Download or read book The Devil's Elixir, Vol. 1 (of 2) written by E. T. A. Hoffmann and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My life, from my fourth to my sixteenth year, was spent at a lonely farm-house, on the banks of the river Saale, near the Cistertian Monastery of Kreuzberg. The house, though not large, had once been the residence of a baronial family, that was now extinct, and of whose representatives strange stories were narrated. Of course, therefore, their castle was gloomy; of course, also, said to be haunted, and its immediate environs were in keeping with the character of the principal mansion.