Jeg har læst mange romaner om første verdenskrig – og de fleste handler om de voldsomme rædsler, som soldaterne oplevede ved fronten. Det var selvfølgelig langt fra alle, der kom til fronten eller var tæt nok på den til at krigen påvirkede dem direkte, men derfor kunne man godt blive påvirket af de voldsomme forandringer, som krigen afstedkom i samfundet. Og som ved fronten var det ikke kun de heroiske og selvopofrende karaktertræk, der fik frit løb.

Fortælleren er en ung mand, der ser tilbage på tiden under krigen. Dengang var han kun 16 år gammel, intelligent og langt mere optaget af romantiske eventyr end af at passe sin skole. En dag møder han familiens bekendte, Marthe, der selv er 18 år gammel og forlovet med en ung mand, der er blevet indkaldt og ved fronten. Alligevel, eller måske netop fordi muligheden byder sig under de usædvanlige forhold under krigen, sætter han alt ind på at forføre Marthe. Det lykkes, og de indleder en affære, der først holdes hemmelig men senere opdages og skaber skandale i det lille samfund. Det er ikke svært at regne ud, at det ender skidt for Marthe.

Romanen er primært en fortælling om fortællerens besættelse af Marthe, det er en kærlighed som både er dyb og inderlig, men også besidderisk, umoden og uden tanke på konsekvenserne. I samtiden vakte romanen skandale, fordi det var uacceptabelt at forføre en soldats kone, mens han kæmpede for fædrelandet. Den kritik reducerer Marthe til et objekt uden vilje, hvilket hun bestemt ikke er i bogen. Snarere er hun en ung kvinde, der har giftet sig alt for tidligt og nu kommer i klemme, fordi hun vil have en anden. Det virkeligt skandaløse er snarere fortællerens kyniske tilgang til forholdet, der for ham primært handler om magt og besiddelse, og omgivelsernes reaktion på den. Hans far tilskynder ham til en affære – det er jo dejligt maskulint! – og da det går op for alle, at han kærester med Marthe, handler misbilligelsen mere om, at det er socialt ubekvemt end noget andet.

Bogen er velskrevet og hurtigt læst, og selvom hovedpersonen er en nar, så er han ikke uinteressant at undersøge og reflektere over. Det er bare svært at tage tø-hø kommentaren på bogens bagside alvorligt: ”Frimodigt og undertiden lidt pralende fortæller den 16-årige helt om sin kærlighed til den lidt ældre Marthe” – der er da gudskelov sket en hel del med opfattelsen af både kvinder og mænd, siden udgivelsen på dansk i 1966. ( )

"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. ( )

The Devil in the Flesh
by Raymond Radiguet

#books #reviews #semiautobiography #1001bookstoread

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. ( )

if I have known what the story was, I would not even have started this. But I'm happy that I did.... This is a difficult issue for me, and I'm still pondering on it. ( )

Greedy little boy
gorged with malicious pleasure
hot for a scandal. ( )