Book cover of The Devil's Elixir

Book description

E.T.A. Hoffmann's 'The Devil's Elixir' is a gothic, horror-fantasy novel inspired by Matthew Gregory Lewis's novel 'The Monk'. Medardus is the son of a sinner and is raised in a monastery to atone for his father's past. When Medardus succumbs to temptation, he is dragged into a deadly mystery that…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Devil's Elixir as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Once I started reading this I was unable to put it down. If you’re unfamiliar with the tales of Hoffmann you owe it to yourself to become acquainted. If you are intrigued by the sort of tale in which a young man meets a traveler in an inn who has seen the devil and he follows him into a dark and lonely wood, then this is the book for you.

The plot is an elaborately tangled labyrinth. The monk Medardus was brought up in a monastery to atone for his father’s wicked ways, but he knows only fragments of his…

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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