Asmodeus, or The Devil Upon Two Sticks. Preceded by Dialogues, Serious and Comic Between Two Chimneys of Madrid

by Alain-René Le Sage (Creator)

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Genres: Classic Literature, Humor, Fiction

374 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1707

About the author

Gil Blas (1715-1735), major novel of French writer Alain René Lesage, influenced modern realistic fiction.

Alain-René Le Sage, a prolific satirical dramatist, authored the classic in making the picaresque form a European literary fashion.

A Jesuit college in Brittany well educated always quite poor and orphaned Le Sage, who studied law in Paris. Well in the literary salons, he chose a family life over a worldly one and married Marie-Elisabeth Huyard in 1694. He abandoned his legal clerkship to dedicate himself to literature and received a pension from the abbot of Lyonne, who also taught him Spanish and interested him in the Spanish theater.

Early plays of Le Sage, adaptations of Spanish models, included the highly successful adapted comedy Crispin, rival de son maître (Crispin, Rival of His Master), which the Théâtre Français performed in 1707. He aimed satire of his prose work Le Diable boiteux (1707; The Devil upon Two Sticks) of Spanish inspiration at Parisian society. The more popular Théâtre de la Foire gave Le Sage greater freedom as an author, and he composed for that company more than one hundred comédies-vaudevilles and thus considerably succeeded Molière.

Gil Blas of the earliest concerns the education and adventures of an adaptable young valet as he progresses from one master to the next. In the service of the quack Doctor Sangrado, he practices on the poorer patients and quickly achieves a perfect record of certain fatalities, equal to that of his master. In service to Don Mathias, a notorious seducer, he also learns to equal and to surpass his master. The sunnier spirit of the character effectively civilizes the picaresque tradition. Unlike most novels of the genre, it ends happily as he retires to marriage and a quiet country life.

This author died in Boulogne.

Reviews

[Lora Milton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reads with the style of books of its era, over 200 years ago. It's actually an amusing story if you have the patience to traverse the writing style. A man hiding in an Alchemist's lab is enticed into releasing a devil kept in a bottle. In return, the devil takes him on a wild adventure across Spain, observing details of the human condition.

Although there is an occasional nod to the idea that the devil creates mischief, overall he's quite amenable. The series of stories about courtesans, cheating husbands and other human foibles serves as commentary on our human weaknesses, so often blamed on demons when in fact they are just part of the nature of our species and common to every era.

At times it really did feel like a slow read, but interesting at the same time and sometimes amusing.

[Creolecat]

The Devil Upon Two Sticks (1707).

[Zac Pruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strangely compelling

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those older novels that uses a clever bit of fantasy as a frame work for telling numerous stories and making comic observations on life and society, without actually making much use of the fantasy element.

One of the many satires that sprang up, all wanting to be Faust or Guliver's Travels.

A young lover, on the run from his love's burly, angry brothers, stumbles into an alchemists den and by accident frees the devil from the title from a bottle.
He turns out to be a quite genial and grateful devil and takes the young man on a magical tour of Spain and a chance to see how stupid, immoral and generally messed up his fellow citizens are.

While, being over two hundred years old, many of the political jabs go over my head, but the fantasy elements are entertaining and a lot of the little stories are clever and fun enough to keep your interest.
Book could probably survive having fifty pages edited out.

The short story, about two chimneys commenting on the various people that have lived in their rooms was quite cute and clever.

While i can understand why this never became a classic, but it was a good read.