Reviews

Gas Light by Patrick Hamilton

apstaff18's review against another edition

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dark hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

wilde_book_garden's review against another edition

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4.0

I actually prefer the film version with Ingrid Bergman which is slightly different: it makes Bella (in the movie her name is Paula) more of a main character in her own story, which of course I really like; and it fills out some more backstory. That said, this is a really fantastic play and I highly recommend it for the atmosphere, the suspense, and the chilling (and frighteningly believable) examination of psychological abuse. And that final scene!! EPIC.

CW: Gaslighting (yep, this play is where the term came from), abuse

ldjdbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

jessicat's review against another edition

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tense

4.0

lnatal's review

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4.0

From BBC Radio 4:
Set in Victorian London, a wife notices that after her husband leaves each evening, the gaslight drops as if somebody else is in the house, turning on another light. Is this true, or is she going mad? Then she receives a stranger who tells her a peculiar story......

Classic mystery by Patrick Hamilton.


https://archive.org/details/Gaslight_201704

iheartpuns's review

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4.0

This is a play that has long been on my TBR, but I had difficulty tracking down a copy. It is the play from where the term gaslighting originates for obvious reasons. I’m glad I finally read it because it was indeed very good.
The MC is a youngish married woman who seems to be losing her mind, or at least that is what her husband says. Items have gone mysteriously missing. Pictures are removed from walls. Lights go up and down on their own and, according to him, it is all her fault. At the end of Act I, the husband storms out of the house threatening to put her in an asylum.

Act II introduces us to a retired inspector who has long desired to catch a murderer that had got away while he was yet a rookie on the force. He reveals that he suspects the husband of being this killer came back to the house where his crime took place to find a cache of hidden rubies that eluded him so many years ago. He also reveals that the marriage is illegitimate as the man already has a wife and that he believes the man is intentionally trying to make the wife think she is crazy through emotional manipulation in order to put her away.

Act II concludes with … well I guess you’ll have to read or see the play for yourself to find out. But I will say, I very much enjoyed the ending.
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