What do you think?
Rate this book
To A Dubious Salvation: The Silberstein Trilogy #2
One For The Devil: Translated from Afrikaans by Charles Eglington
Second volume in the Welgevonden trilogy....Once a lavish South African estate, Welgevonden has now become a Foundation which is dedicated to model social order. It is soon shaken by the murder of an 18 year old girl.
- GenresAfrica
203 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
About the author
Etienne Leroux
27 books7 followersEtienne Leroux was an influential Afrikaans author and a key member of the South African Sestigers literary movement. His full name is Stephanus Petrus Daniël le Roux, son of S.P. Le Roux, a South African Minister of Agriculture.
His works gained critical acclaim and were translated into many languages.
His works gained critical acclaim and were translated into many languages.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 23, 2016
Although read out of sequence this continuation of the story of the Silbersteins of Welgevonden stands alone perfectly well. The inarticulate hero is a comical he-man obsessed with his physique, a parallel with Hercules I gather (though a great deal of the mythological content went way over my head). His picaresque days at the Foundation provide us with links to the events of 18 years before. the earlier tale of Henry van Eeden and the tragic Salome, the judge, the doctor, and Jock all reenact what took place before and the downtrodden denizens of Mon Repos likewise. It's almost as though each generation demands a sacrifice, a conflagration: one for God and one for Azazel. Good fun.
November 27, 2008
I first heard of Etienne Leroux this past summer when I went through a Graham Greene phase. I came across a NY Times review of a Greene biography that mentioned, parenthetically I think, that Greene loved the novels of the South African writer Etienne Leroux. Curious, I went out looking for his work. "One for The Devil" is the only book I could locate within the libraries of the five boroughs of NYC.
This is the second book of a trilogy, all three books of which take place on the Welgovonden farm. "One for the Devil" is ostensibly a whodunnit where a woman is found sexually abused and murdered and a detective, the absurdly physically fit and stuttering Detective-Sergeant Demosthenes H. DeGoede, arrives on the farm compound to investigate. The detective is "guided" about the compound by Dr. Johns, a master manipulator who slyly biases DeGoede's perceptions of the people he is introduced to, and is eventually directed toward the person who Dr. Johns wants convicted in an obvious effort to create a scapegoat.
Leroux, through the character of Dr. Johns, does quite a lot of ruminating here on man's need to come to grips with the "monster in his dark past", the id that, in Leroux's micro-society, is held unsteadily under the boots of simple farmers. But this is not a dark, plodding novel - if anything, it's comedic, with a lot of the deadpan, absurd humor that reminded me of parts of "Our Man in Havanna." There are even some subtle, creepy, hinted-at perversions that seep through the mortar of the Welgovonden farm like moss on a stone wall which, though disturbing (like DeGoed's fascination with a pair of young girls, and their even more unsettling Lolitaesqe reciprocation) were so strange (yet so perfect) that I laughed out loud despite feeling wrong about it.
This is the second book of a trilogy, all three books of which take place on the Welgovonden farm. "One for the Devil" is ostensibly a whodunnit where a woman is found sexually abused and murdered and a detective, the absurdly physically fit and stuttering Detective-Sergeant Demosthenes H. DeGoede, arrives on the farm compound to investigate. The detective is "guided" about the compound by Dr. Johns, a master manipulator who slyly biases DeGoede's perceptions of the people he is introduced to, and is eventually directed toward the person who Dr. Johns wants convicted in an obvious effort to create a scapegoat.
Leroux, through the character of Dr. Johns, does quite a lot of ruminating here on man's need to come to grips with the "monster in his dark past", the id that, in Leroux's micro-society, is held unsteadily under the boots of simple farmers. But this is not a dark, plodding novel - if anything, it's comedic, with a lot of the deadpan, absurd humor that reminded me of parts of "Our Man in Havanna." There are even some subtle, creepy, hinted-at perversions that seep through the mortar of the Welgovonden farm like moss on a stone wall which, though disturbing (like DeGoed's fascination with a pair of young girls, and their even more unsettling Lolitaesqe reciprocation) were so strange (yet so perfect) that I laughed out loud despite feeling wrong about it.
Read
October 27, 2015Die storie is goed geskryf die latynse woorde by die hoofstukke omskryf die verskillende gedeeltes van die ondersoek.Die boek het n hartseer ondertoon .Die Silbersteins verloor hulle kosbaarste "besitting" hulle dogter al het hulle rykdom ens kan dit nie die leegheid vul Na die dood van die dogter verval die lieflike plaas en alles daarop . As die reus doodgaan besef niemand dit en die lewe gaan net aan.Dit wys dat sy bestaan die belangrik was in die werking van die plaas.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews