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,