The Demon

317 Pages·2000·1.43 MB·English

by  Hubert Selby Jr.

DEMON
THE
Hubert Selby Jr.
a novel
MARION BOYARS
LONDON • NEW YORK
Reprinted in the United States and Great Britain in 2002 by MARION
BOYARS PUBLISHERS LTD 237 E 39th Street, New York NY 10016
24 Lacy Road, London SW15 1NL
www.marionboyars.co.uk
Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Peribo Pty Ltd, 58 Beaumont Road, Kurmg-
gai, NSW 2080
First published in the United States in 1976 by Playboy Press
First published in Great Britain in 1977 by Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd
Republished in the United States and Great Britain in 1989 by Marion Boyars
Publishers Ltd
Reprinted in 1994, 1998, 2000 by Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd
Reprinted 2002
1098765432
© Hubert Selby Jr. 1976, 1989, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise except brief extracts for the purposes of review, without prior written
permission of the publishers.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be
lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in
any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a
similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The right of Hubert Selby Jr to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A CIP catalog
record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 0-7145-2599-5
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bookmarque, London.
This book is dedicated
to Bill,
who helped me learn I must surrender to win
A man obsessed
is a man possessed
by a demon
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is
tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath
promised to them that love him.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for
God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own
lust, and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
JAMES I:12-15
I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all
my fears.
They all looked unto him, and were lightened; and their faces
were not ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him
out of all his troubles.
PSALMS 34:4-6
DEMON
THE
His friends called him Harry
the Lover. But Harry would not screw just anyone. It had to
be a woman ... a married woman.
They were less trouble. When they were with Harry, they
knew what they were there for. No wining or dining. No
romancing. If they expected this, they were sadly mistaken;
and if they started asking questions about his life or indicated
in any way that they wanted to start an "affair," he went his
merry way. Harry did not want any involvements or en-
cumbrances, no hassles. He wanted what he wanted when he
wanted it, then leave with a smile on his face and a wave of
the hand.
Taking a married woman to bed provided an additional
thrill. Not the thrill of stealing another mans woman, Harry
was not interested in that, but the thrill of having to take cer-
tain precautions so you would not be discovered. Never
(3)
knowing exactly what might happen increased the excitement
of apprehension.
From time to time Harry White would stretch out in his
minds eye and reflect upon the many relationships jeopardized
because of confused or poor sexual relations. Why, there must
be millions of women living on tranquilizers because of sexual
frustrations. And how about the thousands, or hundreds of
thousands, who are in mental institutions because of emotional
breakdowns due directly to an unsatisfying or nonexistent
love life? Think of those broken homes and motherless chil-
dren struggling in an unhappy world simply for want of an
orgasm.
Harry was not what one would call a womans libber, but
he did think the double standard grossly unfair. After all,
it is a known, and accepted, fact that most men cheat, as they
say, on their wives, that they like to go out with the boys and
get a "strange piece." Yet, the wife is supposed to stay home
at night and take care of the children and beg her night-out-
with-the-boys husband to make love to her occasionally. And
if she should choose not to wait for his occasional and inept
and mostly unsatisfying favors, but should find an occasional,
shall we say, replacement, she is vilified, denounced, beaten,
divorced or even, sad to say, killed. No, Harry was not a
womans libber, but he was aware of the injustice of such
situations.
And, in his small and humble way, he did what he could to
rectify the situation, or at least, in some measure, ameliorate it.
Actually, Harry felt he provided a very valuable service. Who
knows how many marriages he may have helped with his
ministrations? He may have saved more than just marriages,
he may have saved lives too. Who knows how many women
are alive and well because the pent-up tensions, anxieties and
frustrations were not allowed to build to the point of insanity
or death, but were punctured by Harry White in hot pursuit
of his avocation?
(4)
Although Harry worked in midtown Manhattan, and had
to spend almost two hours a day traveling to and from work,
he continued to live in Brooklyn with his parents. Many times,
especially on an eye cloudy Monday after an exceptionally
active weekend, he thought of moving, of getting a place
nearer work where he might be only a short, leisurely bus
ride from the office, but by the time he had gotten the rest
needed to give him the energy to go through the hassle of
looking, the urgency was gone. He would think about the
pros and cons and study the situation studiously and analyti-
cally and then decide against it. As he saw it there were
basically two possibilities to be considered in looking for an
apartment of his own:
I. to have a roommate; or
2. to live alone.
Now, with the first there are obviously two considerations:
a. Male
b. Female
Actually, this does not have to be considered at all. A female
roommate is out of the question. If she were merely a friend,
it would not remain platonic for long.
And, if she were more than just a friend, which in time she
would be, it would definitely complicate Harrys life style.
Obviously, no thought was needed in dismissing this possi-
bility.
So we are left with the possibility of sharing an apartment
with another guy. What are the advantages? Well, actually
there is only one: You split the rent and so can get a nicer
apartment.
Actually, thats not much of an advantage. Harry earned an
excellent salary, and so that consideration was unimportant.
What are the disadvantages? Many. You would have to de
pend on him to pay his share of the bills. He might have a
girlfriend who will eventually come on to you, and that will
create countless problems.........And numerous other reasons.
(5)