3 h 36 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
While soldiers fight at the front, a schoolboy discovers freedom—and a desire that leaves little room for anyone else.
In a quiet town on the Marne, near Paris, a fifteen-year-old schoolboy falls for Marthe Grangier. She is eighteen, lonely, and engaged to Jacques, a kind young soldier away at the front. Her warmth draws the boy close. His confidence draws her in. Their friendship becomes an affair, with trust and family expectations at stake.
In Raymond Radiguet’s The Devil in the Flesh, the boy tells his story years later, admitting his pride, selfishness, and cruelty. War remains a distant noise, but its absence of ordinary restraints gives him room to act. As desire grows, so do deception and jealousy. His intelligence offers no protection against his own moral blindness.
What you’ll discover
- A voice without excuses Meet a narrator who exposes his faults without asking you to forgive him.
- Marthe's warmth and uncertainty Follow a lonely young woman drawn toward attention while her fiancé serves at the front.
- War beyond the town See how distant fighting becomes, for one boy, an unsettling chance at freedom.
- Intelligence without wisdom Watch a bright schoolboy mistake cleverness for judgment as he deceives those around him.
- Two selves, one story Feel the tension between the boy who acts and the older narrator who judges.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, sharp novels about desire, youth and moral blindness, and anyone curious about France in the First World War.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- War gives a boy his freedom
- A girl waits for her soldier
- Desire grows in the shadow of war
- Lies, jealousy and a marriage
- What the novel is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- The narratorA bright, proud schoolboy of fifteen who tells the story years later and wants to be free, admired and loved all at once.
- Marthe GrangierA gentle young woman of eighteen, engaged to a soldier, lonely and uncertain, who is drawn to the boy's attention and confidence.
- JacquesMarthe's fiancé, a young man serving at the front, known mostly through letters and leave, trusting and kind.
- Madame GrangierMarthe's practical mother, who wants her daughter settled and respectable and watches the neighbourhood's opinion closely.
- The narrator's fatherAn easygoing, affectionate man who gives his son wide freedom and often turns a blind eye to his lies.
- The narrator's motherA protective parent who worries about her son and gradually senses that something in his life is being hidden.
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- Audiobook
- 3 h 36 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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El diablo en el cuerpo
by Raymond Radiguet · 1923
Near Paris, a schoolboy falls for a soldier's fiancée as war gives desire room to flourish.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A fifteen-year-old schoolboy falls in love while soldiers die at the front. That is the shock at the heart of The Devil in the Flesh, a short novel by Raymond Radiguet, published in France in 1923.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
War gives a boy his freedom
The narrator is still a young boy when war is declared in 1914, and he is glad. School closes early and the summer stretches ahead. He does not mean to be heartless. He simply feels that the world is arranged to give him room.
He lives with his family in a town on the banks of the Marne. His parents are fond of him but do not watch him closely. He thinks of himself as older than his years, and the book lets us see how much he is still a child.
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What is The Devil in the Flesh about?
It is about a teenage boy who has a love affair with an older young woman, Marthe, during the First World War, while her husband is away at the front. The boy tells the story himself.
Is The Devil in the Flesh a true story?
It is a novel, but it draws on Radiguet's own youth and experiences near the river Marne. It was published in 1923, when he was about twenty, and he died the same year.
Why was The Devil in the Flesh scandalous?
Readers were shocked by a love affair between a schoolboy and a young woman engaged to a soldier, shown while the war was still fresh in memory. The narrator also shows little guilt.
The author
Raymond Radiguet
1903–1923 · French novelist and poet
Raymond Radiguet was a French novelist and poet. He was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, near Paris, in 1903 and died in Paris in 1923. His novel The Devil in the Flesh appeared in 1923. His second novel, Count d’Orgel’s Ball, was published after his death in 1924.
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