11 h 59 minAudiobook12 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
What if the stranger who haunts you wears your face—and tempts you to abandon your own name?
Medardus is a gifted Capuchin monk, proud of his preaching and restless within the monastery walls. Against his prior’s warning, he drinks wine kept among the relics. His life begins to slip beyond his control, and a mysterious woman’s confession of love draws his desires into conflict with his vows.
In E. T. A. Hoffmann’s The Devil’s Elixirs, temptation leads into flight, disguise and a world of polished manners and hidden passions. Medardus tells his own story, yet cannot say whether he is guilty or cursed. When he encounters Viktorin, a count who looks like him, even his identity becomes uncertain.
What you’ll discover
- A dangerous first taste Enter a monastery where a bottle among sacred relics becomes the focus of forbidden curiosity.
- A face too familiar Meet Viktorin, whose likeness to Medardus makes another man’s identity a disturbing temptation.
- A confession under suspicion Follow a narrator whose account leaves guilt, pride and the possibility of a curse tangled together.
- Desire behind polished manners Step into a princely court where jealousy and ambition pull Medardus deeper into danger.
- The self as monster Explore the uneasy boundary between personal choice and a family’s shadow of possible damnation.
Who will love it
For readers who love Gothic tales, unreliable narrators and stories about divided selves, and anyone curious about the roots of Poe and Dostoevsky.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A child born under a family shadow
- The monastery and its dangerous relics
- One drink changes the preacher
- Love for a woman he cannot have
- A double appears and a name is stolen
- Court intrigue and a world of masks
- The double self and the loss of identity
- Guilt, fate and the question of free will
- How the story is told and why it lasted
Who’s who
- MedardusA gifted Capuchin monk and preacher, vain and restless, who wants fame and love and cannot tell his own faith from his pride.
- AurelieA young noblewoman of purity and calm whom Medardus loves, and who stands for the peace he longs to find.
- Prior LeonardusThe wise head of the Bamberg monastery, who warns Medardus about the relics and tries to guide him back from danger.
- ViktorinA young count who looks strikingly like Medardus, and whose place the monk is tempted to take.
- EuphemieA lady of the court whose strong desires draw Medardus further into intrigue and danger.
- HermogenEuphemie's watchful and suspicious stepson, who stands in the way of Medardus at court.
- BelcampoA chattering barber at the edge of madness, who brings eerie comedy and reminds us how unstable the world is.
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- Audiobook
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Devil's Elixirs
by E. T. A. Hoffmann · 1815
A monk drinks forbidden wine from his monastery's relics, and his life slips out of his control.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A child born under a family shadow
The story begins with Medardus telling his own life. He is the son of a father who, he is told, fell into sin and died young. His mother raises him near a convent in the north, in a place linked to a holy linden tree and a pilgrimage church. The setting is quiet and pious, and it shapes everything that follows.
The boy grows up with a sense that his family carries a burden he does not understand. He hears hints about his father and about an old guilt that seems to be passed down like an inheritance. Hoffmann plants this idea early. From the first pages, Medardus feels that his life has been written before he can write it.
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What is The Devil's Elixirs about?
It is about Medardus, a Capuchin monk who drinks a forbidden wine kept among the monastery's relics. His gifts and desires grow wild, and he is drawn into flight, disguise and guilt while a family curse seems to follow him.
Who wrote The Devil's Elixirs and when?
E. T. A. Hoffmann, a German Romantic author, wrote it. It appeared in two parts, in 1815 and 1816, and was his first novel. It was a mixture of Gothic horror, religious drama and psychological study.
What is the meaning of the doubles in the book?
The doubles are men who look like Medardus, and they work as real figures in the plot and as signs of his divided mind. They suggest that a person can be at war with himself and lose a stable sense of identity.
The author
E. T. A. Hoffmann
1776–1822 · German Romantic writer
E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822) was a German writer, composer, and lawyer. He was born in Königsberg and died in Berlin. He wrote The Golden Pot (1814), The Devil’s Elixirs (1815–1816), Night Pieces (1816–1817), and The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1819–1821).
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