The Devil's Pool (Hesperus Classics) - Softcover

George Sand; Victoria Glendinning (foreword); Andrew Brown (translator)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843911051 ISBN 13: 9781843911050

Publisher: Hesperus Press Ltd, 2004

Synopsis

'The Devil's Pool' is one of a group of pastoral novels inspired by the countryside of Nohant in Berry, where George Sand grew up. These novels are simple stories of country life, in which Sand records local customs and manners, depicting a timeless idyll, unaffected by the outside world and the political events of the time. With his wife dead, and three young children to look after, ploughman Germaine decides that the time has come to marry again. He embarks on a journey to meet a rich widow, Catherine Leonard, in a match which has been approved by his father-in-law; but he finds her proud and vain, and surrounded by other suitors. Germaine prefers the company of Marie, a young shepherdess from his own village, but she is insistent that she wants a younger, more suitable husband... 'The Devil's Pool' is charming tale, and a classic love story.

About this title

About the Author

French novelist George Sand (1804-76) is best-known for two groups of novels: a series of romantic tales, and a collection of idylls of country life. Biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist, Victoria Glendinning is the author of three novels: 'The Grown-Ups' (1989); 'Electricity' (1995); and 'Flight' (2002).

From the Back Cover

the dream of rural life has always been the ideal of towns and cities and even of royal courts.

From the Inside Flap

When Germain a shy but handsome widower is sent by his father-in-law to find himself a wife, he sets out on his journey with a heavy heart. The prospective spouse is said to be rich, with land and a tidy dowry. But Germain fears for the fate of his three angelic children and for the state of his own bruised heart. Everything changes during his voyage through a dark wood and around a haunted marsh when Germain falls passionately in love with an impoverished young shepherdess. Should he follow his heart, and woo the girl he now loves? Or please his family by marrying a rich but disdainful widow?

A love song to the French countryside a provocative romance of two simple hearts The Devil s Pool is above all a paean to an antique language and way of life which, even by 1844, was being eroded by industrialisation and the inexorable expansion of a national identity.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hesperus Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1843911051
• ISBN 13: 9781843911050
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160