. evil without a certain amount of rhetoric, Coelho's approach is fresh and does not resort to the usual cliches. The heroine does not shine and the villain is a victim of circumstance. In the two characters we see both sides of ourselves.
The book reads like a morality play in that the town of Viscos is Everytown and the Stranger is Everyman. Coelho has brought on the renaissance of the parable as an art form and should be commended on his ability to explore truth without grandstanding. This is a book that should humble even the most saintly of readers.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Just OK., May 17, 2006
By Nicole Del Sesto (Northern Cal) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Devil and Miss Prym (Paperback)
The beauty of The Alchemist was that in Santiago we had a character to love and go on adventures with. Along the way we learned as the he learned. That is what made it such a powerful book.

The problem with Coelho's more recent works is that he seems to have sacrificed character development and storyline for overt lessons. While The Devil and Miss Prym had its moments, I mostly felt like I was being preached to throughout the course of the book. I couldn't bond with the characters and though there was a story, it was weak. This book had the potential to be much more. We could have become emotionally attached to "the stranger" by experiencing his loss with him, vs. being told about it. It was hard to care about Berta's outcome because we didn't really know her. The five paragraphs of the story of Midas pretty much told the story. We've heard it before.

Overall, I found this latest Coelho fairly disappointing. I wish he would to back to the storytelling and allow the readers to derive their own message. What we learn through our own discovery is far more powerful than being conked on the head with the message.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a fable of good and evil, July 23, 2006
This review is from: The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation (Hardcover)
I loved this book ... am scratching my head at the some of the negative comments. Some of the most clever, thought-provoking gems are hidden in the middle section that one reviewer considered "rambling" ... I think a more careful read would elicit a different response. Coelho is known for his layered prose, and this is no exception. Given the times in which we live, the struggle between good and evil resonates heartily with those of us who so desperately ask "why?". Although this book does not definitively answer that question, its hidden wisdom is thought-provoking and genuine. I heartily recommend it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars
Most people either love Paulo Coelho's writing or absolutely hate it. I haven't seen many who have straddled the fence on this author. Read more
Published 23 days ago by 1morechapter.com

2.0 out of 5 stars preachy and unoriginal
I have to say I was expecting a lot more from this book. The fact that Coelho basically lifted his plot wholesale from Durrenmatt's play "The Visit" was disappointing. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Derek Barton

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking, not action packed
I love Paulo Coelho. He really hits a homerun with his literary skills. This particular book is more introspective; hence some people could fid themselves slightly bored. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Laura A. Sullivan

1.0 out of 5 stars Patti Carroll
Payment was fast to seller. Delivery was slow to customer Cover was torn with packing not listed
Published 8 months ago by Michael E. Carroll

4.0 out of 5 stars Paulo Coelho is never a let down
Articulates in a materialistic way the pull of temptation wihtin humanity, revealing there are many sides to any predicament.
Published 8 months ago by Jessi Lohman

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for me....
I can't understand how this book is so popular and a "national bestseller." I'm hoping it is due to the fact that The Alchemist was such a wonderful book that others (like myself)... Read more
Published 9 months ago by MLRapp

5.0 out of 5 stars Bewitched
Every once in a while, a book comes along that is so powerful, so engaging that I just can't put it down, and then, despite the speed at which I read it, it hits me like a ton of... Read more
Published 12 months ago by A. Shapiro

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining but very simple
I was a big Coelho fan after reading The Alchemist, which is a simple but deep story.
Coelho writes very well, or at least the translations don't lose any of his prose, but... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Y. Koch

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring read
I stumbled on Paulo Coelho purely by accident. Overcast day in a used bookstore, and I find Veronika Decides to Die. Read more
Published 19 months ago by S. Brooke Golightly

2.0 out of 5 stars Good, Evil, Good, Evil- bla, bal, blah
When this book was chosen for my book club I was looking forward to reading it since "The Alchemist" is my all time favorite book. Read more
Published 19 months ago by D. Michelsen

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