Résumé
Résumé de Le Diable boiteux
Go deeper: the whole of Le Diable boiteux
About 6 h to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who love sharp social comedy, picaresque rogues, Golden Age Spain, theater gossip, and tales where a clever demon shows the human world its own face.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Imagine a lame little demon with a pumpkin head, trapped in a bottle, begging a runaway student to smash the glass. That meeting sets The Limping Devil in motion. Luis Vélez de Guevara, a Spanish playwright who died in 1644, wrote this satirical novel in his spare hours away from the stage. He calls its chapters leaps and strides. The student and the demon fly over Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba and Seville, and the whole of Spanish life passes beneath them. Under the jokes runs a plain question about who people pretend to be and who they are.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A student on the roof frees a devilFree
- 2The devil lifts the roofs of Madrid
- 3Madrid by day sells names and sanity
- 4Flights through inns, a poet and a brawl
- 5Andalusia and the procession of Fortune
- 6Seville, the academy and the pursuit
- 7What the book laughs at and how it works
Point clé 1 sur 7
A student on the roof frees a devil
In Madrid, on a summer night, Don Cleofás, a poor student with a grand string of surnames, creeps over the rooftops. The law is chasing him over a scandal with a young woman. He leaps through an attic window and lands among an astrologer's globes and almanacs.
There he hears a sigh from a sealed glass bottle. The voice inside is the Limping Devil, a demon of small things such as gossip, fleas and fraud. The astrologer has kept him prisoner for nearly two years.
Only a baptized man can break the glass. Don Cleofás smashes it, and out steps a tiny creature on two crutches. The devil promises to repay him, and the pair shoot out of the window to a church tower.
That’s 1 of 7 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Le Diable boiteux
About 6 h to read.Questions about Le Diable boiteux
What is The Limping Devil about?
A student named Don Cleofás frees a lame demon from an astrologer's bottle. The two fly over Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba and Seville, and the devil shows him the follies and secrets of Spanish society while officers from hell chase them.
Who is the Limping Devil?
He is a small, lumpy demon on crutches, the demon of small things such as gossip, fraud and fashionable dances. He says he was lamed when the other rebel angels fell on top of him, and he is loyal to his friends.
Who wrote The Limping Devil and when?
Luis Vélez de Guevara wrote it in the Spanish Golden Age. He was a busy playwright, who died in 1644. He says he wrote it in prose during the free time left by his theatrical work.
Is The Limping Devil easy to read?
It moves fast, with short leaps from one scene to the next, plenty of dialogue and lively jokes. The quick tour of rooftops, inns and streets keeps the reader moving, and the devil explains the sights.
What is the main message of The Limping Devil?
The book laughs at pretense. People buy names, ancestors and titles, and Fortune gives out her gifts blindly. Under the costumes, everyone is as foolish as everyone else, and even devils have their bailiffs.