The Devil in Love (French: Le Diable amoureux, 1772) is an occult romance by Jacques Cazotte published in English in 1793. The novel tells of Alvaro, a young but wise man who invokes Satan. Upon seeing the young Alvaro, Satan falls in love with him, and assumes the appearance of a young woman and follows him as his page. In the journey that unfolds, Satan disguised as a woman tries to seduce Alvaro, who rejects his advances lest of losing his precious virginity.
French critic P.G. Castex has described The Devil In Love as “the very initiator of the modern fantasy story”. The Le Diable amoureux started a literary style known as fantastique, where surreal events intrude on reality and the reader is left guessing whether the events actually occurred or were merely the product of the character's imagination.
Jacques Cazotte (1719–1792) was a French author. Jacques Cazotte had a position of some importance in the Administration de la Marine in Martinique. On his return to Paris he found the Reign of Terror in progress and was soon imprisoned on charges in connection with incriminating documents found in the Tuileries. On the intervention of his daughter he was liberated, only to be rearrested a few days later, tried, and executed in September 1792.
