Book summary

The main narrative--Freddy's book--is framed by the story of Professor Winesap, who encounters Freddy, a fat, 8-foot tall reclusive genius who has written a book entitled "King Gustav and the Devil," a historical novel about a knight in the 1500s. Gustav not only vanquishes the devil but becomes king of Sweden by leading his country out from under Danish rule.

Media reviews

"Moved by the narrator's clumsy sympathy, Freddy gives him a novel he has written, which is a haunting psychological romance about 16th-century Sweden's Gustav I and the Devil. The net result is one of Gardner's most subtly moving and persuasive fictions on life and its conduct, without the precious, tidy moralism sometimes present in his other work."