This book is an analysis of the activity of the human subconscious, amazing in its depth. The plot of the novel is built on the motif of duality, incest and murder and is a highly artistic continuation of the tradition of the English “Gothic” novel. “In “The Devil’s Elixir,” wrote Heine in “Romantic school,” concludes the most terrible and most terrifying thing that the mind can come up with. How weak in comparison is Lewis's The Monk, written on the same subject. They say that a student in Göttingen went crazy from this novel.” At the heart of the story is the idea of Christian atonement for crimes committed. The author talks about a man who lived in a monastery, and then left it and led a lifestyle that was not entirely befitting a monk, but later repented. And when he arrived in Rome, everyone there called him a saint, which horrified him. Thus, this is one of the first experiences in European literature of the life of a great sinner.