The Devil's Pool - Softcover

Sand, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1445508036 ISBN 13: 9781445508030

Publisher: Read Books, 2010

Synopsis

Originally published in 1901, this early translation of the French writer, George Sand, is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. Set in the region of Berry, France, Sand depicts a way of pre-industrial rural life that was soon to change. Charting the fortune of Germain, a 28 year old widower, Sand provides the reader with a glimpse into the traditions of rural France in a style not dissimilar to that of Thomas Hardy. Sand’s novella is a fascinating novel of the period and still an interesting read for any social historian today. A lively text and a well-developed plot make this a thoroughly enjoyable read. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

About this title

Review

'Early deaths and endemic poverty are treated here as part of natural life; and natural life, with its indomitable, instinctive force for continuity, is what she is celebrating...it seems to me a book...worth reading more than once. --Victoria Glendinning

From the Author

To an extent, Sand is writing a fable or parable, to convey the essential goodness and fulfilment that can illuminate such apparently narrow lives, in contract to the ‘fake enlightenment’ of her sophisticated readers. Though she does underline the ugly side of customs such as the arranged marriage, with its potential for exploitation and humiliation, she deliberately highlights the poetic and pure side of rural life, as opposed to squalor and suffering. Early deaths and endemic poverty are treated here as part of natural life; and natural life, with its indomitable, instinctive force for continuity, is what she is celebrating. There is a powerful undercurrent of regret for the disappearance of age-old country customs in her native region; what we would now call the social anthropologist in here is well to the fore in the account of traditional marriage games, tacked on as a coda. She wants rural life to go on in the old predestined way, but with some better understanding of the value of that life.
These seem conservative, even sentimental attitudes for a liberated free-thinking, free-loving, progressive woman like Sand. But the story must also be read as she intended, as an act if empathy with her characters, and a riposte to intellectual arrogance. In any case, we all perversely love what we have chosen to lose – in her case, the simple life. The story was written, originally for magazine publication, at top speed. The unresolved ambivalences and contradictions make The Devil’s pool, as its author knew, an imperfect work of art. It is all the more intriguing for being so. For all its simple charm, it seems to me a book for grown-ups, and worth reading more than once.

Edition details

• Publisher: Read Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1445508036
• ISBN 13: 9781445508030
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 194