THE ROMANCISTS

GEORGE SAND

THE DEVIL'S POOL

Chapter V

He saw my little Marie watching her three sheep on the common land.

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BIBLIOTHÈQUE

DES CHEFS-D'OEUVRE

DU ROMANCONTEMPORAIN

THE DEVIL'S POOL

GEORGE SAND

PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY BYGEORGE BARRIE & SONS, Philadelphia

COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY GEORGE BARRIE & SON

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THIS EDITION OF

THE DEVIL'S POOL

HAS BEEN COMPLETELY TRANSLATED

BY

GEORGE B. IVES

THE ETCHINGS AND DRAWINGS ARE BY

EDMOND RUDAUX

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NOTICE

When I began, with The Devil's Pool, a series ofrustic pictures which I proposed to collect under thetitle of The Hemp-Beater's Tales, I had no theory, nopurpose to effect a revolution in literature. No onecan bring about a revolution by himself alone, and thereare revolutions, especially in matters of art, which mankindaccomplishes without any very clear idea how it isdone, because everybody takes a hand in them. Butthis is not applicable to the romance of rustic manners:it has existed in all ages and under all forms, sometimespompous, sometimes affected, sometimes artless. I havesaid, and I say again here: the dream of a country-lifehas always been the ideal of cities, aye, and of courts.I have done nothing new in following the incline thatleads civilized man back to the charms of primitive life.I have not intended to invent a new language or tocreate a new style. I have been assured of the contraryin a large number of feuilletons, but I know better thanany one what to think about my own plans, and I amalways astonished that the critics dig so deep for them,when the simplest ideas, the most commonplace incidents,are the only inspirations to which the productsof art owe their being. As for The Devil's Pool inparticular, the incident that I have related in the preface,an engraving of Holbein's that had made an impressionupon me, and a scene from real life that came under myeyes at the same moment, in sowing time,—those werewhat impelled me to write this modest tale, the sceneof which is laid amid humble localities that I used tovisit every day. If any one asks me my purpose inwriting it, I shall reply that I desired to do a verysimple and very touching thing, and that I have notsucceeded as I hoped. I have seen, I have felt thebeautiful in the simple, but to see and to depict are twodifferent things! The most that the artist can hope todo is to induce those who have eyes to look with him.Therefore, my friends, look at simple things, look atthe sky and the fields and the trees and the peasants,especially at what is good and true in them: you willsee them to a slight extent in my book, you will seethem much better in nature.

GEORGE SAND.

NOHANT, April 12,1851.

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THE DEVIL'S POOL

I

THE AUTHOR TO THE READER