And the Devil Will Drag You Under

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And the Devil Will Drag You Under

First edition cover
Author Jack Chalker
Illustrator Darrell K. Sweet
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Fantasy novel
Publisher Del Rey Books
Publication date August, 1979
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 273 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-345-27926-3

And the Devil Will Drag You Under, (1979) is a comic fantasy by Jack Chalker involving an alcoholic demon and two humans he suborns to collect the pieces of a mystic artifact that the demon requires to save Earth from an asteroid on a collision course, thereby permitting him to continue his bender. The human's journeys include both mystical transformations of their bodies and trips to worlds that parodied famous fantasy novel locales.

The book's title is an homage to "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat", a song written by musical theatre composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, for Guys and Dolls in which the character Nicely-Nicely Johnson, making a gospel style confession at a Salvation Army prayer meeting, tells of a dream in which his fellow passengers, on a "little boat to heaven," warn him that if he upsets the ride, he'll be washed overboard ... "and the Devil will drag you under / By the sharp lapel of your checkered coat ... "

[edit] Publication history