The Pursued
CS Forester
The Pursued
Marjorie had never seen a dead body until she got home one tranquil summer evening and found her sister Dot lying on the kitchen floor in a pretty dress, with her head in the oven. She looked peaceful, as if she was asleep. Their mother suspects, however, that Dot's death was far from natural. What's more, she knows who the killer is — and she is determined to make him suffer. So slowly and meticulously, she plots her revenge. After all, who would suspect a neatly dressed, grey-haired widow of anything? And what could possibly go wrong? The Pursued, C. S. Forester's dark, twisted tale of murder, lust and retribution, was written in 1935, but its typescript manuscript was lost. More than seven decades later, it has now been rediscovered and is published for the first time.
3.8 out of 5 based on 6 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
Crime, Thrillers & Mystery, Classic Fiction |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
224 |
| RRP |
£14.99 |
| Date of Publication |
November 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-0141198071 |
| Publisher |
Penguin Classics |
| |
Marjorie had never seen a dead body until she got home one tranquil summer evening and found her sister Dot lying on the kitchen floor in a pretty dress, with her head in the oven. She looked peaceful, as if she was asleep. Their mother suspects, however, that Dot's death was far from natural. What's more, she knows who the killer is — and she is determined to make him suffer. So slowly and meticulously, she plots her revenge. After all, who would suspect a neatly dressed, grey-haired widow of anything? And what could possibly go wrong? The Pursued, C. S. Forester's dark, twisted tale of murder, lust and retribution, was written in 1935, but its typescript manuscript was lost. More than seven decades later, it has now been rediscovered and is published for the first time.
Reviews
The Financial Times
Adrian Turpin
"The Pursued offers a gimlet-eyed portrait of inter-war suburbia, all twitching curtains, boarding-house fugs and the rumble of the railway at the end of the garden. More surprising is the book’s frank depiction of bedroom politics and female sexuality which, one suspects, may have contributed to its non-publication at the time."
28/10/2011
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The Guardian
Andrew Taylor
"Why wasn't the book published in 1935? It's vivid, technically accomplished and compelling. Perhaps the fact that it is so unsettling had something to do with it. By the standards of the time, Forester is extraordinarily frank about sexual behaviour and family life. Nor does he rush to condemn, though every now and then he remembers his likely readership and adds a snooty but unconvincing comment about his characters' lack of education being the cause of their faulty morality."
12/11/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
Mark Sanderson
"A brilliant tale of twisted minds in suburban Thirties London, it is a miraculous find."
14/11/2011
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The Sunday Times
Joan Smith
"… a tense psychological drama, set in the south London suburbs, which vividly reveals the limited horizons of Forester’s characters … In 1935, when the novel was written, women’s lives were still dominated by men. Forester’s portrait of an abusive marriage is brutally frank"
06/11/2011
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The Times
Marcel Berlins
"The plot is simple but skilfully paced and teeming with the atmosphere of its time."
22/10/2011
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The Daily Mail
Val Hennessy
"The 1930s domestic detail is fascinating, the wife expected to wait on husband hand and foot, to shop, cook, dust, clean, be ordered about, to expect no life outside the home and to lose her children if she divorces. Murder, lust, obsession, retribution, they’re all here."
10/11/2011
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