As the First World War reaches its final year, an illicit love affair is beginning between a sixteen-year-old boy and a young woman married to a soldier at the front. They meet secretly in her flat on the outskirts of Paris, in cornfields and on river banks. When she receives letters from her husband, they burn them together. Intoxicated by passion, they cannot bear to end their affair, even when it causes a scandal among their friends and neighbours. Instead, they hurtle towards tragedy. Written in spare, haunting prose when Raymond Radiguet was still a teenager, this semi-autobiographical novel became an instant bestseller and its author was hailed as a genius before his tragic death at the age of twenty. Expressing all the anguish and joy of adolescence, it is a work of startling imagery and subtle beauty.
Books in English for every reader
Ready to explore new worlds? Dive into our books in English.
Raymond Radiguet es uno de los más brillantes escritores que dio la literatura francesa del siglo XX. A pesar de su juventud y de ver truncada su carrera al morir en 1923 cuando sólo tenía veinte años. Sólo escribió dos novelas, "El diablo en el cuerpo" y "El baile del conde de Orgel", que gozaron de una gran aceptación de la crítica y los lectores. Además de la narrativa, Radiguet también cultivó la poesía y el teatro. "El diablo en el cuerpo", que tiene connotaciones autobiográficas, se publicó meses antes de su muerte.