Book excerpt: Poland's strong Catholic faith engendered in its literature a lively awareness of the Devil and a love of the supernatural. The Devil is a popular figure in Polish fantastic fiction, and we see him in many different roles and guises: from the personification of pure malice to a pitiful, unfortunate individual and even a patriotic hero. The Dedalus Book of Polish Fantasy offers the best of this tradition from the Romantics to the new generation of authors writing in post-communist Poland.