Reviews

Fun read! No spoilers, but there are some marked differences (as is the usual case) between this novel and the Hitchcock film. Having grown up watching the San Franciscan love story/mystery, I find the choices that the writers/director made to deviate from this novel interesting, as the plot does play out with a distinctly different dynamic.

franderochefort's review against another edition

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3.0

Boileau-Narcejac's D'entre les morts deserves better than its minor footnote in history as the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, even if the film is probably inevitably the more notable work - the French writing team's original source material is fascinating for how much more blatant it is with its Orpheus/Eurydice imagery as well as the atmosphere of dread and classically French pessimism and obsession with desire and death that characterize the film in contrast to the breezy American psychosexuality of Hitchcock's reworking. The film does follow the plot surprisingly loyally however, and the book itself even suggests its ultimately cinematic character in a pivotal turning point about halfway in - where the two part ways is mostly in the third act, where D'entre les morts deploys a similar twist ending to that of Les Diaboliques by contrast. Our protagonist in the form of Flavieres is also much more of a shambling neurotic mess, a barely functioning alcoholic petrified of death and clinging to the vision of Madeleine's beauty and purity as a kind of search for immortality. Very oneiric and fascinating work.

________

I read this extensively without any dictionary usage which feels like a huge step up for me in my understanding, especially for how well I was able to follow the events of the book, and by the time I breezed through the last few chapters in the garden I felt pretty confident beyond just finding the book interesting - would have been hard to imagine I'd be up to this point even a few months ago.

paulataua's review against another edition

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5.0

This is the book that inspired ‘Vertigo’ the film. While the core of the story is much the same, Hitchcock and the writers deal with different aspects of that story and the endings are quite different. Despite having seen the movie a zillion times (slight exaggeration), the book had me hooked from the first few pages and I really enjoyed it. I have already got my hands on another of their books. Worth reading!

anaamatildee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

katiebartmess's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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