Satan in literature

[Big Al]

For a long time, I've had a serious fascination with Satan, who I believe is literature's greatest and most enduring character. I've read numerous pieces of classic literature that deal with Mephistopheles, but in modern times (the last 50 years or so), I've been able to find very little quality writing dealing with Lucifer (the exceptions being That Hell-Bound Train, The Master and Margarita, the Incarnations of Immortality series, The Club Dumas). Does anybody know of any recent quality literary works concerning the devil? And please don't just send me the list on Wikipedia, because I've seen it.

[Virgil]

Al I can't think of any either. There have been many satanic characters but I can't recall satan himself. I think George Bernard Shaw's Mand and Superman has satan in there, but that is over 50 years ago.

edit: here see if this helps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan_in_literature

[Scheherazade]

And please don't just send me the list on Wikipedia, because I've seen it.
edit: here see if this helps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan_in_literaturehttp://img86.imageshack.us/img86/7980/hystericalwj7.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[Virgil]

:lol: :lol: I guess I didn't read that last sentence. :lol: :lol: Sorry Al.

[papayahed]

The only thing that really stands out is Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice.... I'll give it more thought.

[Big Al]

:lol: :lol: I guess I didn't read that last sentence. :lol: :lol: Sorry Al.

It's an honest mistake.

But that Wikipedia page actually pretty-well demonstrates my problems. We go from The Divine Comedy, Faust, Paradise Lost, Markheim and Letters from the Earth, to books that portray Satan in very (for lack of a better word) lame and downright stupid modern perspectives, as in I, Lucifer and The Wish List. I hate to see such a fascinating character degraded like that.

...It might also be a good time to reiterate that I am not a satanist. I'm an atheist, actually, so my interest in Satan is purely from a literary standpoint.

[Boris239]

"Mysterious Stranger" by Mark Twain
"Enoch Soames" by Max Beehrboom

sorry if I missed them in the wikipedia list

[Etienne]

Flaubert - The Temptation of Saint-Anthony

[nebish]

The Soldier's Tale .. Igor Stravinsky(music) and C.F. Ramuz (libretto)

[capek]

The third book in Robertson Davies's The Deptford trilogy, World of Wonders, has evil as one of its main themes. One of the characters in trying to define evil, and there are some choice passages talking about the Devil. It's rather in the background though, and it's certainly not a novel about Satan. Actually, I just started it, and am about 1/3 of the way through, so maybe it becomes a bigger part of the book. But it's worth checking out. It's certainly a great series of novels.

One novel that I can definitely recommend is Philip K Dick's The Divine Invasion. Definitely worth checking out.

[Inderjit Sanghe]

I agree with you, the devil is certainly one of the most interesting and frequently used literary characters!

John Banville-Mefisto. Problably not his best book, however, like most books written by Banville it is certainly worth reading, and is an interesting take on the 'Faust' theme previously dealt with my Marlowe, Goethe and Thomas Mann. In this version the person who "sells his soul" to the devil is a prodigious mathematician-the variety of people who sell their soul to the devil is interesting, we have a theologian (Marlowe), polymath (Goethe), composer (Mann) and mathematician. Banville's prose in 'Mefisto' is very strange, haunting even, and it certainly worth reading.

João Guimarães Rosa-The Devil to Pay in Backlands. Interesting novel by the famous Brazilian author, João Guimarães Rosa, about a group of bandits led by a bandit by the name of Riobaldo, who supposedly sells his soul to the devil. There is also a lot of philosophizing about the nature of the devil in the book.

Satan can certainly be a very funny character-Bulgakov's Satan is problably the funniest and most endearing.

However, none of these books can match the granddaddy of all of Satan's multifarious manifestations-namely John Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost.

[Big Al]

I agree with you, the devil is certainly one of the most interesting and frequently used literary characters!

John Banville-Mefisto. Problably not his best book, however, like most books written by Banville it is certainly worth reading, and is an interesting take on the 'Faust' theme previously dealt with my Marlowe, Goethe and Thomas Mann. In this version the person who "sells his soul" to the devil is a prodigious mathematician-the variety of people who sell their soul to the devil is interesting, we have a theologian (Marlowe), polymath (Goethe), composer (Mann) and mathematician. Banville's prose in 'Mefisto' is very strange, haunting even, and it certainly worth reading.

João Guimarães Rosa-The Devil to Pay in Backlands. Interesting novel by the famous Brazilian author, João Guimarães Rosa, about a group of bandits led by a bandit by the name of Riobaldo, who supposedly sells his soul to the devil. There is also a lot of philosophizing about the nature of the devil in the book.

Satan can certainly be a very funny character-Bulgakov's Satan is problably the funniest and most endearing.

However, none of these books can match the granddaddy of all of Satan's multifarious manifestations-namely John Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost.

Thank you very much, I hadn't heard of some of these, and you're certainly right about Paradise Lost; probably my favorite of the lot.

Cool sig, by the way.

[JCamilo]

The cool thing About Mann's devil in Doktor Faustus is that it is basead on Theodor Adorno (and Adorno liked it a lot, for all records). Fernando Pessoa also have a poem ,unfinished, about this character. People could notice Peter Schlemihl by Chamisso (sp?), The Man who sold his shadow that is a similar story with the devil around.
Besides Guimarães Rosa (the original title in Portuguese is Grande Sertões: Veredas, but that is one of the impossible to translate books, since Rosa did a hell of work with oral language in the book) there is "O Auto da Compadecida" (autos are a form of play) that the Devil's play his part, by Ariano Suassuna.
Washington Iriving have the Devil and Tom Walker and Stephen Benet Daniel Webster and the Devil and it is good to remember that the devil shows his face in Chaucer also (The pardoner story, I think)...

[Midas]

You ask ".....Does anybody know of any recent quality literary works concerning the devil? And please don't just send me the list on Wikipedia, because I've seen it........"

Well, I am not sure whether one would call any 'quality literary works' as, to me that is subjective'. and if 'recent' they would have not stood the test of time.

As for 'concerning the devil', I have a feeling that the tendency of recent years is that writers find it better, as in more profitable. to personify this entity and make him more 'real' and interesting, to modern readers.

There have been a number of characters, over the past few decades who have been upheld has having all the distinctive characteristics (almost said qualities) commonly associated with 'le Diable, one recent one still lives, it seems, and inhabits the caves in the remote regions of Pakistan.

I will not list any of the books, or the various names of their main character, as my aim in this short post is merely to point in a direction and bring your theme of search into a contemporary, and hopefully, fruitful, conclusion. (smile)

[ReynardtheFox]

The Devil in Love - Jacques Cazotte

Was obviously used as a reference point for the writing of The Dumas Club

[andave_ya]

"The Mysterious Stranger" by Twain. Supremely unsettling.

[mtpspur]

If you don't mind a Biblical study of Stan Lewis Sperry Shafer's Satan is worth a read. (Not quite sure of last name spelling). he takes the verses from the Bible and presents them in a straightforward manner with sensationalism or romancing the character. The best of the Puritan works is Thomas Brooks' Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices (possibly still in print--my copy is about 30 years old but read--gives great insights into just how clever Satan is at manipulation and glory hounding.

[grittylit]

Meet Joe Black (was this not a book as well as a movie?)

[Old Crow]

Actually, come to think of it, I can't really think of any modern portrayals of Satan that are up to snuff, at least from a literary perspective. My personal favorite portrayals list jumps from Dante to Goethe to Milton to...The Rolling Stones :p

[Etienne]

Actually, come to think of it, I can't really think of any modern portrayals of Satan that are up to snuff, at least from a literary perspective. My personal favorite portrayals list jumps from Dante to Goethe to Milton to...The Rolling Stones :p

"Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste"

:D

[Old Crow]

"Pleased to meet you.
Hope you get my name!" :lol: I never tire of listening to that song

But I'm derailing the conversation here so: Does anybody think Satan's curious absence from the best books of our time has anything to do with a cultural shift that puts more stock in social/technological/psychological dangers? Back when Goethe wrote Faust, Satan would have been much more frightening to the people who saw it performed or read it. If some one were to write about Satan now, it would be seen as more of a comedic nuance, whearas psychosis, paranoia, and obssession form the basis of what we tend to see as the source of our most devilish behaviors, now. So, in that sense, the devil isn't absent from, say, Philip K. Dick; he's just disguised, which, when you think about it, is very much in keeping with his character. Substance D, anyone?

[grittylit]

"Pleased to meet you.
Hope you get my name!" :lol: I never tire of listening to that song

But I'm derailing the conversation here so: Does anybody think Satan's curious absence from the best books of our time has anything to do with a cultural shift that puts more stock in social/technological/psychological dangers? Back when Goethe wrote Faust, Satan would have been much more frightening to the people who saw it performed or read it. If some one were to write about Satan now, it would be seen as more of a comedic nuance, whearas psychosis, paranoia, and obssession form the basis of what we tend to see as the source of our most devilish behaviors, now. So, in that sense, the devil isn't absent from, say, Philip K. Dick; he's just disguised, which, when you think about it, is very much in keeping with his character. Substance D, anyone?

yes i like this idea, its interesting how much of a shift this reflects then in society that we are looking to something more selfish (technology - something manmade and something that benefits mainly mankind) than a greater power this
(and last century). i do see what you mean about the comical representations also. What are todays interpretations of satan then, do we simply communicate allegorically, the presence of evil? say in todays trend of terrorists, in steryotypes we see a satanic figure built and spurred on by the media, and yet we see no satan him self.

perhaps it is technology that has spurred this on - we know a larger world thanks to technology and we can see some real evils happening. we dont need to have a moral character that needs to be 'made up' to illustrate why things are wrong/ bad.

the thing that cracks me up while writing this is that all i can think about is that scene in (the simpsons?) where satan, in a half man/ half beast comical representation, hitler, and other famous people are having tea in a fiery cave or 'hell'

oh gosh this whole notion sounds like a college essay topic...:crash:

[JCamilo]

"Pleased to meet you.
Hope you get my name!" :lol: I never tire of listening to that song

But I'm derailing the conversation here so: Does anybody think Satan's curious absence from the best books of our time has anything to do with a cultural shift that puts more stock in social/technological/psychological dangers? Back when Goethe wrote Faust, Satan would have been much more frightening to the people who saw it performed or read it. If some one were to write about Satan now, it would be seen as more of a comedic nuance, whearas psychosis, paranoia, and obssession form the basis of what we tend to see as the source of our most devilish behaviors, now. So, in that sense, the devil isn't absent from, say, Philip K. Dick; he's just disguised, which, when you think about it, is very much in keeping with his character. Substance D, anyone?


It is not only that, Mann clearly create a psychological Satan for his Faustus,and so did Guimaraes Rosa.
The Devil itself is not that popular or immortal character - it is more a kind of character that have been present in many literatures without the implication that Satan (evil) have.
It is pretty obvious that in many ways, Darth Vader and the Emperor are "Satan" under disguise and do not forget some movies (where fantasy is more well hidden) with him (The Omen, Witches of Eastwick, etc).

[Pamina]

It is not the main character, but I really liked the devil in Saramago's Gospel according to Jesus Christ.

[doubledouble]

By C.S. Lewis. If you haven't read this one yet you should. Lewis delves into the mind of both man and devil.

[Dori]

Washington Iriving have the Devil and Tom Walker and Stephen Benet Daniel Webster and the Devil and it is good to remember that the devil shows his face in Chaucer also (The pardoner story, I think)...

I also recommend "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Irving. I think "Young Goodman Brown" includes him too. However, they are both simply short stories.

[Robert Jordan]

This isnt from the last 50 years but in The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, there is a very interesting chapter called The Devil where the devil comes in the form of a characters ego, or rather part of his ego. It is a pretty unique chapter in literature. I think you would find it interesting.

[blackbird_9]

Despite my personal distaste for his writing, a lot of people enjoy Updike's "Witches of Eastwick". It's way different from the film. :)

[jlb4tlb]

[QUOTE=Old Crow;466749]"Pleased to meet you.
Hope you get my name!" :lol: I never tire of listening to that song
QUOTE]

"What troubles you is the the nature of my game.":flare:

The Stones at their best!

Jeff

[Ana Lovejoy]

There's also "The Boat of Hell", a portuguese act written by Gil Vicente. I'm not sure about the title's translation, but the original name is "Auto da Barca do Inferno".

[JCamilo]

Act of the Ship of Hell :)

[nyka]

Bulgakov's Master and Margarita

[bunker_70]

The last book i read with a part for the devil was,
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie