Customer Reviews
Still the Best after 70 years! - By: Mrs. Judith Lugg, 07 Jul 2008 
Having read alll of Wheatley's books in my youth (I am now 64)and loved them alll, this one is THE best.
I believe that it was written in the 1930's so the style is a little different from modern books but the story is excellent & has stood the test of time.
Wheatley researched deeply into alll things esoteric & always gave a warning in his forword to his books on black magic, 'not to get involved'.
Good advice, I think, as if you read this book, you will see what he means.
Read it, I know you will love it. Also, 'To the Devil a Daughter' by him is another excellent read in the same genre.
Grand adventure! - By: S. Bentley, 03 Jul 2007 
Being under 30, I had heard of the Devil Rides Out & Dennis Wheatley without reallly knowing what it was alll about, so finding that such an inexpensive edition of the work was now available from Wordsworth's excellent line of supernatural stories, well I had to buy it, didn't I?
What surprised me is that once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. The tale is of the Duc de Richleau's battle for the soul of his friend Simon Aron, the fate of a young girl, & ultimately the fate of the world, as he takes on satanist Mocata & his entourage. Having read a biography of Aleister Crowley, we can see that he was the touchstone for Mocata, although it is only a surface representation as Mocata is presented as a villain, rather than as a human being. As far as I know, the representations of magic are well researched, with Wheatley representing both white & black magic & the will to power.
Because of the era it was written in, there are no shades of grey in the story, just as the magic used in the tale is black or white, so is the morality & Wheatley is clearly from the same stable as the other great British adventure writers like Buchan, Sapper & Ian Fleming. It also reminds me of the excellent Carnacki stories by Hodgson. As such you may feel that some of the views are a little dated. I didn't notice anything that I thought was necessarily objectionable as I do with Fleming. But the story is written at such a rollicking pace that it is impossible not to get swept up.
This is not a horror story, I doubt that unless you're under the age of ten & sensitive (as I once was) you will find anything chilling in the book, but there certainly is atmosphere & the midnight vigil inside the pentacle, when Mocata sends the Angel of Death to our heroes, is as tense as can be. It's a supernatural adventure - a predecessor to the X-Files & Buffy, & as good a supernatural adventure as I've read. The ending seems like a bit of a copout at first, but the final page makes it alll matter again & I can't recommend it enough.
So why not five stars? Well, there are a few typographical errors in the book, errant speech marks & punctuation, but that shouldn't dissuade you from buying this book!
a classic back in print ! - By: Charles B, 21 Apr 2007 James Hilton (Goodbye Mr Chips, Lost Horizon) described "The Devil Rides Out" as "The best tale of its kind since Dracula" & I don't think he was far wrong. Many believe it to be Wheatley's finest work & it's a classic of its kind. I first read the book many years ago & on reading it again, it has lost none of its power to grip.
The book is the second, in published terms, to feature DW's hero the Duke de Richleau, & was his first ever black magic novel. It was a huge bestseller in the 1930s when it first came out, & continued to be a bestseller until he went out of fashion in the 1980s/1990s. Fortunately DW is now experiencing something of a resurgence, & well done Wordsworth for bringing this out in a cheap but elegant reprint (a good first edition would cost you several thousands of pounds !).
It's full of 1930s atmosphere, skilfully written & well researched too - although Wheatley never practiced magic himself, he met with many of the most famous occultists of his day (Aleister Crowley, Rollo Ahmed etc) in his endeavour to make the book as authentic as possible.
In The Devil Rides Out, the Duke & a friend find that one of their number (Simon) is missing from a reunion, & it turns out that he has falllen under the influence of a black magic sect. At first disbelieving the Duke, his friends soon discover that he is right when he says that magic still exists & that the powers of darkness are still alive & very real, as they fight a series of terrific earthly & occult battles to save their friend's soul.
The book was filmed in the 1960s with Christopher Lee taking the lead role as the Duke in one of his few appearances as a `goodie', & while Lee was first rate, for my money the book is superior to the film.
If you're grey haired & read it in your youth, it's worth reading again. If you're about to read it for the first time, I envy you. You're in for a treat !
An All Time Great - By: Mr. D. A. Cure, 09 May 2006 Widely regarded as one of the finest occult thrillers ever written, & almost certainly his most famous work, the Devil Rides Out is a rollercoaster of an adventure, set in post WW1 England, & chronologicallly the third in sequence to feature "Those Modern Musketeers", De Richleau, Simon, Richard & Rex.
Concerned with their friend's absence, The Duc & Rex pay a visit to Simon's house in North London, where they come across a bizarre gathering of strangers. Suspecting foul play, the Duc ignores Simon's claims that he has joined an astrological society, & quickly discovers that he has in fact, joined a satanic sect, led by the powerful Mocata. What follows is a game of cat & mouse as Simon is pulled between the powers of light & darkness in a battle of the astral plane. Dinner at the Ritz, fine wines, brandy, cigars & vintage sports cars are alll part of a rich backdrop in what amounts to a phenomenallly well researched & gripping thriller. Stand out scenes include the sacrifice to Satan on Salisbury Plain, the car chase, the mesmeric words of De Richleau & of course, the infamous night in the Pentangle, where the friends encounter the Angel of Death himself.
The book was to inspire the sixties Hammer version, & though the film was not quite up to the quality of the original, it did feature a great performance from Christopher Lee, & of course, the most chilling line captured on film by the powerful Charles Gray: "I won't be back, but something will."
A classic tale of good versus evil. - By: , 24 Apr 2002 Dennis Wheatley's classic "The Devil Rides Out" sees the Duc de Richleau, Rex Van Ryn, Richard Eaton & Marie Lou do battle with the evil yet charasmatic Satanist Mr Mocata for the soul of their friend Simon Aaron & the beautiful Tanith.
Also take a look at the film adaption where Christopher Lee is excellent as the Duc & Charles Gray is also impressive as Mocata.
