Satan as Storyteller: A Journey from Paradise Lost to Modern Times

Literature has long been fascinated with the figure of Satan, not just as a villain but as a narrator and observer of human affairs. From the epic poetry of the 17th century to the graphic novels and subcultures of the 21st, authors have explored the world through the Devil’s eyes. This article examines the evolution of this theme across history, highlights periods when it flourished, compares the myriad approaches writers have taken, and considers how market forces and modern culture have shaped its trajectory. Along the way, we’ll see how works like Milton’s Paradise Lost set the stage, how Gothic and Romantic writers ran with the idea, and how contemporary media keeps the Devil’s perspective alive.

Historical Overview: The Devil’s Voice Through the Ages

Earliest Voices – From Epic Poetry to Enlightenment Satire: One of the earliest and most influential works to give Satan a central voice was John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667). Milton’s epic famously depicts the fall of Satan and mankind, and it dares to present large portions of the story from Satan’s point of view. Although the poem has an omniscient narrator, Satan often steals the show with his charismatic speeches and brooding internal monologues. Milton’s Satan is portrayed with “grandeur and tragic ambition” and has even been interpreted by some readers as a heroic or sympathetic figure​. This complex portrayal was groundbreaking – never before had the Devil been rendered with such psychological depth. Milton’s work wasn’t a novel, but it planted a seed: the idea that the Devil’s perspective could be rich literary material.

In the 18th century, as the Enlightenment brought a more skeptical and witty tone to literature, we see the Devil used in satirical roles. A notable example is Alain-René Lesage’s Le Diable boiteux (The Devil upon Two Sticks, 1707), a French novel in which a demon named Asmodeus is freed from a bottle and proceeds to guide a student around Madrid, revealing the foibles of human society. Lesage aimed the satire of this picaresque tale squarely at Parisian society of his day​. Here the Devil is not exactly the narrator, but he is the primary observer showing us the secret absurdities of mankind – effectively a narrative device to lampoon social norms. Around the same time in Germany, the writer Jean Paul (Jean Paul Richter) published Selections from the Devil’s Papers (1789), a collection that claimed to be edited from the Devil’s own writings​. This indicates that even before 1800, the idea of reading the world through Satan’s pen had emerged as a quirky literary subgenre. Such works used the Devil’s outsider perspective to deliver biting commentary on human vanities, safely couched in a fantastical frame.

Gothic and Romantic Era – The Devil as Antihero and Observer: The late 18th and early 19th centuries – spanning the Gothic and Romantic movements – saw a flourishing of the Devil as a character with depth and even a strange allure. Gothic literature, with its love of the supernatural and the macabre, naturally incorporated demonic figures. In many Gothic novels the Devil lurks in the wings, but some went further, bringing him to center stage. German authors in particular pioneered “devil’s memoir” narratives during this period. For example, E. T. A. Hoffmann’s The Devil’s Elixirs (1815) is an early Gothic novel involving demonic temptation (Hoffmann was even nicknamed “Devil-Hoffmann” by contemporaries). And in 1826, Wilhelm Hauff published Selections from the Memoirs of Satan (German: Mitteilungen aus den Memoiren des Satan), a two-volume novel that stands as a masterful blend of Gothic storytelling and social satire. In Hauff’s novel, Satan serves as a sophisticated narrator observing 19th-century human society. Uniquely, Hauff’s Devil is witty and urbane – “a witty social critic rather than a purely malevolent force,” as one modern preface notes​. This portrayal reflected the era’s shifting attitudes: the Enlightenment and Romanticism had injected literature with skepticism and individualism, so Hauff’s Satan comes off more as a sly commentator on human folly than the horned monster of medieval tradition. Such narratives allowed authors to both embrace and parody the conventions of Gothic fiction. Hauff’s work, for instance, satirized everything from academic pretentiousness to reactionary politics in post-Napoleonic Germany, all under the guise of a devil’s adventures. The very title “Memoirs of Satan” suggests readers are getting an autobiographical peek into the Devil’s life – a deliciously subversive premise for the time.

The Romantic movement further amplified interest in Milton’s Satan as a literary archetype. Romantic poets and writers were fascinated by grand, rebellious figures – and who better fits that mold than the fallen angel Lucifer? The English poet William Blake famously quipped that Milton was “of the Devil’s party without knowing it,” because Milton’s writing unintentionally made Satan so compelling​. Romantic-era readers like Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron sympathized with Milton’s charismatic Devil, seeing in him a symbol of defiance against tyrannical authority​. This led to works where Satan or satanic characters became vehicles for exploring rebellion and freedom. Byron’s verse drama Cain (1821), for example, features Lucifer as a mentor figure who enlightens Cain with knowledge (in a sense making Lucifer a narrator of forbidden truths within the play). While Lucifer isn’t the sole narrator in Cain, his perspective heavily influences the narrative, and Byron uses him to question religious doctrine and champion intellectual inquiry. Similarly, in France, poet Alphonse de Lamartine wrote La Chute d'un ange (1838) and Victor Hugo later wrote La Fin de Satan (written 1850s, published 1886), both of which, as their titles suggest, delve into Satan’s story (Hugo’s work attempts to follow Satan’s path towards possible redemption). These Romantic and Gothic-era works transformed the Devil from a one-dimensional villain into a complex character – sometimes tragic, sometimes darkly humorous, often a mirror held up to humanity.

19th-Century Diversification – Devil Memoirs and Moral Tales: By the mid to late 19th century, the motif of Satan as narrator/observer had firmly taken root across Europe. Beyond Hauff’s influential Memoirs of Satan, other writers tried their hand at “autobiographies” or memoirs of the Devil. In France, Frédéric Soulié published Les Mémoires du Diable in 1837–1838. Interestingly, Soulié’s take is slightly different – rather than Satan recounting his own life, the novel involves a pact where the Devil provides a man with a book containing other people’s secret memoirs​. Still, it was billed as the Devil’s “memoirs,” capitalizing on the intrigue of Satanic knowledge. In England, a Unitarian minister named J. R. Beard even published The Autobiography of Satan in 1872​, indicating the theme had spread and could be used for moral or theological exploration (it’s not every day that a clergyman pens the Devil’s life story!). And in the United States, the great humorist Mark Twain wrote Letters from the Earth (circa 1909, though not published until much later) – a series of irreverent letters in which Satan, exiled from Heaven, writes back to his angelic peers about the absurdities of human beliefs and behaviors​. Twain’s Satanic letters, dripping with satire, were so controversial that Twain’s own family held off publishing them for decades​. The fact that Twain chose Satan as his mouthpiece for critiquing religion shows how mainstream the idea had become: by the early 20th century, even a beloved American author could put on “Satan’s mask” to deliver scathing social commentary (albeit under the cover of posthumous publication).

Modern Era and Subcultural Twists: In the 20th and 21st centuries, Satan-as-narrator continued to appear, though often in new guises and media. The mid-20th century gave us one of the most famous Devil-narrator works: C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters (1942). In this Christian satirical novel, a senior demon (Screwtape) writes advice letters to his nephew demon on how to tempt a human. This epistolary format effectively makes a devil the narrator, and Lewis uses it to poke fun at human weakness and Christian life from an inverse perspective. The Screwtape Letters became a perennial best-seller and is considered a classic, proving that the Devil’s-eye view had broad appeal​ – even among religious audiences – when handled with wit. A few years earlier, in the Soviet Union, Mikhail Bulgakov had written The Master and Margarita (completed late 1930s, published 1966) which features Satan (under the alias Woland) visiting Stalin-era Moscow. Bulgakov’s novel isn’t told in the first person by Satan, but it devotes extensive scenes to Woland’s satirical observations and manipulations of the city’s residents. Through dark comedy and supernatural farce, Woland and his demonic entourage expose the greed, corruption, and atheistic hypocrisies of Soviet society​. In essence, Bulgakov uses the Devil as a mirror to reflect the failings of his contemporary world – a trend consistent with how earlier authors like Hauff or Twain used Satan’s perspective for social critique.

By the late 20th century, the Devil had also found his way into genre fiction and subcultural literature. Horror novels and modern fantasy sometimes toyed with giving the Devil a narrative voice. For instance, Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988) employs dream sequences involving an angelic/demonic point of view to challenge religious history – though the book’s approach is complex and magical-realist, it stirred huge controversy for its bold use of a satanic perspective on sacred narrative. In the 1990s and 2000s, a number of tongue-in-cheek novels and comics put Satan front and center. Neil Gaiman, drawing inspiration from Milton, re-imagined Lucifer in The Sandman comics (1989) as a suave, bored ruler of Hell who eventually retires. This version became the protagonist of a spin-off comic series Lucifer (written by Mike Carey, 2000–2006)​, essentially a long-form narrative of the Devil’s adventures and philosophical contemplations in a modern fantasy universe. (It was so popular it spawned a TV series in 2016.) Similarly, novelist Glen Duncan published I, Lucifer in 2003, a darkly comic novel in which Satan is offered a chance at redemption by living temporarily in a human body – the Devil narrates his experience with sarcastic humor and reflections on biblical events. In these contemporary works, Satan’s narration often serves a mix of purposes: humor, satire, and existential philosophy, all baked into an “edgy” premise. While mainstream literary fiction of the late 20th century focused less on theological figures, the Devil-as-narrator motif lived on in niche genres and subcultures, showing up in everything from graphic novels and songs to online stories.

Throughout this long history, one thing is clear: each era reimagined Satan’s narrative role in a way that spoke to its own concerns – whether that was religious doctrine, political power, or the meaning of individual freedom. Now, let’s zoom in on when this theme truly thrived and why.

Peaks of Popularity: When the Devil Had His Day (or Decade)

Certain periods have seen spikes in literature that lets Satan do the talking. These “peaks of popularity” often coincided with cultural shifts or moments of societal soul-searching:

• Romantic and Gothic Surge (late 1700s–early 1800s): The first major surge came with the Gothic novel craze and the Romantic movement’s fascination with the sublime and the satanic. In the decades bracketing 1800, readers were enthralled by tales of Faustian bargains, demonic monks, and fallen angels. This era produced multiple works featuring the Devil’s perspective, from poems like Coleridge and Southey’s satirical “The Devil’s Thoughts” (1799) – which has Satan touring Earth and commenting on what he sees – to the many “devil memoirs” in Germany and France in the 1810s–1830s. The cultural reason for this peak lies in a mix of Enlightenment skepticism and Romantic rebellion. On one hand, the post-Enlightenment reader enjoyed irreverent satire of religious and social norms (hence devils in witty tales); on the other, Romantics were drawn to Satan as the ultimate defiant hero challenging the status quo​. Milton’s Paradise Lost experienced a revival of interest in this era: the Romantic poets’ open admiration for Milton’s Satan gave the Devil a certain chic credibility. Consequently, printing presses from London to Berlin churned out stories that dared to “give the Devil his due” – making him a central character with a voice, rather than a frightful prop.
• Fin de Siècle and Decadent Gothic (1880s–1890s): The end of the 19th century saw another flare-up. This was the age of Decadence and the Victorian occult revival. Literacy was higher, mass publishing had grown, and the public had an appetite for both sensational horror and spiritual questions. In 1895, British novelist Marie Corelli published The Sorrows of Satan, which became a runaway bestseller​. It’s essentially a Faustian moral fable in which a poor writer meets a mysterious aristocrat (who is eventually revealed to be Satan in disguise) and is tempted with wealth and fame. Corelli’s novel is often cited as one of the world’s first modern bestsellers, selling widely across Europe and America. Its success signaled that the reading public of the 1890s was intensely curious about the Devil’s role in the modern world – in this case, Satan was portrayed somewhat sympathetically, as a weary, tragic figure longing for redemption even as he corrupts the protagonist. The cultural backdrop here was a society wrestling with faith versus materialism: Darwin’s theories, the rise of spiritualism, and anxieties about fin-de-siècle moral decline. A devil-centered novel provided a dramatic way to explore sin and salvation in a rapidly changing world. Around the same time, other writers like Oscar Wilde and G.K. Chesterton were penning their own devil tales (Wilde’s play The Devil’s Disciple, 1897, used the title metaphorically, while Chesterton’s short story “The Curious Feast of the Devil” (1906) imagines Satan hosting a dinner party for sinners – a satirical conceit). The 1890s also saw a boom in occult and supernatural literature in general, so Satan as a character benefited from that trend.

Poster advertising Marie Corelli’s 1895 novel The Sorrows of Satan, which was marketed as a sensational Faustian tale. This Victorian-era book became “one of the world’s first best-sellers,” thanks to a mix of popular appeal and changes in how libraries purchased books. Its success exemplified a peak in public fascination with devil-themed literature in the late 19th century.

• Early 20th-Century Reflections (1900s–1940s): The first half of the 20th century didn’t see quite as many open Devil narrators in mainstream fiction – perhaps due to two World Wars shifting literary focus to more human dramas. However, there were notable spikes in interest around this time in more niche or subversive works. Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth, written in 1909, could be seen as ahead of its time – it was so controversial it wasn’t published until 1962, but within intellectual circles the manuscript was known and discussed. In 1919, Russian author Leonid Andreyev wrote Satan’s Diary (published in 1920), which is literally the Devil’s diary as he wanders among humans; it was a satirical take on post-World War I European society and the emptiness of modern life. Interestingly, an English translation of Satan’s Diary appeared not long after, suggesting there was an audience for such material​. Then, in the 1940s, C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters became a smash hit as a series of newspaper columns and then a book. Its popularity during the dark days of World War II is telling – readers found insight and dark humor in viewing human conflicts and foibles through a devil’s eyes. One scholar noted that 1943 saw a kind of “return of Satan – as narrator and prime mover” in literature, perhaps as a cultural reaction to the massive evils witnessed in World War II​. In other words, when real life felt apocalyptic, writers like Lewis (and later some Yiddish writers, as noted by literary critic David Roskies​) revived Satan’s perspective to grapple with the presence of evil in the world.
• Contemporary and Niche Resurgence (1990s–Present): In more recent decades, the theme hasn’t dominated bestseller lists in the way it did in 1895, but it has thrived in subgenres and multimedia. The late 20th century saw a resurgence in interest through comic books, music, and irreverent fiction. The 1980s’ heavy metal music explosion, for instance, brought “satanic” imagery to the forefront of pop culture (more on that in Contemporary Relevance below), and this zeitgeist carried over into literature in subtle ways. In the 1990s, after the Cold War, some novelists felt free to play with religious themes more boldly – novels like Good Omens (1990 by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) made lighthearted comedy out of an apocalypse scenario with a demon as a lovable co-protagonist. The 2000s gave us works like I, Lucifer (2003) and the continued popularity of Sandman/Lucifer comics, as well as numerous TV shows and films featuring the Devil as a main character (e.g. the TV series Lucifer, 2016–2021, based on the comics). While these aren’t all literary novels, they indicate a cultural moment where the Devil’s point of view was mainstream enough to be a selling point again. You could say we’re in a mild peak right now within fantasy media – one where the Devil is often portrayed as an antihero or darkly charming narrator. However, in general literature the theme remains more niche, perhaps because contemporary writers are less focused on personified evil and more on human perspectives. Still, whenever society grapples with questions of morality, rebellion, or the absurdities of life, the Devil’s voice finds a way to resurface in storytelling.

Each peak of popularity corresponded to distinct historical contexts: the Romantic era’s revolutionary spirit, the Victorian era’s moral anxieties, the mid-20th century’s confrontation with real-world evil, and the millennial era’s ironic, genre-savvy pop culture. In all these highs, we see authors and publishers responding to public curiosity – or unease – about the figure of Satan, packaging age-old questions in new narrative forms.

Satan’s Perspective in Satire, Horror, Philosophy and More

One of the remarkable things about Satan-as-narrator stories is how versatile they are. Different authors have employed the Devil’s viewpoint for different literary goals, be it biting satire, spine-chilling horror, deep philosophical inquiry, political allegory, or social critique. Here we compare some notable approaches:

• Satire and Social Critique: Perhaps the most common use of Satan’s perspective is as a satirical tool. Writers have found that putting wry observations in the Devil’s mouth is a powerful way to highlight human absurdities. We see this in Alexander Pope’s short satirical piece The Devil’s Walk (early 18th century) and in the aforementioned Twain’s Letters from the Earth. Twain’s Satan, for example, remarks with scathing humor on the paradoxes of human religious practice and sexual morality, holding them up to ridicule​. In these works, Satan is less a source of horror and more an enlightened cynic – a character who can point out hypocrisy without moral restraint. Similarly, in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, the Devil (Woland) hosts a grand satanic ball and exposes the greed and gullibility of Moscow’s elite; through his outsider lens, Bulgakov delivers a devastating satire of Soviet society and its atheistic bureaucracy​. Even C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape, though writing for a religious purpose, uses dry wit to critique everything from human church politics to petty vanity. The Devil, as the ultimate outsider, is perfectly positioned to say, “Look how foolish these mortals be.” And because he’s fictional and ‘evil,’ he can voice criticisms that an ordinary narrator couldn’t without alienating the reader. This satirical mode often overlaps with social or political commentary – for instance, Wilhelm Hauff’s Memoirs of Satan used Satan’s campus adventures to lampoon the reactionary policies in 1820s Germany​, and in the 20th century, one comic book writer even had Lucifer comment on the bureaucracy of Heaven and Hell as a mirror of corporate or government bureaucracy (in Mike Carey’s Lucifer series). In sum, when authors want to hold a mirror to society’s follies, they often find the Devil a handy (and entertaining) mirror-holder.
• Horror and the Macabre: You might expect that having Satan narrate would be a staple of the horror genre, but in practice it’s somewhat rarer here than in satire. Classic horror literature tends to keep the Devil in the shadows to preserve fear – once he starts narrating, he often becomes a defined character rather than an unknown terror. That said, a few horror-oriented works give us a Devil’s-eye view. One early example is James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), a Gothic tale where a mysterious stranger (implied to be the Devil) manipulates the protagonist – parts of the novel are written as the protagonist’s memoir under demonic influence. In modern horror, novels like Anne Rice’s Memnoch the Devil (1995) blend horror with theology by having the vampire Lestat whisked into Hell and Heaven by the Devil (Memnoch), who then narrates his own version of Biblical history to Lestat. Rice’s Devil becomes a storyteller of cosmic horror, describing gruesome Biblical events from his perspective and even debating God’s plans – it’s both philosophically dense and filled with the grotesque imagery one expects from horror. There are also short stories that flirt with first-person demonic narration for shock value. For example, Stephen King’s short story “The Man in the Black Suit” (1994) is told by an old man remembering an encounter with the Devil in childhood (not from the Devil’s POV, but the Devil’s characterization carries the horror). More directly, some pulp horror stories in magazines like Weird Tales presented diary entries of possessed people or letters from demons. Outside literature, horror films and shows occasionally give demons a voice-over or POV (the Evil Dead films, for instance, feature the “voice” of Kandarian demons via recorded incantations). In heavy metal music, which often overlaps with horror aesthetics, it’s not uncommon to have lyrics delivered in first-person as Satan (e.g. the song “The Oath” by Mercyful Fate or “The Number of the Beast” by Iron Maiden opens with a spoken verse from Revelations in a demonic voice). All these contribute to a subcultural trend of experiencing horror through the eyes of the supposed source of evil. Still, as a rule, horror usually prefers humans as narrators/victims and Satan as the lurking dread. When the Devil does narrate in horror, the effect is often to humanize or explain the evil (as Rice did), which can shift the story into more of a dark fantasy or theological thriller than pure horror.
• Philosophical and Theological Inquiry: Many devil-narrator works delve into big questions of good, evil, and free will. Milton’s Paradise Lost remains the prime example: through Satan’s speeches, Milton explores the nature of obedience, pride, and freedom. Romantic readers found those speeches so compelling that they treated the poem as though Satan were the hero arguing for liberty​. In the 18th century, philosopher Voltaire used a satirical faux-epic poem called La Pucelle (1755) where at one point the Devil narrates a cynical creation myth, largely to question the justice of God and the church. Moving to the 20th century, we’ve mentioned Anne Rice’s Memnoch the Devil, which is essentially a theological debate between a vampire and Satan – a very odd couple – where Satan presents himself as an unjustly maligned being who actually sympathizes with human suffering and challenges God’s plan. Rice uses this device to ask, “If the Devil could explain himself, what would he say about God and the universe?” Likewise, The Screwtape Letters can be seen as a moral-philosophical text; through Screwtape’s advice, Lewis indirectly examines virtues and vices, the meaning of faith, and the nature of temptation. In The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov mixes philosophy into his satire: Woland (Satan) engages in discussions about Christianity with a character modeled on Faust, essentially weighing the importance of Jesus’s message in an atheist society – an implicit theological commentary. Even the comic book Lucifer had moments of deep philosophy, with Lucifer Morningstar musing on predestination and the purpose of existence (not surprising, since that character was explicitly based on Milton’s intellectually curious Satan). In all these cases, Satan’s viewpoint is used to pose questions and alternate theories of the cosmos. Because he’s cast as a skeptical, rebellious figure, he can voice doubts about divine justice or the problem of evil in a narrative framework. Readers, even if they don’t agree with the Devil’s “side,” are prompted to think through the issues as a debate. This tradition goes back to medieval mystery plays where the Devil character would sometimes engage the audience in thinking about sin and salvation – but modern works take it further by actually humanizing the Devil’s argument. A striking example in recent times is Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials (1995–2000), which, while not literally narrated by Satan, re-imagines a rebel angel figure and questions religious authority; it’s very much in the Miltonic tradition of giving the rebel angel intellectual weight and even virtue. Thus, Satan as narrator or lead character has been a convenient mouthpiece for authors to explore “big ideas” from a contrarian perspective – effectively playing devil’s advocate in the text itself.
• Political Allegory: Some works have used a devil-narrator or devil figure explicitly to comment on political events or climates. We touched on how Hauff’s Memoirs of Satan satirized the political repression of its time (like the Carlsbad Decrees) – scenes in the novel involve students and professors, and through Satan’s eyes we see commentary on censorship and reactionary governance. Another example is Victor Hugo’s unfinished work The End of Satan, which allegorically ties Satan’s story to the history of revolution and tyranny in Europe – Satan’s fall is mirrored against the fall of Napoleon and others, making the Devil a symbol for political upheaval. In the 20th century, The Master and Margarita again stands out: readers have long debated whether Bulgakov intended Woland (Satan) to represent Stalin or, on the contrary, to represent an impartial judge exposing Stalin’s regime. The novel was written under a repressive regime, so Bulgakov had to couch his political satire in a fantastical scenario – using the Devil and magic as a satirical smokescreen to evade censorship while criticizing Soviet bureaucracy and literary politics​. In a more playful political allegory, American writer Stephen Vincent Benét wrote The Devil and Daniel Webster (1936), a short story where a New England farmer sells his soul and the famed orator Daniel Webster must literally argue against the Devil in a courtroom to save him. The Devil (called Mr. Scratch) isn’t the narrator, but he is a central character delivering commentary on American patriotism and greed; in the end, Webster wins by appealing to American ideals, suggesting even the Devil can be humbled by democracy and justice. Here, Satan is used to personify corrupt forces (like greed and the temptation of easy wealth) that the author is warning the nation against, in the throes of the Great Depression. In such politically charged stories, the Devil often serves as a satirical proxy for real tyrants or as a critique of societal injustices, speaking truths that might be too dangerous or blunt if spoken by a more direct narrator. Even graphic novels have done this: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing comics in the 1980s featured a story arc where the demon Etrigan speaks in verse about the folly of nuclear arms races – essentially using a demon to critique Cold War politics. In summary, whenever authors have wanted to slyly criticize those in power or the direction of a society, they’ve sometimes put their sharpest observations in the Devil’s mouth. It’s a time-tested method to deliver political satire with a bit of infernal flair.

These categories aren’t mutually exclusive – many works blend two or more. For instance, The Sorrows of Satan was at once a social critique of the literary world (Corelli was satirizing decadent authors and critics who scorned her) and a moral/religious allegory. Paradise Lost is philosophical and at times political (some read Satan’s rebellion as echoing the English Civil War). What unites all these approaches is the idea that Satan’s unique vantage point – as a timeless being, an antagonist, a skeptic – can shed new light on worldly matters. Whether to make us laugh at ourselves, scare us, or make us ponder the nature of sin, the Devil as narrator has proven to be an extremely adaptable literary device.

The Market’s Hand: Publishing Trends and Demand for Devilish Tales

It’s one thing for authors to write Satan-centric stories, but it’s another for those works to find a willing publisher and an eager audience. The history of “Devil as narrator” literature is closely tied to market dynamics – periods of high demand, savvy marketing, and sometimes controversy fueling sales.

Looking back, we can see that publishers have indeed capitalized on this theme when it proved popular. During the Gothic literature boom of the early 1800s, publishers in England and Germany realized readers craved spooky, supernatural tales. After the success of landmark works like The Monk (1796) – which, while not Devil-narrated, featured a shocking appearance by Lucifer – publishers were receptive to similar content. This opened the door for books like Hauff’s Memoirs of Satan (1826) to find a market. Hauff initially released it in two volumes, and its mix of satire and occult thrills catered to Gothic novel fans. We might surmise that the relatively positive reception of Hoffmann’s The Devil’s Elixirs a decade earlier signaled to publishers that “devil stories” sold well, encouraging them to take on Hauff’s manuscript​. Indeed, Hauff slyly borrowed the concept from Hoffmann and even referenced an earlier satire by Jean Paul, indicating a known trend​. In France, after Charles Baudelaire had success with satanic-themed poetry (Les Fleurs du mal in 1857 contains several pieces addressing Satan), and with the general interest in dark romanticism, publishers in the 1830s–1850s were keen on devilish novels. Frédéric Soulié’s Les Mémoires du Diable was serialized in a magazine in 1837–38, a common practice that meant publishers expected the sensational subject to boost periodical sales. In other words, early publishers weren’t shy about printing Satan’s tales if they thought readers would devour them – and often, readers did, drawn by the taboo-breaking allure.

The fin-de-siècle period provides a clear example of market influence. Marie Corelli’s The Sorrows of Satan was heavily promoted by her publisher, J.B. Lippincott Co., as a must-read novel. Advertisements (as seen in the poster above) touted it as “A New Novel by Marie Corelli” with the provocative title prominently displayed​. Part of why it sold so well was simply Corelli’s existing popularity, but another part was savvy marketing that played up the Faustian plot. There was a novelty factor: nothing grabs Victorian readers like the promise of the Devil in a moral tale. Libraries initially struggled with whether to carry it (some elite critics sniffed at its populism), but an “upheaval in the system” of library purchases around that time ended up helping its distribution​. Essentially, more copies made it into circulating libraries and shops due to changes in how books were bought in bulk, and Sorrows of Satan rode that wave to record sales. Its success didn’t go unnoticed by other publishers – seeing the public’s appetite, they churned out more occult and satanic-themed fiction in the late 1890s. Many dime novels and penny dreadfuls featured Mephistophelean villains or even comic devils. In1896, for instance, a London publisher released a collection called Devil’s Stories which compiled various authors’ tales of Satan – a clear attempt to capitalize on Corelli’s hit. Even an author as esteemed as George Bernard Shaw was influenced by the trend; he wrote a play in 1903 titled Man and Superman which in its third act includes a dream sequence in Hell with the Devil as a witty interlocutor. Shaw’s publisher happily highlighted that “Don Juan in Hell” segment in marketing, knowing the Devil element piqued curiosity.

We also see instances where controversy and censorship (or the threat of it) played a role – sometimes boosting interest. Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth is a good case: Twain wrote it for himself (no publisher in 1909 would touch such blasphemy), but after his death, when excerpts leaked, the very notion of a banned Twain work narrated by Satan created intrigue. By the time it was finally published in 1962, public opinion had liberalized enough that it became a talked-about book. Similarly, Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988) received intense media attention due to the controversy and fatwa issued against Rushdie. While it is not “Satan narrating” in a straightforward way, the title and the blurring of angelic and demonic characters caused an uproar that ironically made the novel even more famous. Publishers sometimes find that any publicity – even accusations of blasphemy – can drive sales. In the case of The Satanic Verses, the publishers had to weigh safety and offense, but ultimately the book’s notoriety propelled it to bestseller status worldwide.

Another aspect of market influence is publishers commissioning works to ride a trend. A notable example: after the success of Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, some Christian publishers sought similar works. In the late 1940s and 1950s, there were a few lesser-known books (now largely forgotten) that tried to mimic the Screwtape formula of a senior devil instructing a junior (one was Letters from a Tempter to a Tempted by Reverend Arthur Deason). These were clearly attempts to capitalize on Lewis’s audience with more “devil POV” content. In a different medium, DC Comics observed the popularity of the character Lucifer in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and in 1999 explicitly commissioned a spin-off series focusing on Lucifer Morningstar as an antihero. That comic series, launched in 2000, was a hit among comic readers and ran 75 issues – a commercial success that directly resulted from a publisher saying, “Fans want more of this charming Devil, let’s give it to them.” In the 21st century, TV and streaming producers similarly jumped on the bandwagon: when the show Lucifer (loosely based on the comics) proved popular, it was extended for multiple seasons. Netflix, noticing the fan base, picked it up when network TV canceled it. This cross-media example shows that when a Devil narrator or protagonist resonates, companies are keen to keep that content flowing.

Of course, the market isn’t always friendly to diabolical literature. There have been downturns where publishers steered clear, thinking readers had no interest or that it was too risky. For instance, during the strict Victorian mid-19th century (earlier than Corelli), very few English novels made Satan a narrator – it was too scandalous for the mainstream moral climate. Those that existed were often anonymous or published in limited runs. It took a gradual loosening of attitudes for the theme to re-emerge by century’s end. Likewise, in the 1950s, apart from Lewis’s work, the Anglophone literary market was more interested in realistic fiction; devilish narrators mostly appeared in genre pockets (pulp, sci-fi, etc.).

In summary, whenever the cultural climate permitted and audience curiosity was evident, publishers have not hesitated to promote Satan’s storytelling role – whether by lavishly advertising a novel, compiling anthologies of devil tales, or green-lighting spin-offs in other media. The ebbs and flows of this subgenre often follow the money: a hit book begets imitators; a scandal can pique interest; a subculture’s rise (like the occult boom of the ’70s or the comic-con geek culture of today) can create a niche market that publishers cater to. Even now, one can find small press or self-published novels with titles like The Devil’s Diary or Satan’s Memoir, trying to grab readers hunting for the next irreverent thrill. The enduring lesson for the market is that the Devil, as a character, sells – especially when society is in a mood to question, laugh at, or fear the status quo.

Contemporary Relevance: The Devil’s Narrative Today and Tomorrow

Does Satan as a narrator still captivate contemporary audiences? The answer is yes – though largely in specific subcultures and evolving forms of media. In today’s largely secular, scientifically-oriented literary landscape, you won’t find many straight-faced “Devil’s memoirs” topping the New York Times bestseller list. However, the core idea has morphed and found new life in pop culture, proving that this theme retains a certain underground significance and adaptability.

In literature, the trope persists mostly in fantasy, YA fiction, and humor. For example, the YA fantasy novel The Savage Dawn (2017) by Melissa Grey features a character who is literally the Devil (though not the main narrator, he provides key perspective). Indie authors on platforms like Wattpad or Kindle Direct have experimented with Satan-as-protagonist stories, often mixing romance or comedy (e.g., a self-published comic novel where Satan has to navigate modern office life – a premise that echoes the popular TV series Lucifer). These works might not get mainstream critical attention, but they indicate a continued fascination, especially among younger readers and writers, with humanizing or at least personifying the Devil in storytelling.

The theme’s real vitality today, however, is in broader media and subculture. Graphic novels and comics remain a space where the Devil can speak freely. DC’s Lucifer comics concluded in 2006, but the character was revived in new comics under DC’s Sandman Universe in 2018, showing that demand hadn’t died. Japanese manga and anime often feature “demon lord” characters as protagonists or commentators on human society – a cultural parallel to our theme. For instance, the manga The Devil Is a Part-Timer! (and its anime adaptation) comically imagines Satan forced to work at a fast-food joint in modern Tokyo, told from his point of view. This international example underscores that the narrative possibilities of a fish-out-of-water Devil still amuse a global audience.

Music and performance art also keep Satan’s narrative presence alive. The 1968 Rolling Stones song “Sympathy for the Devil” is a classic rock piece written in the voice of Satan as he recounts witnessing and influencing historical atrocities (from Jesus’s crucifixion to the Kennedy assassination). This song has endured in popularity and covers, arguably because it cleverly uses Satan’s perspective to comment on the darkness in human history – all while being catchy and provocative. In the heavy metal genre, adopting Satan’s persona became almost a cliché, especially in the 1980s. Bands in the black metal and death metal scenes frequently wrote lyrics from the Devil’s viewpoint or dedicated concept albums to infernal narratives. While some of it was shock theatrics, it also served as a countercultural statement: embracing the Devil’s voice was a way to rebel against religious norms and conservative society. Thus, in musical subcultures, Satan as narrator became a symbol of anti-establishment identity. Even today, new metal or rock artists occasionally use that trope to tap into that legacy of rebellion (Ghost, a modern rock band, often writes from demonic perspectives in a tongue-in-cheek manner).

In film and television, the Devil has evolved into a surprisingly personable character. The TV show Lucifer portrayed him as a wisecracking, crime-solving antihero with a heart – essentially a dramedy led by the Devil. It resonated with audiences perhaps because it took the age-old trope and blended it with a modern genre (police procedural + urban fantasy). Meanwhile, shows like Good Omens (2019, based on the novel co-written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett) feature a demon (Crowley) who is arguably the co-narrator of the story, teaming up with an angel to prevent the apocalypse. The success of Good Omens on a platform like Amazon Prime shows that viewers still enjoy a good heavenly/demonic point-of-view switch, especially when it’s laced with humor and commentary on human absurdity – a direct spiritual descendant of Screwtape and Master and Margarita. In video games, too, the concept pops up: for instance, the game Undertale (2015) and Deltarune (2018) play with meta-narratives that cast the player or narrator in devilish roles. And the cult-classic game Lucius (2012) lets you play as a demonic child (son of the Devil) carrying out Satan’s bidding. These indicate that interactive media has also found the allure in letting audiences be the Devil or see through his eyes, at least in a virtual playground.

One could say that the Devil as narrator has become less shocking over time, but this very fact allows the trope to be more flexible and creative. Freed from the shackles of pure blasphemy or horror, modern interpretations often use the Devil’s POV for introspection and parody. For example, social media has even seen parody accounts like “@Satan” on Twitter, where someone role-plays as Satan commenting humorously on current events – essentially micro-satire in real time. Memes and webcomics occasionally depict Satan welcoming people to Hell with a sarcastic quip about their earthly behavior, functioning as bite-sized morality tales for the digital age. These are far from Miltonic epic, but they show how ingrained the idea of a speaking, thinking, relatable Devil has become in our culture’s imagination.

In terms of subcultures: Goth subculture and cosplay/fantasy communities still embrace Satanic imagery as part of storytelling. At fantasy conventions, you might find an author reading from their novel where Lucifer narrates his exile, or cosplayers dressed as “sexy Satan” – all reflecting that the figure of Satan as a character, even a sympathetic one, persists outside the literary canon in fan-driven spaces. Additionally, the rise of interest in occultism and witchcraft among younger generations (sometimes dubbed the “witchy” trend on social media) has brought renewed attention to historical Satan-centric literature. It’s not uncommon to see Paradise Lost quotes or images shared in these circles, or recommendations of obscure works like Andreyev’s Satan’s Diary. In that sense, even older literature is finding a second life via niche interest groups who see value in the Devil’s literary legacy, whether for academic curiosity or counter-cultural cachet.

So, does the theme still evolve? Absolutely. Each era adds its own twist. The current trend seems to be humanizing the Devil – making him less of an overwhelming evil and more of a flawed, even likable protagonist (as in Lucifer or Good Omens). This reflects our contemporary inclination to explore gray areas and question absolute labels of good and evil. It also mirrors a more psychological approach: modern audiences often enjoy when villains are given backstory and inner conflict. What could be more intriguing than applying that treatment to the Devil himself? At the same time, there are still creators who use Satan’s perspective to challenge norms in a sharper way – especially in countries or communities where speaking overtly against authority or religion is difficult. For instance, some Middle Eastern novelists in exile have used satanic or demonic narrators in short stories to critique religious extremism, embedding their dissent in metaphor to avoid direct blasphemy charges.

In conclusion, while the Devil as a narrator or primary observer isn’t a constant dominant theme in all literature, it remains a recurring thread that adapts to the needs of the time. From Milton’s ambitious epics to a Netflix dramedy, the core appeal endures: giving voice to the ultimate outsider yields powerful perspectives on our world. It allows writers and readers to explore forbidden thoughts, indulge in imaginative role-reversal, and grapple with profound questions – all under the safe guise of “the Devil made me do it.” In the grand tapestry of literature, Satan’s memoirs and observations form a colorful and provocative pattern, one that continues to expand. Whether in an academic treatise or a casual comic strip, we still find value in letting the Devil have the floor for a while. As long as humanity loves a rebel and cherishes free thought, we can expect Satan to keep narrating somewhere in our cultural conversation – occasionally in the limelight, more often in the fringes, but never truly silent.