''Le Diable boiteux'' ( English: ''The Devil upon Two Sticks''; ) is a novel by the French writer

Alain-René Lesage Alain-René Lesage (; 6 May 166817 November 1747; older spelling Le Sage) was a French novelist and playwright. Lesage is best known for his comic novel '' The Devil upon Two Sticks'' (1707, ''Le Diable boiteux''), his comedy ''Turcaret'' (170 ...

. It is set in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, and tells the story of demon king

Asmodeus Asmodeus (; grc, Ἀσμοδαῖος, ''Asmodaios'') or Ashmedai (; he, אַשְמְדּאָי, ''ʾAšmədʾāy''; see below for other variations), is a ''prince of demons'' and hell."Asmodeus" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chica ...

, Don Cleophas Leandro Perez Zambullo and his beloved, Donna Thomasa.

Textual history

The novel was first published in 1707, and republished by the author, with many changes and additions, in 1725. It is sometimes known in English as ''Asmodeus'', and sometimes as ''The Devil on Two Sticks'', under which title the first English translation appeared in 1708, and was dramatised by

Henry Fielding Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English novelist, irony writer, and dramatist known for earthy humour and satire. His comic novel '' Tom Jones'' is still widely appreciated. He and Samuel Richardson are seen as founders ...

in 1768.Keller 1924, p. 57.

Source

The title and some of the incidents are borrowed from ''

El Diablo cojuelo ''The Limping Devil'' ( es, El diablo cojuelo) is one of the most popular works by Luis Vélez de Guevara; it is his only novel published in 1641. In 1918 an edition published by Francisco Rodríguez Marín became well known. The story is about a ...

'' (1641) of the Spanish Luiz Veloz de Guevara.France 2005. But after the first few chapters Lesage departs widely from his predecessor. The very plan is abandoned, and the new episodes and characters introduced are entirely original with Lesage. Guevara ends his story with abruptness; while the French romancer winds up with a romance, dismissing Don Cleofas to happiness with his beloved Seraphina.

Plot

Don Cleofas, a young Spanish profligate of high lineage, proud and revengeful but brave and generous, delivers from his imprisonment in a bottle the demon Asmodée (Asmodeus); who in gratitude assists him in his pranks, and carries him triumphantly through a series of amusing adventures. Especially does the demon bestow on his deliverer the power of sailing through the air, and seeing through the roofs what is going on within the houses of Madrid.

Reception

Lesage introduced into his story, under Spanish names, many anecdotes and portraits of Parisian celebrities. These were all immediately recognised, and contributed greatly to the contemporary vogue of the novel, which was greater even than that of ''

Gil Blas ''Gil Blas'' (french: L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane ) is a picaresque novel by Alain-René Lesage published between 1715 and 1735. It was highly popular, and was translated several times into English, most notably as The Adventures of G ...

''. It is one of the famous traditions of the book trade that two young French noblemen actually fought a duel in a bookstore for the possession of the only remaining copy.

Illustrations

File:Illustrations de Le Diable boiteux-Cochin Louise-Madeleine.jpg, Frontispiece to the first French edition, 1707 File:Lesage - Le diable boiteux (Beauce).jpg, Illustration by

Tony Johannot Antoine Johannot, known commonly as Tony Johannot (9 November 1803 – 4 August 1852), was a French engraver, illustrator and painter. Biography He was born in Offenbach am Main. His father, François Johannot (c. 1760–1838), owned a silk fac ...

, 1840 File:Le Diable boiteux par Le (...)Lesage Alain-René btv1b86002074.jpg, Illustration by Tony Johannot, 1840 File:Augustus Leopold Egg (1816-1863) - Scene from 'The Devil upon Two Sticks' - N00444 - National Gallery.jpg, ''Scene from 'The Devil upon Two Sticks by

Augustus Egg Augustus Leopold Egg RA (2 May 1816, in London – 26 March 1863, in Algiers) was a British Victorian artist, and member of The Clique best known for his modern triptych '' Past and Present'' (1858), which depicts the breakup of a middle-class ...

, 1844 File:LesageDiabloCojuelo.jpg, Illustration after drawings by Napoléon Thomas, 1845

References

Sources

* France, Peter (2005)
"Diable boiteux, Le"
In ''The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French''. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 October 2022. Attribution: * Keller, Helen Rex (1924)

In '' The Reader's Digest of Books''. The Library of the World's Best Literature. New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 57.