The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Devil's Pool, by George Sand

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Title: The Devil's Pool

Author: George Sand

Release Date: July 4, 2004 [EBook #12816]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE ROMANCISTS

GEORGE SAND

THE DEVIL'S POOL

[Illustration: Chapter V

_He saw my little Marie watching her three sheep on the common land_. ]

BIBLIOTHEQUE DES CHEFS-D'OEUVRE

DU ROMAN CONTEMPORAIN

_THE DEVIL'S POOL_

GEORGE SAND

PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY BY GEORGE BARRIE & SONS, Philadelphia

COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY GEORGE BARRIE & SON

THIS EDITION OF

THE DEVIL'S POOL

HAS BEEN COMPLETELY TRANSLATED

BY

GEORGE B. IVES

THE ETCHINGS AND DRAWINGS ARE BY

EDMOND RUDAUX

NOTICE

When I began, with _The Devil's Pool_, a series of rustic pictures which
I proposed to collect under the title of _The Hemp-Beater's Tales_, I
had no theory, no purpose to effect a revolution in literature. No one
can bring about a revolution by himself alone, and there are
revolutions, especially in matters of art, which mankind accomplishes
without any very clear idea how it is done, because everybody takes a
hand in them. But this is not applicable to the romance of rustic
manners: it has existed in all ages and under all forms, sometimes
pompous, sometimes affected, sometimes artless. I have said, and I say
again here: the dream of a country-life has always been the ideal of
cities, aye, and of courts. I have done nothing new in following the
incline that leads civilized man back to the charms of primitive life. I
have not intended to invent a new language or to create a new style. I
have been assured of the contrary in a large number of _feuilletons_,
but I know better than any one what to think about my own plans, and I
am always astonished that the critics dig so deep for them, when the
simplest ideas, the most commonplace incidents, are the only
inspirations to which the products of art owe their being. As for _The
Devil's Pool_ in particular, the inci