The Devil Summary

Eugene Irtenev, a 26-year-old well-educated lawyer in a government ministry in Petersburg, inherits with his brothers his father's large estate called the Semenov estate in the country. Once he moves to the estate to care for his mother and to settle his father's many debts, he soon becomes restless for the company of a woman. There are few available women in the village, but "old Daniel," a family friend, offers to introduce him to Stepanida or the wife of a soldier who is always away from home. At first, Eugene finds the idea distasteful but his red-blooded need for sex leads him to Stepanida and they begin meeting each week in the tall grasses of the woods. Eugene's mother wants him to marry someone with money so they can settle their own financial affairs, but Eugene falls in love with Liza...