Raymond Radiguet (1903–1923)

"Just as a bee plunders in order to enrich the hive, a lover enriches his love with every passing desire that besets him in the street. It is his mistress who benefits from this accumulation. "

‘The Devil in the Flesh’ is the story of an unnamed narrator who begins a tumultuous love affair at the age of 16 with a 20 year old married woman whose husband is away fighting at the front during WWI. The affair is soon discovered by family, friends and neighbours and naturally it can only end in tragedy.

The book is fairly short but it is also quite intense and well written. However, what made this more interesting for me was the back story to it. Radiguet was only 17 or 18 himself when he wrote it, a similar age as his two lead characters, and it is semi-autobiographical because he had a similar experience himself when he was only 14. This was a WWI novel yet the war is barely mentioned but it was first published when many of the wounds of that great conflict were still fresh. This was also Radiguet's first published novel, he wrote one more novel and a collection of poetry before he died at the age of 20 from typhoid.

The story is told in the first person and due to the minor age differences between his lead and himself Radiguet was able to capture the obsessive emotions of the narrator perfectly, and a the doomed relationship that slips from bliss to tragedy as it slides towards its devastating conclusion. The narrator is naïve and candid, amoral and callous yet the language is also displays a certain cynicism and innocence. The novel is still in print today, over a hundred years after it was first published showing that Radiguet could easily have become one of the great French literary masters had he lived longer. Yet his work is relatively unknown.

So why didn't I enjoy it more? The themes would be considered a lot less controversial today than they were when first published in France in 1923 and whilst I admire the writing style the story itself failed to really grip me in truth. As I said previously the author's own life intrigued me more.… (más)

The Devil in the Flesh
by Raymond Radiguet

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My Rating: 4/5

I am surprised by this book for multiple reasons. First is how the main character, the hero, at the age of sixteen is portrayed as a symbol of enduring and lasting love .. without really knowing fully about what it is at his vulnerable and barely formative years. The second is the lukewarm and fatuous response the society and his parents, other elders give to the knowledge of his illicit relationship with an already married woman .. no less his elder by three years.

The protagonist and Marthe meet just as she is about to get married to a soldier during WW1. They develop a mutual interest even before her marriage but it blows over into a passionate and clingy, obsessive relationship shortly after her husband leaves for the war. They make little secret of their association to the neighbors and elders .. and face little in the name of consequences!! (which is startling and astonishing given the times we are referring to). After the initial passion starts to burn out, the protagonists find themselves unable to shake free of each other from their thoughts and company .. despite all the boulders that threaten to part them, their love thrives and lives on .. even with the death of one of them at the end.

I think this is a classic and one of the 1001 books to read for a reason .. it is quite different from other books written in similar vein and has some wisdom to inculcate to the reader in the name of juvenile love , responsibilities and mistakes etc.… (más)