The Devil's Pool

Sand, George, 1804-1876Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.1

Word count: 202K words
Chapters: 21

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Devil's Pool by George SandAuthor: Sand, George, 1804-1876,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jul 4, 2007

Editor's review

The Devil's Pool is a novella by George Sand set in the countryside of Berry, France, centring on the rural young man Germain's marriage and emotional choices, interwoven with local folklore, the mysterious atmosphere of the pool and details of country life. Its strength lies in the interweaving of pastoral scenery, folk belief and the characters' inner changes: there is both mildly humorous observation of rural customs and plain reflection on balancing love and duty. For Chinese readers it can serve as an introduction to nineteenth-century French rural narrative and to a woman writer's craft; it is short and slowly paced, suited to quiet, attentive reading. Readers might note the narrator's attitude to folklore and how the natural setting shapes the characters' emotions. Note that this is an e-book of an English translation; readers need some English reading ability to appreciate its verbal flavour.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who like nineteenth-century French literature and want a taste of George Sand's style
Readers interested in European rural customs and folklore
Students seeking to expand their reading through short novellas in Chinese or English
Literary readers who prefer a slow pace and attention to landscape and psychology

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for strong plot and fast pacing
Readers with weak English who struggle with long sentences and dialectal expression
Researchers seeking only a systematic account of George Sand's life and works

Reading tips

Read the main storyline first, then revisit the pool and folklore passages to sense their symbolic role.
If English is hard going, read a reliable Chinese translation for the plot first, then the English original.
After reading, note each change in Germain's emotional choices and trace the character's motives.
Read alongside material on the geography and folklore of Berry, France, to strengthen background understanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this George Sand's original French text or an English translation?

This is an e-book of an English translation from Project Gutenberg, in English rather than the French original. It preserves the story and rural setting but the language has been rendered by a translator, suiting readers able to read English.

Can I read this directly without having read other works by George Sand?

Yes. It is a short novella with relatively clear characters and main storyline, requiring no prior knowledge of other works. To understand its background more deeply, you can later read George Sand's pastoral works.

The book involves folklore; will that hinder understanding the main storyline?

The folklore passages mainly build atmosphere and fill out the rural worldview, echoing the characters' emotional choices rather than wholly replacing the plot. On a first read, grasp Germain's marriage and emotional thread, then return to savour the folklore.

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About the author

Sand, George, 1804-1876 Author

George Sand (1804–1876) was a French novelist. The library holds seventy-six of her works, including volumes one and three of Consuelo, The Devil's Pool, Mauprat, La petite Fadette, and the first part of Histoire de ma Vie, as well as her correspondence with Gustave Flaubert. Because source materials are limited, details of her life and her assigned categories are not fully recorded. Judging from the works available, her writing combines a rural, pastoral atmosphere with social observation, often set against country life and depicting the emotions and fortunes of ordinary people with delicate, sympathetic strokes; her letters record her exchanges and intellectual ties with literary figures of her time. These works hold a place in nineteenth-century French literature.