The Devil's Elixirs

This edition presents the novel “Elixirs of the Devil,” devoted to the topic beloved by Hoffmann: the destructive influence of the dark side of a person’s personality. Moreover, evil invading a person’s soul is determined both by hereditary causes and by the action of external, demonic supernatural forces. The main character, the monk Medardus, accidentally tastes mysterious liquid from a crystal vial and becomes an unwilling carrier of evil. The narration, told in his voice, allows the reader to follow through monastery corridors and cells, and then through a motley world—experiencing everything that the monk endured in life: the terrible, terrifying, mad, and laughable… The book is addressed to everyone who is drawn to the world of the mysterious and unusual.