The Devil (Tolstoy)
Short summary
Russian countryside, late 19th century. After his father's death, Eugène Irténev returned from Petersburg to manage the family estate, which was heavily in debt.
While working to restore the estate, Eugène faced enforced celibacy in the countryside. Through his huntsman Daniel, he arranged meetings with a peasant woman for what he considered health reasons.
Their secret meetings continued throughout the summer in the forest. When autumn came, Eugène met and fell in love with Liza Ánnenskaya. They married, and he believed his affair with Stepanída was completely over.
The first year of marriage proved difficult. Liza suffered a miscarriage but later gave birth to a healthy daughter. Eugène was elected to the Zemstvo and seemed to have achieved everything he wanted. However, when he accidentally encountered Stepanída working at the thrashing-floor, his obsession returned with devastating force. He tried to resist but found himself powerless against the attraction. He contemplated his terrible options.
There are only two ways out: to kill my wife or her... or else... to kill myself... He became frightened, for he felt that only that way was possible.
He chose suicide and shot himself.
Detailed summary by chapters
Chapter titles are editorial.
Biblical warning about lust and temptation
But I say unto you, that everyone that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Chapter 1. Eugènes inheritance and estate management
A brilliant career awaited Eugène Irténev, who possessed excellent education, high university honors, and influential connections through his deceased father.
However, his father had lived extravagantly abroad and in Petersburg, leaving behind substantial debts. When the brothers divided the property, so many obligations surfaced that their lawyer advised refusing the inheritance entirely. A neighboring landowner suggested they could retain the valuable Semënov estate by selling forests and outlying lands, provided someone managed it personally. Eugène decided to retire from civil service and undertake this challenge, arranging to pay his brother Andrew either annually or in a lump sum for his share.
Chapter 2. Physical desires and moral constraints
As a young bachelor, Eugène had maintained relations with women only for physical health and mental freedom. Now, after two months in the countryside, enforced self-restraint began affecting him badly.
He felt that he was not free and that his eyes involuntarily followed every young woman... he had decided that he would not do so either; but afterwards, feeling himself ever more and more under compulsion...
Unlike his father and grandfather, who had avoided entanglements with peasant women, Eugène eventually decided such arrangements might be acceptable locally, provided they remained secret and served purely health purposes rather than debauchery.
Chapter 3. Arranging a liaison with Stepanída
Eugène approached Daniel, an old forest watchman and former huntsman, about arranging a discreet meeting.
Daniel suggested Stepanída, whose husband worked in town. The next day, Eugène met her in the woods beyond the kitchen garden. She appeared in white embroidered apron, red-brown skirt, and bright red kerchief, barefoot and smiling shyly.
Chapter 4. Financial pressures and mothers suspicions
With his physical needs temporarily satisfied, Eugène could focus on estate management. However, new debts continually emerged, including a twelve thousand ruble obligation to widow Esípova. His mother Mary Pávlovna lived comfortably, unable to comprehend their precarious financial situation.
During their evening conversation, Mary Pávlovna hinted that Eugène should resolve any bachelor affairs before marriage. She mentioned standing godmother at the Péchnikovs, where a boy had been born, causing Eugène to flush with uncomfortable recognition. His mother hoped he would make a brilliant marriage to solve their financial troubles.
Chapter 5. Courtship and engagement to Liza
Eugène fell in love with Liza Ánnenskaya, not a wealthy heiress as his mother desired, but a naive and pitiable young woman with clear, mild, confiding eyes.
Liza had always fallen in love easily, and when Eugène proposed, her feelings became intensely focused on him alone. Their engagement brought her complete emotional fulfillment, and Eugène found his own love strengthening in response to her devotion.
Chapter 6. Married life and contentment
Mary Pávlovna disapproved of the match, finding Liza's mother Varvára Alexéevna ill-bred, though she genuinely liked the girl herself.
Eugène married Liza and brought her to the country estate. His wife proved far better than expected, possessing an intuitive understanding of his needs and feelings. She directed all her energy toward serving and pleasing him, creating an atmosphere of cleanliness, order, and elegance throughout their home.
Chapter 7. Challenges of the first year
The first year proved difficult due to mounting debts and Liza's health problems. She suffered a miscarriage after jumping from a frightened horse, followed by a long recovery complicated by her mother's interfering presence. Despite these hardships, Eugène felt increasingly content with married life, finding Liza's devotion and understanding made existence easier and more cheerful than he had ever expected.
Chapter 8. Domestic tranquility and pregnancy
By the second year, their routine had settled into pleasant domesticity. Eugène managed the estate while Liza created a harmonious household. When she became pregnant again, they made careful plans for the child's upbringing according to scientific principles.
Chapter 9. Stepanída returns as housecleaner
Before Trinity Sunday, Liza hired day laborers for spring cleaning, including Stepanída, who had recently weaned her baby and sought work through the office clerk. Returning from inspecting the phosphate-sprinkled fields, Eugène encountered her carrying a pail, barefoot with sleeves rolled high. Though he tried to dismiss the meeting as nonsense, he found himself unable to stop looking at her strong body and graceful movements.
My God! If she, who considers me so honourable, pure, and innocent—if she only knew!... All that was over and it was no use looking at her... But he could not take his eyes from her strong body
During coffee with the family, Eugène appeared disturbed, prompting Liza's concerned questions about his wellbeing, which he deflected unconvincingly.
Chapter 10. Family tensions and inner conflict
The morning conversation between Mary Pávlovna and Varvára Alexéevna devolved into petty arguments about Liza's pregnancy care, venetian blinds, and medical expenses. Eugène found their illogical chatter particularly irritating given his inner turmoil. Liza, sensitive to her husband's distress, noticed something was deeply troubling him despite his denials. Her intuitive understanding of his every mood made his deception all the more painful.
Chapter 11. Moral struggle against temptation
Eugène was shocked by the unexpected return of desires he thought marriage had eliminated. He felt confident he could suppress these feelings, but when Stepanída passed him again, swaying her body and running playfully, vivid memories of their past encounters flooded back. He realized he was not free and would need to guard against this awakened temptation.
It is simply necessary for my health... I grant it is not right, and though no one says anything, everybody, or many people, know of it... But what's to be done? I am acting badly, but what's one to do?
Chapter 12. Attempt to resolve the situation
Eugène approached his steward Vasíli Nikoláich, asking him not to employ Stepanída for household work, explaining the awkwardness of his past involvement with her.
The steward understood and agreed to speak with the clerk. This moral effort to address the situation directly brought Eugène temporary relief, making him feel he had regained control over the dangerous attraction.
Chapter 13. Trinity Sunday and growing desire
On Trinity Sunday, peasant women came to sing and dance at the estate. Among the bright circle of performers, Stepanída stood out in her yellow skirt and velveteen jacket, dancing energetically. Eugène tried to avoid watching but found himself drawn to the window, following her movements as she left with another woman. When he attempted to follow their path, old Samókhin interrupted him about well-digging business, preventing what might have been a dangerous encounter.
Chapter 14. Lizas accident and injury
That same Trinity Sunday, while walking to see the clover fields, Liza fell crossing a ditch and twisted her foot. Eugène carried her home despite Varvára Alexéevna's hysterical protests that he would drop her. The fall threatened another miscarriage, requiring bed rest and medical attention. A doctor was summoned, who prescribed rest and a medicinal mixture while delivering lectures on female anatomy. Eugène spent most of his time caring for Liza, enduring his mother-in-law's constant criticisms and turning them into jokes for his wife's sake.
Chapter 15. Caring for Liza during recovery
While tending to his bedridden wife, Eugène could not remain home constantly due to farming demands. Estate work required his presence in fields, woods, and at the threshing floor. Everywhere he went, he was pursued by vivid images of Stepanída, and worse still, he began encountering her regularly. She seemed to understand his renewed interest and deliberately placed herself in his path, though neither spoke directly of meeting.
Chapter 16. Return of uncontrollable desire
Eugène found himself daily drawn to the forest where peasant women collected grass, hoping and fearing to see Stepanída. His self-control was crumbling despite his moral revulsion at his own weakness.
He felt that he had lost control of himself and had become almost insane... He knew that he was a wretched criminal, and despised and hated himself with all his soul.
He employed various means to resist temptation: constant occupation, intense physical work, fasting, and imagining the shame of discovery. Despite these efforts, every day at the hour of their former meetings, he found himself walking to the forest. The torment continued for five days, during which he saw her from a distance but never encountered her directly.
Chapter 17. Desperate confession to his uncle
During a period of heavy rain that confined everyone indoors, Eugène's uncle approached him as an ambassador from Liza, suggesting they travel to the Crimea for her confinement.
Desperate for help, Eugène confessed his shameful secret: his obsession with a peasant woman despite his pure and loving wife. He described how he had been ready to meet Stepanída in the rain the previous day, only prevented by Liza's summons. The confession humiliated him, but he felt compelled to seek external assistance in overcoming his weakness. His uncle, intrigued by the scandalous revelation, agreed they should leave for the Crimea immediately, where Eugène could escape temptation while Liza received proper medical care.
Chapter 18. Marriage, travel, and temporary relief
The confession and shame sobered Eugène sufficiently to leave for the Crimea without seeing Stepanída again. There he spent two excellent months receiving new impressions that seemed to obliterate past torments. Liza gave birth to a healthy daughter with an unexpectedly easy delivery. They returned home as a family of four, including the wet-nurse, since Liza could not nurse the child herself. Eugène felt completely free from his former horrors, transformed into a new and happy man with increased love for his wife and a pleasant new feeling for his daughter.
Chapter 19. Return home and false security
New interests occupied Eugène's mind, particularly Zemstvo work through his friendship with Dúmchin, the former Marshal of Nobility. His estate was prospering, debts were manageable, and he was unanimously elected to the Zemstvo. Feeling completely free from past temptations, he casually inquired about Stepanída and learned she had become promiscuous, carrying on with various men while her husband remained in town. This news left him feeling wonderfully indifferent, confirming his belief that he had fundamentally changed.
Chapter 20. Temptation strikes with full force
Returning from his election celebration, Eugène encountered Stepanída in the village and felt genuinely tranquil. However, the next day at the threshing floor, seeing her among the women workers, he realized he was lost again. The familiar torments returned with full force. That evening, he found himself at her backyard by the hay-shed, where a neighboring woman told someone to go meet him. Though a peasant's appearance prevented the encounter, Eugène understood he was completely powerless against this obsession. He began contemplating desperate solutions: killing his wife, killing Stepanída, or killing himself. The third option suddenly seemed the only possible escape from his impossible situation.
Chapter 21. Final crisis and suicide
When Liza entered his study, Eugène quickly covered the revolver with a newspaper. She begged him to explain his terrible expression and obvious suffering, promising understanding regardless of the problem. He almost confided in her, but the wet-nurse's interruption prevented full disclosure.
Perhaps he might have told her, but at that moment the wet-nurse entered... 'Then you will tell me? I will be back directly.' 'Yes, perhaps...' She never could forget the piteous smile
Alone again, Eugène seized the loaded revolver and shot himself in the temple. Liza found him lying face down in a pool of black blood, his corpse still twitching. The subsequent inquest could not explain the suicide, and his family refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis of mental derangement, knowing him to be saner than hundreds of their acquaintances.
Alternative ending: murder instead of suicide
In Tolstoy's alternative conclusion, Eugène chose murder over suicide. After praying desperately for divine help, he went to the threshing floor where Stepanída was working. Unable to resist his obsession, he shot her three times in the back with his revolver. He immediately confessed to the crime, was tried during the early days of jury trials, and received a verdict of temporary insanity with only church penance required. After nine months in prison and one month in a monastery, he returned home as an enfeebled, irresponsible drunkard, his life destroyed by his inability to master his desires.
And indeed if Eugène Irténev was mentally deranged everyone is in the same case; the most mentally deranged people are certainly those who see in others indications of insanity they do not notice in themselves.