"The Devil in the Flesh," one of the finest, most delicate love stories ever written, is set in Paris during the last year of the First World War. The narrator, a boy of 16, tells of his love affair with Martha Lacombe, a young woman whose soldier husband is away at the front. With an accuracy of insight that is almost ruthless, he describes his conflicting emotions-the pride of an adolescent on the verge of manhood and the pain of a child thrust too fast into maturity. The liaison soon becomes a scandal, and their friends, horrified and incredulous, refuse to accept what is happening-even when the affair reaches its tragic climax.