The Devil and Daniel Webster [short fiction]
by Stephen Vincent Benét
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Having promised his soul to the Devil in exchange for good fortune, Jabez Stone asks the talented lawyer Daniel Webster to get him out of the bargain. But how will that turn out? Fantasy. Fiction.Tags
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aulsmith Fun stories of 0utwitting the devil
JenniferRobb Both works deal with making a deal with the devil/selling your soul. Alcott's work has more romance than Benet's work.
Member Reviews
These are 2 short stories, the first being more widely recognized. I would categorize them as legendary tall tales. In each, Daniel defeats an enemy by his wit and argumentative skills. Total 38 pages.
The Devil and Daniel Webster' is a short story about a successful lawyer who believes you can win your soul back from the devil.
After a season of bad luck:
"It was about the last straw for Jabez Stone. 'I vow,' he said, and he looked around him kind of desperate - 'I vow it's enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devil. And I would, too, for two cents!'
"Then he felt a kind of queerness come over him at having said what he'd said; though, naturally, being a New Hampshireman, he wouldn't take it back. ... But notice is always taken, sooner or later, just like the Good Book says. And, sure enough, next day, about supper time, a soft-spoken, dark-dressed stranger drove up in a handsome buggy and asked for Jabez Stone.
"Well, Jabez told his family it was a lawyer, come to see him about a legacy. But he knew who it was. He didn't like the looks of the show more stranger, nor the way he smiled with his teeth.
"They were white teeth, and plentiful - some say they were filed to a point, but I wouldn't vouch for that. And he didn't like it when the dog took one look at the stranger and ran away howling with his tail between his legs. But having passed his word, more or less, he stuck to it, and they went out behind the barn and made their bargain. Jabez Stone had to prick his finger to sign, and the stranger lent him a silver pin. The wound healed clean, but it left a little white scar." show less
"It was about the last straw for Jabez Stone. 'I vow,' he said, and he looked around him kind of desperate - 'I vow it's enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devil. And I would, too, for two cents!'
"Then he felt a kind of queerness come over him at having said what he'd said; though, naturally, being a New Hampshireman, he wouldn't take it back. ... But notice is always taken, sooner or later, just like the Good Book says. And, sure enough, next day, about supper time, a soft-spoken, dark-dressed stranger drove up in a handsome buggy and asked for Jabez Stone.
"Well, Jabez told his family it was a lawyer, come to see him about a legacy. But he knew who it was. He didn't like the looks of the show more stranger, nor the way he smiled with his teeth.
"They were white teeth, and plentiful - some say they were filed to a point, but I wouldn't vouch for that. And he didn't like it when the dog took one look at the stranger and ran away howling with his tail between his legs. But having passed his word, more or less, he stuck to it, and they went out behind the barn and made their bargain. Jabez Stone had to prick his finger to sign, and the stranger lent him a silver pin. The wound healed clean, but it left a little white scar." show less
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Author Information
135+ Works 2,534 Members
A poet, dramatist, and short story writer, Stephen Vincent Benet was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1898 and attended Yale University. A Guggenhein Fellowship in 1926 enabled him to work in Paris on a long poem that appeared two years later and received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry (1928). The poem John Brown's Body brought Benet instant show more popularity. This narrative history of the Civil War in rhyme and blank verse told from the point of view of ordinary people of both the North and the South is a remarkable epic of the United States. Although Benet had enormously influential on other poets, notably the Harlem Renaissance writer Anne Spencer, and despite his wide popular audience, he has not received high praise from academic critics. Benet died in 1943. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Is contained in
Fifty Years of the American Short Story from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970, Volume 1 by William Miller Abrahams
Fifty Years of the American Short Story from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970 by William Miller Abrahams (indirect)
The Golden Argosy: A Collection of the Most Celebrated Short Stories in the English Language by Charles Grayson
The American Short Story: A Collection of the Best Known and Most Memorable Stories by the Great American Authors by Thomas K. Parkes
Demons by John Skipp
Has the adaptation
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Devil and Daniel Webster [short fiction]
- Alternate titles
- All That Money Can Buy [short fiction]
- Original publication date
- 1937
- People/Characters
- Daniel Webster; Jabez Stone; Nick Scratch; Walter Butler; Simon Girty; Thomas Dale (show all 10); Metacomet (as King Philip); John Smeet; Thomas Morton; Blackbeard / Edward Teach / Edward Thatch
- Important places
- Cross Corners, New Hampshire, USA
- Related movies
- All That Money Can Buy (1941 | IMDb); The Devil and Daniel Webster (2004 | IMDb)
- First words
- It's a story they tell in the border country, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I'm not talking about Massachusetts or Vermont.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 117
- Popularity
- 279,907
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.42)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 14
