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Audiobook editionPaperback · 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
You will love this if you enjoy sharp, short novels about first love, narrators who judge themselves honestly, and French stories of the wartime home front.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- War feels like a holiday
- He mistakes cleverness for being grown
- Excitement turns suffering into a spectacle
- Shared lies bring them closer
- Intimacy brings jealousy with it
- Their secret becomes a public burden
- Selfishness takes the shape of devotion
- Adults leave room for his pretending
- His feelings and actions pull apart
Who’s who
- The narratorA gifted, lazy schoolboy who tells the story, longs to be thought a man, and gives himself to a love he cannot control.
- Marthe GrangierA serious young woman of nineteen, engaged and then married to a soldier, who falls for the boy and gives up much to keep him.
- JacquesMarthe's husband, a soldier at the front, tender and clumsy, who writes loving letters and wants only to be loved in return.
- RenéThe narrator's school friend, bold and mocking, who shares his truancy and his wish to seem grown up.
- The narrator's fatherA gentle man who lets his son do as he likes, then grows ashamed, angry and afraid for him.
- Mme GrangierMarthe's short, proud mother, who suspects the affair, protects her daughter against her husband and fears a scandal.
- SvéaA young Swedish girl, friend of Marthe, whose childlike charm tempts the narrator into a careless betrayal.
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The Devil in the Flesh
by Raymond Radiguet · 1923
A teenage schoolboy in wartime France falls for a soldier's fiancée, and their passion develops after her marriage.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Is it my fault that I was twelve a few months before the war was declared?”
In short
What if the war that terrifies a whole country feels, to you, like four years of summer vacation? That is how a French boy of twelve sees 1914, and it is where The Devil in the Flesh begins.
The Devil in the Flesh at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 10 min1 h 45 min fast, 2 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 31,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1923by Raymond Radiguet
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boy who thinks he is already a man
The narrator opens by defending himself. He was twelve a few months before the war began, and he says no one should blame a child for how he lived through those years. His parents keep boys and girls apart, and that only makes his desires grow in secret.
His first adventure is a love letter. Before he is twelve, he writes to a neat little girl named Carmen and sends it by a younger boy. To keep the two witnesses quiet, he decides to marry them off. He encloses a second letter, supposedly from his small brother, who cannot even write, to her little sister.
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Details
- First published
- 1923
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Radiguet, Raymond. The Devil in the Flesh. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-devil-in-the-flesh.
Radiguet, R. (2026). The Devil in the flesh. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-devil-in-the-flesh (Original work published 1923)
Radiguet, Raymond. The Devil in the Flesh. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-devil-in-the-flesh.
@book{radiguet2026devil,
author = {Radiguet, Raymond},
title = {The Devil in the Flesh},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-devil-in-the-flesh},
note = {First published 1923}
}
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What is The Devil in the Flesh about?
It tells of a schoolboy who, during the First World War, begins an affair with Marthe, a young woman whose husband is a soldier at the front. The boy narrates, and his account shows how love, jealousy and youth mix.
Is The Devil in the Flesh a true story?
It is a novel, though many readers link it to the author's own youth. Radiguet wrote it as a very young man, and it appeared in 1923, the year he died.
Who is Marthe in The Devil in the Flesh?
Marthe is the young woman the narrator loves. She is gentle, serious and artistic, engaged and then married to a soldier named Jacques, and she gives up her peace of mind for the boy.
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.
“Is it my fault that I was twelve a few months before the war was declared?”
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