George Sand’s The Devil’s Pool, published in 1846, is the first and most celebrated of her Berry pastoral novels, presenting an idealized but vivid portrait of peasant life in the rural French heartland. The story of the widower Germain and his journey to find a new wife is simple in outline but rich in atmosphere, folk custom, and Sand’s characteristic sympathy for ordinary people living close to the land.
A counterpoint to the urban social realism of Balzac and Zola, it represents one of French literature’s finest pastoral traditions. Download this public-domain English translation as a free EPUB.