Walter Nigg traces the embodiments of evil through the centuries and reveals the effects of belief in the devil on the collective psyche in times gone by. He goes deeply into the saints' struggles with the powers of evil and the poetic endeavours of modern writers to confront the devil. Nigg regards Baudelaire's penetrating observation that the devil's »perfect cunning« consists of his ability to persuade man that he (the devil) does not exist as being particularly appropriate in our modern times. Present-day mankind has fallen a victim to this illusion, to this denial and suppression of the embodiment of evil, without being aware that we are thereby giving the evil virtually unlimited power.