The New York herald., 1921-05-08
INCARNATE EVIL
THEME OF MUCH
FAMOUS FICTION
DEVIL. STORIES. Compiled by Maxi
milan j. Rudwin. Alfred A. Knopf.
Reviewed by
BENJAMIN DE CASSERES.
$40 Devil. no literature.


That is, in effect, Mr.. Rudwin's con-
tention in his foreword to this fascin-
ating collection of short stories in
which Old Nick is the hero-twenty
of them gathered from many centuries
and several languages.
The literary and artistic value of evil
cannot be overestimated. Perfection
breeds sterility. | do not see how
Thomas Hardy. Anatole France, Mark
fwain. D'Annunzio Rodin, Beethoven
or Gus Thomas could get along in
Heaven or any place where blue laws
had wiped out El Senior Serpent = In
fact, Jules de Gaultier, the great
French paradoxist, is of the opinion
that evil came into the world to pro-
mote, uplift and perpetuate the art
Of story telling. The Devil is, pri-
marily, an author. From the day that
Helen of Troy vamped nation down
until old Doc Kennicott appeared in
Gopher Prairie he has been right on
the job with his red feather dipped in
the purple laughter of the gods.
And, then. what's the matter with
the movies? 1t is the universal
query in These States. What's the
matter with them? Why, they are
taking the Devil out of the celluloids
The Pennsylvania Board of Censors
says he must not triumph; in fact, he
has been ordered off the "set." The
movies must record-and record
nothing else-the origin. progress
through the diary and marriage of
Little Eva with Little Lord Fauntle-
roy and her solemn beatification to the
tinkling of Pollyannish zithers. Things
are thus not all to the Jake. but. as Mr.
Waldemar Young-sculptor OF that fa-
nous statuette, The Great God Alibi
Passing the Buck"-has darkly said
they are distinctly all to the George
Hull.
This book is the first of remark
able series by Mr. Rudwin on the
Devil in literature. 1t is high time
that some one resurrected the First
Gentleman of Europe and the Little
Cinderella of the American movies"
/ am delighted also TO find that the
compiler has leanings toward the af-
firmative in the question as to the
existence of a personal Devil. For
Introduction he quotes Heinrich
Heine:
Mortal, mock not at the Devil,
Life is short and soon will fail,
And the fire everlasting
Is no idle fairy tale"
The second story in the book is
"Belphagor: or the Marriage Of the
Deyil.1 by Niccolo Machiavelli Ger
tain men have averred that the latter
was a near cousin to Old Nick him.
self Certainly his name has come
down TO us with certain devilish con-
notations. III
"Belphagorg opens in the Internal
Regions. The judges of souls down
there are perplexed. Almost every
man that Charon shoots across COM
plains that his wife is responsible for
his predicament. A fine theme, by
the way, for George Bernard Shaw.
the terra Gotta Voltaire. Wen. any
how. the Bench is impressed. They
delegate Belphagor to go back to the
earth. stay there ten years, take a
wife and come back and report. Now
what happened to Belphagor and the
intensely humorous conclusion of this
adventure shall not appear in this.
Ii is a masterpiece. This story alone
Is worth the price of the book.
Another story is "The Painters
Bargain" by Thackeray. Maybe you
know this delightfully."- racy bit by
the great English master (whom. alas.
no one reads any more). 1 always
prided myself on being a Thackeray
sharp. but this story somehow got
past me. / am glad it did-the joy
Of reading Ii for the first time was
mine.
0f course-what's n Devil book
without Edgar Allan Poe in ii? II is