Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der hinkende Teufel
Go deeper: the whole of Der hinkende Teufel
About 6 h to read.Für wen es gedacht ist
You will enjoy this if you like sharp satire, comic travel, devils with a sense of humor, tales of rogues and students, and the street life of old Madrid and Seville.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
What would you see if someone lifted the roofs off a whole city at one in the morning? Luis Vélez de Guevara asks that question in The Limping Devil, and answers it with a flying tour of Madrid, Toledo and Andalusia.
This short satirical novel appeared in 1641, written by a working playwright turned prose writer. Instead of chapters it gives leaps, each full of quick pictures of a society busy lying to itself. A crippled devil with a pumpkin head guides a penniless student, and you get the whole trip, from the roof leap to the academy of Seville.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A student on the run frees a devilFree
- 2The devil lifts the roofs of Madrid
- 3Madrid's morning streets sell faces, names and ancestors
- 4A fire, a poet and a brawl on the road
- 5Fortune's procession, Seville and the academy
- 6Everyone is playing a part and wearing a mask
- 7Poets, plays and fortune get the sharpest jokes
- 8How the leaps and the devil's eye shape the telling
Punkt 1 von 8
A student on the run frees a devil
The story opens in Madrid at the end of July, at eleven at night. Don Cleofás Leandro Pérez Zambullo, a poor student with a long string of noble surnames, creeps along a roof ridge like a cat. The law is chasing him over a woman who sells her favors. He ranked twenty-second among her admirers, yet he is the one they want to make pay.
He jumps into an attic window and lands in an astrologer's workshop. Then he hears a sigh. A voice from a sealed bottle says it has been a prisoner for nearly two years, and begs him to break the glass.
The student guesses who it is. Lucifer? No. Satan? No. Beelzebub? No. The prisoner is a demon of small things, in charge of gossip, fraud, usury and every new dance that scandalizes the street. His name is the Limping Devil. Only a baptized man can break the spell, so the student smashes the bottle with a quadrant. Out steps a tiny figure on two crutches, with a pumpkin for a head.
The devil promises repayment and flies the student to a Madrid tower. A favor leads to a flight, and a flight leads to a lesson about how people really live.
A small kindness opens the door to a wider view of the world.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Der hinkende Teufel
About 6 h to read.Questions about Der hinkende Teufel
What is The Limping Devil about?
A poor student, Don Cleofás, frees a devil from a sorcerer's bottle. The devil lifts the roofs of Madrid, shows him the city's secrets, and flies him south to Seville while a demon officer chases them.
Who is the Limping Devil?
He is a small crippled devil of gossip, fraud and fashion. He says he was the first to fall from heaven, and the others who landed on him left him lame.
Is The Limping Devil a true story, and when was it written?
No, it is a satirical novel. Luis Vélez de Guevara published it in 1641, drawing on real places, real nobles and the theater world of the Spanish Golden Age.
Is The Limping Devil easy to read?
It comes in short episodes called leaps and strides, each with its own scene and joke. The quick dialogue, comic pictures and travel plot make it easy to enjoy one episode at a time.
What is the main message of The Limping Devil?
People put on masks of title, beauty and talent, and the city rewards the show more than the truth. The book teaches the reader to laugh at vanity, including his own.
Cite this edition
Vélez de Guevara, Luis. The Limping Devil. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-limping-devil.
Vélez de Guevara, L. (2026). The limping devil. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-limping-devil (Original work published 1641)
Vélez de Guevara, Luis. The Limping Devil. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-limping-devil.
@book{velezdeguevara2026limping,
author = {Vélez de Guevara, Luis},
title = {The Limping Devil},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-limping-devil},
note = {First published 1641}
}
