7 /10 1 Votes
Country United Kingdom Publication date 1991 (UK)
1994 (US) Pages 96 (UK) Genre Speculative fiction | 3.5/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print Originally published 1991 Page count 96 (UK) Awards Guardian Fiction Prize | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cover artist Gustav Klimt,
"Judith", 1901 Publishers HarperCollins (UK), Alfred A. Knopf (US) Similar Alan Judd books, Guardian Fiction Prize winners, Speculative fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Devil's Own Work is a 1991 novella by Alan Judd which won the Guardian Fiction Award. A modern version of the Faust legend, it was inspired by a dinner with Graham Greene. and tells of a pact an author makes with the devil as told by his lifelong friend. In style the work was compared by Publishers Weekly with that of Henry James.
Contents
Plot introduction
The unnamed narrator tells of his friend Edward's meeting in the south of France with O. M. (Old Man) Tyrell, a renowned author. Tyrell is found dead the following morning and the narrator later learns that Tyrell has given Edward a peculiar handwritten manuscript which becomes the source of Edward's later literary success. Edward also inherits Tyrell's ageless mistress Eudoxie but all is far from well with Edward who grows to loathe the hold that the manuscript and Eudoxie have over him but is unable to escape...