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I Married a Dead Man
Pregnant, abandoned by her slimy husband and destitute, Helen Georgesson boards a train going west. In the crowded train car she meets happy newlyweds Patrice Hazzard, also expecting, and Hugh. They are on their way to visit Hugh’s parents, whom Patrice is meeting for the first time. After Patrice hands Helen her wedding band so she can wash her hands in the rest room, the train crashes, killing the Hazzards, but Helen survives. When she regains consciousness in the hospital, she discovers she has been mistaken for Patrice. Patrice’s wealthy in-laws send for Helen, and she decides for the sake of her son to go along with the misunderstanding. They welcome her into the fold and her “brother-in-law” Bill even shows signs of romantic interest. But when her husband tracks her down and threatens her with blackmail, her dream turns into a nightmare.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1948
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 234 reviews
October 31, 2018
I would have to term this one, as mentioned in the edition of the book I have, a Soap Opera noir. Even for Woolrich, this was an unusual work of suspense. For those who've read a lot of the great author's work it is fabulous, but others may have some difficulty getting into the style and flow. Once they do, they're hooked, but it can be jarring if you're used to the modern - and mundane - type of storytelling.
Woolrich places the reader into the mind of someone and you feel and experience the world and the situation from her perspective, as she takes the place of another and lives in fear. It is like an old-time melodrama where the tension is sustained throughout the narrative. Rich with moral complexity and psychology, Woolrich adds fabulous little moments of insight. One such moment occurs when the girl in question is called to supper. It floods her heart with a feeling of acceptance, because supper is a term used informally, with family; only when we dine with others, or go out in the evening, does it become dinner.
The premise is simple, the execution extremely difficult. Perhaps only Woolrich could have written something like this and made it work. A mesmerizing read for Woolrich fans, but most definitely not the book I'd recommend as your first exposure to this great author, who in my opinion, eclipsed all others of suspense. Definitely give The Bride Wore Black a read first, and though it's longer, Deadline at Dawn, which I consider to be Woolrich at his finest, before tackling I Married a Dead Man. This one is a type of masterpiece to be sure, but a bit less accessible than the aforementioned. Not for all tastes.
Woolrich places the reader into the mind of someone and you feel and experience the world and the situation from her perspective, as she takes the place of another and lives in fear. It is like an old-time melodrama where the tension is sustained throughout the narrative. Rich with moral complexity and psychology, Woolrich adds fabulous little moments of insight. One such moment occurs when the girl in question is called to supper. It floods her heart with a feeling of acceptance, because supper is a term used informally, with family; only when we dine with others, or go out in the evening, does it become dinner.
The premise is simple, the execution extremely difficult. Perhaps only Woolrich could have written something like this and made it work. A mesmerizing read for Woolrich fans, but most definitely not the book I'd recommend as your first exposure to this great author, who in my opinion, eclipsed all others of suspense. Definitely give The Bride Wore Black a read first, and though it's longer, Deadline at Dawn, which I consider to be Woolrich at his finest, before tackling I Married a Dead Man. This one is a type of masterpiece to be sure, but a bit less accessible than the aforementioned. Not for all tastes.
October 20, 2022
In the 1930s and 40s, Cornell Woolrich was a prolific author of mystery and suspense novels, some of which were published under his own name and others of which were published under pseudonyms. A number of his books were adapted for the movies, most famously, Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," and in 1949, the Mystery Writers of America awarded Woolrich an Edgar for lifetime achievement.
Woolrich excelled at writing stories of psychological suspense in which the tension slowly mounted, until it nearly strangled the protagonist and, by extension, the reader who was suffering alongside him or her.
In this case, the protagonist is a young woman named Helen Georgesson, who is abandoned by her lover and left pregnant with only seventeen cents and a train ticket to California. On the train, though, fate intervenes when Helen meets a young newly-wedded couple who are on their to the husband's home so that the wife, Patrice Hazzard, who is also pregnant, can meet her wealthy in-laws for the first time.
Helen and Patrice strike up a brief friendship as people apparently did back in the day when meeting strangers on a long train ride. The two young women go to the restroom together where Helen admires Patrice's wedding ring and Patrice insists that Helen should try it on. Helen refuses, citing an old wives' tale to the effect that this would be bad luck. Patrice insists and Helen is proved to be right. The second she slips the ring on her finger, there's a terrible accident. The train is wrecked and both Patrice and her husband, Hugh, are killed.
A few days later, Helen wakes up in the hospital to discover that she has been mistaken for Patrice. Patrice's in-laws have swooped in to provide the woman they believe to be their son's widow with the best of care. Once "Patrice" is released from the hospital, they take her into their home, making her and the son she bears members of their family.
Helen, of course, is terribly conflicted. She is not Patrice, but maintaining the fiction would allow her and, more importantly her son, a life that she could have never managed on her own. But how long can she get away with it? Will her real past catch up with her? Will her new relatives, who are very kind and supportive, ultimately come to realize that she is not the woman they thought she was?
The premise underlying the plot is absurd and yet, in Woolrich's skillful hands, the reader happily suspends disbelief and goes along for the ride. The tension in the story is generated, for the most part, by Helen/Patrice herself as she becomes increasingly certain that she will be exposed, and page-by-page, the suspense becomes increasingly intense.
This book was filmed three different times, most notably in 1950 as "No Man of Her Own," starring Barbara Stanwyck who plays the role of Helen/Patrice brilliantly. This is a very good book, and the movie is also worth looking for if you are a fan of noir films.
Woolrich excelled at writing stories of psychological suspense in which the tension slowly mounted, until it nearly strangled the protagonist and, by extension, the reader who was suffering alongside him or her.
In this case, the protagonist is a young woman named Helen Georgesson, who is abandoned by her lover and left pregnant with only seventeen cents and a train ticket to California. On the train, though, fate intervenes when Helen meets a young newly-wedded couple who are on their to the husband's home so that the wife, Patrice Hazzard, who is also pregnant, can meet her wealthy in-laws for the first time.
Helen and Patrice strike up a brief friendship as people apparently did back in the day when meeting strangers on a long train ride. The two young women go to the restroom together where Helen admires Patrice's wedding ring and Patrice insists that Helen should try it on. Helen refuses, citing an old wives' tale to the effect that this would be bad luck. Patrice insists and Helen is proved to be right. The second she slips the ring on her finger, there's a terrible accident. The train is wrecked and both Patrice and her husband, Hugh, are killed.
A few days later, Helen wakes up in the hospital to discover that she has been mistaken for Patrice. Patrice's in-laws have swooped in to provide the woman they believe to be their son's widow with the best of care. Once "Patrice" is released from the hospital, they take her into their home, making her and the son she bears members of their family.
Helen, of course, is terribly conflicted. She is not Patrice, but maintaining the fiction would allow her and, more importantly her son, a life that she could have never managed on her own. But how long can she get away with it? Will her real past catch up with her? Will her new relatives, who are very kind and supportive, ultimately come to realize that she is not the woman they thought she was?
The premise underlying the plot is absurd and yet, in Woolrich's skillful hands, the reader happily suspends disbelief and goes along for the ride. The tension in the story is generated, for the most part, by Helen/Patrice herself as she becomes increasingly certain that she will be exposed, and page-by-page, the suspense becomes increasingly intense.
This book was filmed three different times, most notably in 1950 as "No Man of Her Own," starring Barbara Stanwyck who plays the role of Helen/Patrice brilliantly. This is a very good book, and the movie is also worth looking for if you are a fan of noir films.
June 17, 2017
This first edition hardcover has the original $2.75 price on the dust jacket and is marked "First Edition" on the copyright page.
I read this book in the Centipede Books edition.
I read this book in the Centipede Books edition.
December 6, 2023
2/2017
I read I Married a Dead Man several years ago in the Library of America's Crime Novels of the 1930s & 40s. I had never read anything by Cornell Woolrich before, and apparently it incited in me a drive to read everything by him I could get my hands on. So I was curious to examine this again.
I believe, in this, I was attracted to Woolrich's detached, fable-like writing and the way this mixes with melodrama of almost cheesy sentimentality. And all with a edgy darkness, often literal. He does standout. Yes, there is often a clumsy convenience to his plots, but isn't that part of the weird fableness?
And, now I know that for a writer considered significant to the development of noir, Woolrich writes often from a female perspective. This and the Black Angel, also Night Has a Thousand Eyes and Deadline at Dawn. Like I said, he is extraordinary.
(July 2010):
Gothic soap-opera noir. I loved it. Cornell Woolrich (aka William Irish) divine? I loved the way the train crash scene was written.
I read I Married a Dead Man several years ago in the Library of America's Crime Novels of the 1930s & 40s. I had never read anything by Cornell Woolrich before, and apparently it incited in me a drive to read everything by him I could get my hands on. So I was curious to examine this again.
I believe, in this, I was attracted to Woolrich's detached, fable-like writing and the way this mixes with melodrama of almost cheesy sentimentality. And all with a edgy darkness, often literal. He does standout. Yes, there is often a clumsy convenience to his plots, but isn't that part of the weird fableness?
And, now I know that for a writer considered significant to the development of noir, Woolrich writes often from a female perspective. This and the Black Angel, also Night Has a Thousand Eyes and Deadline at Dawn. Like I said, he is extraordinary.
(July 2010):
Gothic soap-opera noir. I loved it. Cornell Woolrich (aka William Irish) divine? I loved the way the train crash scene was written.
March 20, 2022
"I don't know what the game was. I only know its name; they call it life."
Cornell Woolrich, writing as William Irish, sets up a gripping albeit implausible domestic conundrum and milks it for maximum suspense and drama. Woolrich fought his own demons and his writing style reflects his anguish and misery to a degree that some readers find unpalatable. Good luck finding a dead tree copy of this gem at a reasonable price.
Cornell Woolrich, writing as William Irish, sets up a gripping albeit implausible domestic conundrum and milks it for maximum suspense and drama. Woolrich fought his own demons and his writing style reflects his anguish and misery to a degree that some readers find unpalatable. Good luck finding a dead tree copy of this gem at a reasonable price.
December 26, 2015
I just ran across this first edition of "I Married a Dead Man" in a box of books I had put into the back room perhaps ten or so years ago. The book is J. B. Lippincott Company, A Story Press Book, copyright 1948. Stated First Edition.
The book still had the sales receipt in the back and it seems that I paid $2.98 for the book at a used book store.
What a pleasant surprise.
The book still had the sales receipt in the back and it seems that I paid $2.98 for the book at a used book store.
What a pleasant surprise.
December 27, 2022
"There's no way out. We're caught, we're trapped. The circle viciously completes itself each time, and we're on the inside, can't break through. For if he's innocent, then it has to be me. And if I am, it has to be he. But I know I'm innocent. (Yet he may know he is too.) There is no way out."
William Irish's novel starts with a couple wondering who committed a murder. Which one of them is guilty? The question is eating away at their minds. Can their relationship stand the stress of not knowing the truth?
The book then goes back to a day a year earlier when Helen was traveling by train from New York City to her hometown. She's unmarried, eight months pregnant, and has been abandoned by her boyfriend. She became friendly with Patrice, a pregnant woman who was traveling on the train with her husband to meet her husband's wealthy parents for the first time.
There was a horrific train accident which killed Patrice and her husband. While Helen was recovering from some severe injuries, the medical workers mistakenly thought she was Patrice and that her newborn baby was the grandson of a wealthy couple. She was warmly welcomed into their family. Things were going well until she got a scary note from someone from her past. She was terrified that her deception would be revealed.
"I Married a Dead Man" is a noir read published in 1948. It has strong psychological elements including fear, guilt, and paranoia. The book is a fast paced, suspenseful novel set in a late 1940s atmosphere.
William Irish's novel starts with a couple wondering who committed a murder. Which one of them is guilty? The question is eating away at their minds. Can their relationship stand the stress of not knowing the truth?
The book then goes back to a day a year earlier when Helen was traveling by train from New York City to her hometown. She's unmarried, eight months pregnant, and has been abandoned by her boyfriend. She became friendly with Patrice, a pregnant woman who was traveling on the train with her husband to meet her husband's wealthy parents for the first time.
There was a horrific train accident which killed Patrice and her husband. While Helen was recovering from some severe injuries, the medical workers mistakenly thought she was Patrice and that her newborn baby was the grandson of a wealthy couple. She was warmly welcomed into their family. Things were going well until she got a scary note from someone from her past. She was terrified that her deception would be revealed.
"I Married a Dead Man" is a noir read published in 1948. It has strong psychological elements including fear, guilt, and paranoia. The book is a fast paced, suspenseful novel set in a late 1940s atmosphere.
March 17, 2022
[7/10]
I don’t know what the game was. I only know its name; they call it life.
I’m not sure how it should be played. No one ever told me. No one ever tells anybody. I only know we must have played it wrong. We broke some rule or other along the way, and never knew it at the time.
When it come to mental stress, Cornell Woolrich is among the best writers of the noir Golden Age [with a possible partner in crime in David Goodis]. Re-reading his biographical notes before starting my review, it seems clear to me that the author knew a lot about anguish and depression and hard knocks from Fate. That’s why he makes this implacable foe the central character of his stories, as opposed to the gumshoe approach of hard fists and smart talk from the more action oriented crime novels of the period.
Your story is there waiting for you, it had been waiting for you there a hundred years, long before you were born, and you cannot change a comma of it. Everything you do, you have to do. You are the twig, and the water you float on swept you here. You are the leaf and the breeze you were borne on blew you here. This is your story, and you cannot escape it, you are only the player, not the stage manager. Or so some say.
Woolrich is a master of the lurid phrase, steering extremely close to the border of purple prose yet somehow managing to create powerful, disturbing, convincing portraits of people on the edge of madness, or of murder. This talent of his to communicate the distress of his characters was what kept me reading the present novel, despite some early misgivings about the heavy brush of melodrama in the set-up.
The first chapters reminded me more of a Victorian sob story intended to melt the heart and wrench a tear form the audience, a sort of Dickens without the sense of humour and the satirical angle. A young woman in New York, eight months pregnant and destitute, is trying to contact the man who seduced her, but all she gets is a train ticket back to California and five dollars to shut up and get lost. I didn’t much care for the premise, but check out how Woolrich introduces us to this woman alone in a telephone booth at night:
She was like a doll propped upright in its gift-box, and with one side of the box left off, to allow the contents to be seen. A worn doll. A leftover, marked-down doll, with no bright ribbons or tissue wrappings. A doll with no donor and no recipient. A doll no one bothered to claim.
The woman, whose name I deliberately left out, boards the train back to California, and by a high-handed intervention from Fate she survives a terrible crash only to be confused with another young pregnant woman that she met that night. Should she confess the error in identity or should she grab this second chance for her and for her new-born boy to escape into a new life?
With only seventeen cents in her pocket, the choice seems obvious. She becomes Patrice Hazzard , the name of the victim, and goes to the small town of Caulfield where her rich in-laws are grateful to greet her and their nephew after their son and the husband of the real Patrice died in the same train disaster. But will the woman be able to impersonate the real Patrice? Can she deceive the family with a clean conscience? Will she be tripped into a confession by her own ignorance of the past of the woman and of the dead husband? The mental torment is about to begin in earnest, and the idyllic setting of Caulfield, the generosity and the tact of the Hazzards will only exacerbate the darkness that gathers around Patrice. Even a budding love affair with the younger brother of her pretend dead husband fails to calm her nerves.
The summer nights are so pleasant in Caulfield. They smell of heliotrope, of jasmine, and of clover. The stars are warm and close above us. The breeze is gentle as a baby’s kiss. The soothing whisper of the leafy trees, the lamplight falling on the lawns, the hush of perfect peace and security.
But not for us.
... and then things truly take a turn for the worst, as a ghost from the past comes to make demands on Patrice, threatening to reveal her duplicity. Around the halfway mark of the novel, the melodrama flavour of the text becomes true noir and the patient reader becomes glued to the page.
Outside, the street-lights went spinning by like glowing bowls coming toward her down a bowling alley. But each shot was a miss, they went alternately too far out to this side, to far out to that. With herself and the car, the kingpin in the middle that they never knocked down.
She thought: That must be Fate, bowling against me. But I don’t care, let them come.
Then the car stopped again. So easy it was to go forth to kill a man.
>>><<<>>><<<
This is not my favourite novel from Woolrich. The crime scene lacks credibility, being arranged deliberately to muddle the facts of the case, to fit the pre-determined ending that the author hinted at right from the prologue. But I truly admire the style of the presentation.
The day wasn’t just bitter now. The day was ashes, lying all around her, cold and crumbled and consumed. No use for pinks and blues and yellows to try to tint it, like watercolors lightly applied from some celestial palette; no use. It was dead. And she was sitting there beside its bier.
I don’t know what the game was. I only know its name; they call it life.
I’m not sure how it should be played. No one ever told me. No one ever tells anybody. I only know we must have played it wrong. We broke some rule or other along the way, and never knew it at the time.
When it come to mental stress, Cornell Woolrich is among the best writers of the noir Golden Age [with a possible partner in crime in David Goodis]. Re-reading his biographical notes before starting my review, it seems clear to me that the author knew a lot about anguish and depression and hard knocks from Fate. That’s why he makes this implacable foe the central character of his stories, as opposed to the gumshoe approach of hard fists and smart talk from the more action oriented crime novels of the period.
Your story is there waiting for you, it had been waiting for you there a hundred years, long before you were born, and you cannot change a comma of it. Everything you do, you have to do. You are the twig, and the water you float on swept you here. You are the leaf and the breeze you were borne on blew you here. This is your story, and you cannot escape it, you are only the player, not the stage manager. Or so some say.
Woolrich is a master of the lurid phrase, steering extremely close to the border of purple prose yet somehow managing to create powerful, disturbing, convincing portraits of people on the edge of madness, or of murder. This talent of his to communicate the distress of his characters was what kept me reading the present novel, despite some early misgivings about the heavy brush of melodrama in the set-up.
The first chapters reminded me more of a Victorian sob story intended to melt the heart and wrench a tear form the audience, a sort of Dickens without the sense of humour and the satirical angle. A young woman in New York, eight months pregnant and destitute, is trying to contact the man who seduced her, but all she gets is a train ticket back to California and five dollars to shut up and get lost. I didn’t much care for the premise, but check out how Woolrich introduces us to this woman alone in a telephone booth at night:
She was like a doll propped upright in its gift-box, and with one side of the box left off, to allow the contents to be seen. A worn doll. A leftover, marked-down doll, with no bright ribbons or tissue wrappings. A doll with no donor and no recipient. A doll no one bothered to claim.
The woman, whose name I deliberately left out, boards the train back to California, and by a high-handed intervention from Fate she survives a terrible crash only to be confused with another young pregnant woman that she met that night. Should she confess the error in identity or should she grab this second chance for her and for her new-born boy to escape into a new life?
With only seventeen cents in her pocket, the choice seems obvious. She becomes Patrice Hazzard , the name of the victim, and goes to the small town of Caulfield where her rich in-laws are grateful to greet her and their nephew after their son and the husband of the real Patrice died in the same train disaster. But will the woman be able to impersonate the real Patrice? Can she deceive the family with a clean conscience? Will she be tripped into a confession by her own ignorance of the past of the woman and of the dead husband? The mental torment is about to begin in earnest, and the idyllic setting of Caulfield, the generosity and the tact of the Hazzards will only exacerbate the darkness that gathers around Patrice. Even a budding love affair with the younger brother of her pretend dead husband fails to calm her nerves.
The summer nights are so pleasant in Caulfield. They smell of heliotrope, of jasmine, and of clover. The stars are warm and close above us. The breeze is gentle as a baby’s kiss. The soothing whisper of the leafy trees, the lamplight falling on the lawns, the hush of perfect peace and security.
But not for us.
... and then things truly take a turn for the worst, as a ghost from the past comes to make demands on Patrice, threatening to reveal her duplicity. Around the halfway mark of the novel, the melodrama flavour of the text becomes true noir and the patient reader becomes glued to the page.
Outside, the street-lights went spinning by like glowing bowls coming toward her down a bowling alley. But each shot was a miss, they went alternately too far out to this side, to far out to that. With herself and the car, the kingpin in the middle that they never knocked down.
She thought: That must be Fate, bowling against me. But I don’t care, let them come.
Then the car stopped again. So easy it was to go forth to kill a man.
>>><<<>>><<<
This is not my favourite novel from Woolrich. The crime scene lacks credibility, being arranged deliberately to muddle the facts of the case, to fit the pre-determined ending that the author hinted at right from the prologue. But I truly admire the style of the presentation.
The day wasn’t just bitter now. The day was ashes, lying all around her, cold and crumbled and consumed. No use for pinks and blues and yellows to try to tint it, like watercolors lightly applied from some celestial palette; no use. It was dead. And she was sitting there beside its bier.
September 24, 2022
Noir In The California Suburbs
Written in 1948, "I Married a Dead Man" by Cornell Woolrich (1903 -- 1968) is a noir novel of suspense and murder. The book is much more than formulaic genre writing as Woolrich explores themes of guilt, loneliness, and personal identity. The pacing of the story changes masterfully with the various twists in the story. The book shows the variety of settings that can be used for noir. Rather than isolated small towns and back roads or the underside of large cities, Woolrich places his story in an upper-middle class California town called Caufield.
The primary character is a young woman named Helen, 19. Woolrich does not reveal her birth surname. Born in San Francisco to a poor, broken family, the naive young woman travels to New York City where she meets and becomes pregnant by a caddish gambler, Steve Georgesson. who crudely leaves her a one-way train ticket back to her home together with $5.00 cash.
On the train, Helen befriends a young couple, Hugh and his pregnant wife Patrice. When the train derails, killing Hugh and Patrice and resulting in Helen's premature delivery, Helen becomes mistaken for Patrice and reluctantly assumes her identity, as she is welcomed into the family by Hugh's parents and Hugh's younger brother Bill in their comfortable near-idyllic Caufield home.
The book describes Helen's discomfiture at living a lie. Bill falls in love with her. Georgesson has kept track of Helen's whereabouts. He attempts to blackmail Helen with the threat of revealing her identity, which leads to the murder and to the tangled denouement of the story.
The plotting may have its questionable elements, but Woolrich is much more interested in exploring the nature of guilt, deceit, and their consequences. Besides creating an atmosphere of tension and disorientation, Woolrich's third person narrative voice (in most of the book) offers many sidelong observations about his characters and the consequences of their action. The "dead man" of the title assumes a metaphorical character as the lovers Helen (Patrice) and Bill become dead to each other through guilt and shame. In many respects, "I Married a Dead Man" is an almost religious novel (without a clear God) about sin and its consequences. I found it riveting, thoughtful, and heartbreaking.
Woolrich was a prolific noir writer whose other works include the story "Rear Window." His novel was the basis for a 1950 film "No Man of her Own" starring Barbara Stanwyk. In 1996, another much looser film adaptation of Woolrich's novel appeared, titled, "Mrs. Winterbourne." "I Married a Dead Man" is available in a stand-alone edition and in the Library of America's volume of classic noir, "Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s". In its portrayal of guilt and rootlessness, it is a small American classic.
Robin Friedman
Written in 1948, "I Married a Dead Man" by Cornell Woolrich (1903 -- 1968) is a noir novel of suspense and murder. The book is much more than formulaic genre writing as Woolrich explores themes of guilt, loneliness, and personal identity. The pacing of the story changes masterfully with the various twists in the story. The book shows the variety of settings that can be used for noir. Rather than isolated small towns and back roads or the underside of large cities, Woolrich places his story in an upper-middle class California town called Caufield.
The primary character is a young woman named Helen, 19. Woolrich does not reveal her birth surname. Born in San Francisco to a poor, broken family, the naive young woman travels to New York City where she meets and becomes pregnant by a caddish gambler, Steve Georgesson. who crudely leaves her a one-way train ticket back to her home together with $5.00 cash.
On the train, Helen befriends a young couple, Hugh and his pregnant wife Patrice. When the train derails, killing Hugh and Patrice and resulting in Helen's premature delivery, Helen becomes mistaken for Patrice and reluctantly assumes her identity, as she is welcomed into the family by Hugh's parents and Hugh's younger brother Bill in their comfortable near-idyllic Caufield home.
The book describes Helen's discomfiture at living a lie. Bill falls in love with her. Georgesson has kept track of Helen's whereabouts. He attempts to blackmail Helen with the threat of revealing her identity, which leads to the murder and to the tangled denouement of the story.
The plotting may have its questionable elements, but Woolrich is much more interested in exploring the nature of guilt, deceit, and their consequences. Besides creating an atmosphere of tension and disorientation, Woolrich's third person narrative voice (in most of the book) offers many sidelong observations about his characters and the consequences of their action. The "dead man" of the title assumes a metaphorical character as the lovers Helen (Patrice) and Bill become dead to each other through guilt and shame. In many respects, "I Married a Dead Man" is an almost religious novel (without a clear God) about sin and its consequences. I found it riveting, thoughtful, and heartbreaking.
Woolrich was a prolific noir writer whose other works include the story "Rear Window." His novel was the basis for a 1950 film "No Man of her Own" starring Barbara Stanwyk. In 1996, another much looser film adaptation of Woolrich's novel appeared, titled, "Mrs. Winterbourne." "I Married a Dead Man" is available in a stand-alone edition and in the Library of America's volume of classic noir, "Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s". In its portrayal of guilt and rootlessness, it is a small American classic.
Robin Friedman
January 15, 2020
Tensione, ansia. Vivere nella menzogna è un inferno.
Eccellente Woolrich.
Eccellente Woolrich.
December 7, 2022
With that typical and healthy dose of contrivance that is expected in 40s noir, unmarried and pregnant woman, Helen, fleeing an abusive relationship is injured in a train crash whilst in the bathroom with another pregnant woman she has befriended, Patrice, and mistaken for her by the dead woman’s grieving in-laws, who had actually not met their daughter-in-law. In the same accident they have also lost their son, so she is warmly embraced and taken on as their child.
So all’s well.. far from it, of course, as the apparent happily-ever-after scenario is strewn with anxiety, and turned on its head. As things begin to settle down Helen-now-Patrice fluffs her lines on several occasions, for example, by signing the wrong name. All is not so well.
This remains a highly entertaining read and has stood any test of time with few problems. Yet it is very much of it’s day. Such a plot would not have been attempted twenty years later as it relies of a lack of documentation.
Speaking with a purely selfish slant of wanting to be entertained, it’s a pity.
Those orchestrated plots featuring high levels of engineering are much missed, and a big reason why the film and literary noir of the 40s and 50s is still so much loved.
So all’s well.. far from it, of course, as the apparent happily-ever-after scenario is strewn with anxiety, and turned on its head. As things begin to settle down Helen-now-Patrice fluffs her lines on several occasions, for example, by signing the wrong name. All is not so well.
This remains a highly entertaining read and has stood any test of time with few problems. Yet it is very much of it’s day. Such a plot would not have been attempted twenty years later as it relies of a lack of documentation.
Speaking with a purely selfish slant of wanting to be entertained, it’s a pity.
Those orchestrated plots featuring high levels of engineering are much missed, and a big reason why the film and literary noir of the 40s and 50s is still so much loved.
October 11, 2015
Easily my favorite book in the collection. Melodradramatic as hell, but I could hardly put it down. Woolrich builds suspense, menace and character empathy like the best noir author, but there is something so simple and almost sweet about this tragic little tale that elevates it for me. The ending was classic and ambiguous and Excellent.
Read in Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s & 40s collection from the library.
Read in Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s & 40s collection from the library.
December 17, 2013
Cornell Woolrich is one of the glories of American noir literature. And I Married a Dead Man is one of his best books. Unless you've spent the last half century cowering under your bed, you've heard of such films as The Bride Wore Black, Rear Window, Phantom Lady, The Leopard Man, and Mississippi Mermaid. Not once, not twice, but scores of times, Woolrich's stories have been turned into films.
I Married a Dead Man tells the story of an abandoned young pregnant woman who takes a cross-country train trip, on which she meets a pair of newlyweds the wife of whom is likewise pregnant. The train derails, but not before Patrice Hazzard asks Helen Georgesson to try on her wedding ring. Both the real Patrice and her husband perish in the wreck, but Helen awakes in a hospital with the ring still on her finger. It turned out that the dead Hazzards came from a rich family which thinks that Helen -- whom they had never met -- and her newly delivered infant son are all that is left of their family.
Helen decides to act the part of Patrice, though not without a sense of dread. Sure enough, complications begin to emerge. First, the late Hugh Hazzard's brother Bill falls in love with "Patrice"; and the lowlife who had seduced and abandoned Helen figures out what happened and comes a-blackmailing.
The blackmailer is killed -- but by whom? "Patrice" thinks she did it. Bill says he did it. The dying Mrs. Hazzard, his mother, writes a legal confession that she did it.
Despite the absence of any legal pursuit, the thought of murder begins to wear away at Bill and "Patrice's" relationship. This is an interesting twist, as pure guilt and the sense of mutual recrimination is so horrible of and by itself.
Woolrich writes his novel with a deft hand and a brilliant style, such as when "Patrice" is driving with the intent to confront her blackmailer:
I Married a Dead Man tells the story of an abandoned young pregnant woman who takes a cross-country train trip, on which she meets a pair of newlyweds the wife of whom is likewise pregnant. The train derails, but not before Patrice Hazzard asks Helen Georgesson to try on her wedding ring. Both the real Patrice and her husband perish in the wreck, but Helen awakes in a hospital with the ring still on her finger. It turned out that the dead Hazzards came from a rich family which thinks that Helen -- whom they had never met -- and her newly delivered infant son are all that is left of their family.
Helen decides to act the part of Patrice, though not without a sense of dread. Sure enough, complications begin to emerge. First, the late Hugh Hazzard's brother Bill falls in love with "Patrice"; and the lowlife who had seduced and abandoned Helen figures out what happened and comes a-blackmailing.
The blackmailer is killed -- but by whom? "Patrice" thinks she did it. Bill says he did it. The dying Mrs. Hazzard, his mother, writes a legal confession that she did it.
Despite the absence of any legal pursuit, the thought of murder begins to wear away at Bill and "Patrice's" relationship. This is an interesting twist, as pure guilt and the sense of mutual recrimination is so horrible of and by itself.
Woolrich writes his novel with a deft hand and a brilliant style, such as when "Patrice" is driving with the intent to confront her blackmailer:
Outside, the street-lights went spinning by like glowing bowls coming toward her down a bowling-alley. But each shot was a miss, they went alternately too far out to this side, too far out to that. With herself and the car, the kingpin in the middle that they never knocked down.I think it is time that Woolrich and the other great noir writers of the Thirties and Forties -- men like James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, Edward Anderson, Kenneth Fearing, and William Lindsay Gresham -- be recognized side by side with the academic standards of the same period.
She thought. That must be fate, bowling against me. But I don't care, let them come.
February 4, 2021
I first read I Married a Dead Man by Cornell Woolrich some ten years ago in Chinese, then later read it again in English, then this year I re-read it in Chinese and it's still a fine tale of suspense and romance, with a nice plot twist at the very end. No wonder people call Mr. Woolrich the master of romance-noir, alongside James M. Cain!
Plus, you know it must be true love when a guy is
Longer review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Plus, you know it must be true love when a guy is
Longer review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
February 28, 2024
Una novela del género negro psicológico.
En el inicio la voz que narra es la de una mujer desesperada que ha perdido toda esperanza aún cuando nos cuenta tiene un hijo y un esposo que ama. Como si fuera una sentencia que ella misma emite dice:
“No sé cuál fue el juego. Sólo sé su nombre; le llaman vida. No estoy segura de cómo debe jugarse. Nadie me lo dijo jamás. Nadie se lo dice jamás a nadie. Lo único que sé es que nosotros debimos haber jugado mal. Hemos quebrantado una u otra regla, sin que nos diéramos cuenta en el momento. Hemos perdido.”
Con estas crípticas palabras se cierra el capítulo y comenzamos una historia que está en retrospectiva, es decir, todo ya está consumado.
Hay dos mujeres que son el centro de todo, una llamada Helen y otra llamada Patricia que no tienen casi nada en común, más que la edad y que están embarazadas, las dos suben a un tren.
A partir de aquí parte la historia que se va volviendo problemática, azarosa y destinada al fracaso.
Este cruce de destinos en un tren se vuelve un viaje dramático, la vida de estas dos mujeres entra a una bifurcación donde las opciones son tan abrumadoras que cambiarán la ruta de sus vidas.
Una de las protagonistas es el tipo de personaje que a mi me da mucho trabajo leer, es timorata, pesimista, dramática, destinada a sufrir como si todos los reveses de la vida fueran medallas que va coleccionando, además al tomar sus decisiones lo hace siempre disculpándose y sintiéndose culpable, es decir, no es capaz de asumir las consecuencias y salir adelante, sino le gusta caerse en el lodo y literal bañarse en el.
Es de esas historias que ya sabes en que acabará pero que tienes que acompañar a los personajes en todos los sufrimientos, meteduras de pata y fracasos que enfrentan, no puede faltar el personaje malo, ese que agarra a la protagonista endeble y la lleva más allá de la locura, presionándola, llevándola a límites más allá que un ser humano razonable aguantaría.
El punto bueno de la novela, es como el escritor es capaz de ir llevando la historia a un fuego muy lento, y vamos viendo el deterioro psicológico y psíquico de la protagonista, leer esta trama es ser un poco masoquista, aunque se entiende porque en cierto punto es adictiva.
El punto malo es qué hay un misterio que se da casi al final, pero queda sin resolver.
Recomendado para los que gusten de las historias con personajes dramáticos que se abandonan al destino, y que en lugar de salir a flote, se hunden cada vez un poco más.
En el inicio la voz que narra es la de una mujer desesperada que ha perdido toda esperanza aún cuando nos cuenta tiene un hijo y un esposo que ama. Como si fuera una sentencia que ella misma emite dice:
“No sé cuál fue el juego. Sólo sé su nombre; le llaman vida. No estoy segura de cómo debe jugarse. Nadie me lo dijo jamás. Nadie se lo dice jamás a nadie. Lo único que sé es que nosotros debimos haber jugado mal. Hemos quebrantado una u otra regla, sin que nos diéramos cuenta en el momento. Hemos perdido.”
Con estas crípticas palabras se cierra el capítulo y comenzamos una historia que está en retrospectiva, es decir, todo ya está consumado.
Hay dos mujeres que son el centro de todo, una llamada Helen y otra llamada Patricia que no tienen casi nada en común, más que la edad y que están embarazadas, las dos suben a un tren.
A partir de aquí parte la historia que se va volviendo problemática, azarosa y destinada al fracaso.
Este cruce de destinos en un tren se vuelve un viaje dramático, la vida de estas dos mujeres entra a una bifurcación donde las opciones son tan abrumadoras que cambiarán la ruta de sus vidas.
Una de las protagonistas es el tipo de personaje que a mi me da mucho trabajo leer, es timorata, pesimista, dramática, destinada a sufrir como si todos los reveses de la vida fueran medallas que va coleccionando, además al tomar sus decisiones lo hace siempre disculpándose y sintiéndose culpable, es decir, no es capaz de asumir las consecuencias y salir adelante, sino le gusta caerse en el lodo y literal bañarse en el.
Es de esas historias que ya sabes en que acabará pero que tienes que acompañar a los personajes en todos los sufrimientos, meteduras de pata y fracasos que enfrentan, no puede faltar el personaje malo, ese que agarra a la protagonista endeble y la lleva más allá de la locura, presionándola, llevándola a límites más allá que un ser humano razonable aguantaría.
El punto bueno de la novela, es como el escritor es capaz de ir llevando la historia a un fuego muy lento, y vamos viendo el deterioro psicológico y psíquico de la protagonista, leer esta trama es ser un poco masoquista, aunque se entiende porque en cierto punto es adictiva.
El punto malo es qué hay un misterio que se da casi al final, pero queda sin resolver.
Recomendado para los que gusten de las historias con personajes dramáticos que se abandonan al destino, y que en lugar de salir a flote, se hunden cada vez un poco más.
October 23, 2022
Một câu chuyện buồn với phần mở đầu vô cùng gây tò mò - một đôi nam nữ yêu nhau nhưng bị giằng vặt bởi một bí mật nào đó. Bí mật gì khiến họ sẽ không bao giờ được hạnh phúc? ⠀
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Mình bất ngờ, không phải vì những cú ngoặt lắt léo, hay vì nhân vật quá đặc sắc. Truyện mang motif khá quen thuộc, đọc nhiều bạn sẽ thấy, kết cục thường sẽ đau thương và ít nhiều khiến nhân vật chính bị giày vò. Cô gái đáng thương trong truyện tưởng chừng như đã được cứu vớt số phận lại bị lâm vào một cái bẫy không lỗi thoát. Cách duy nhất của cô, đúng vậy, không còn cách nào khác, là phải để tay nhuốm máu. ⠀
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Vậy nhưng tác giả khéo léo huých một c��i, làm mạch truyện dẫn sang một hướng khác, không phải là gây bất ngờ, mà chỉ đơn giản tạo một cái bẫy cảm xúc cho người đọc. Vâng, có lẽ cặp đôi trong truyện sẽ sống hạnh phúc mãi mãi, nhưng cách dẫn dắt truyện của tác giả làm chúng ta biết rằng, điều đó sẽ không xảy ra. Trong lòng các nhân vật sẽ luôn nhức nhối cái câu hỏi, Ai đã giết người?
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Mình bất ngờ, không phải vì những cú ngoặt lắt léo, hay vì nhân vật quá đặc sắc. Truyện mang motif khá quen thuộc, đọc nhiều bạn sẽ thấy, kết cục thường sẽ đau thương và ít nhiều khiến nhân vật chính bị giày vò. Cô gái đáng thương trong truyện tưởng chừng như đã được cứu vớt số phận lại bị lâm vào một cái bẫy không lỗi thoát. Cách duy nhất của cô, đúng vậy, không còn cách nào khác, là phải để tay nhuốm máu. ⠀
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Vậy nhưng tác giả khéo léo huých một c��i, làm mạch truyện dẫn sang một hướng khác, không phải là gây bất ngờ, mà chỉ đơn giản tạo một cái bẫy cảm xúc cho người đọc. Vâng, có lẽ cặp đôi trong truyện sẽ sống hạnh phúc mãi mãi, nhưng cách dẫn dắt truyện của tác giả làm chúng ta biết rằng, điều đó sẽ không xảy ra. Trong lòng các nhân vật sẽ luôn nhức nhối cái câu hỏi, Ai đã giết người?
June 23, 2015
Cornell Woolrich è uno dei più grandi giallisti americani. Ne ho lette tante delle sue storie crime, ma è questo il romanzo che me lo ha fatto adorare. HO SPOSATO UN'OMBRA ha saputo appassionarmi e coinvolgermi gradualmente. Il personaggio di Helen mi ha portata a guardare nell'incubo. È un giallo mozzafiato che si trasforma progressivamente in un thriller serrato dove niente è lasciato al caso. È la storia di come può essere complicato e pericoloso trasformarsi in qualcun altro.
Helen è una donna qualunque con tanti problemi, che di giorno in giorno arrivano a schiacciarla. Da sola, senza un soldo e con un figlio in arrivo, tutto quel che le rimane è un biglietto ferroviario per San Francisco, che qualcuno le ha dato per togliersi di torno. Ma è su quel treno che incontra il suo destino, sotto le sembianze di una coppia di sposini. Con la solare Patrice nasce una simpatia istintiva e le due diventano subito amiche. Poi il mondo va sottosopra. Accade uno spaventoso incidente. Tutto diventa buio e Helen si risveglia in un letto d'ospedale. La attendono tre notizie sconvolgenti: ha partorito negli istanti del disastro, i suoi compagni di viaggio sono morti e il nome della paziente sul suo cartellino è quello della sua nuova amica defunta. Decide di non denunciare lo scambio di persona e assume l'identità della defunta nella casa dei suoceri, che non hanno mai visto né incontrato la nuora. Presa questa decisione, il peggio per la sfortunata Helen-Patrice non è ancora passato. Si rende presto conto che non è il suo di passato a doverla preoccupare, ma quello della donna di cui ha rubato l'identità.
January 6, 2019
Điều đầu tiên khiến mình ấn tượng nhất khi bắt đầu đọc cuốn sách này, đó chính là chất văn mượt mà, giàu biểu cảm của bác Woolrich, với những câu văn đi sâu vào khám phá những ngóc ngách thầm kín nhất trong suy nghĩ và cảm nhận của nhân vật chính (và cũng nhiệt liệt khen ngợi dịch giả luôn, chuyển ngữ được như thế là quá tuyệt vời rồi ^^). Từ khi cô ấy là một cô gái bị bạn trai bỏ rơi, nghèo kiết xác (chỉ có 17 xu trong túi, cùng chiếc vé tàu hỏa một chiều), lại đang mang thai 8 tháng, sau đó bị nhận nhầm là con dâu nhà giàu sang, quyết định thuận theo sự nhầm lẫn này để kiếm cho mình và đứa con mới chào đời một mái ấm an toàn, đầy đủ; mặc cảm tội lỗi trước sự chào đón và tấm lòng hào phóng, rộng lượng của ba mẹ chồng giả; tình cảm mới nở dành cho người em chồng hờ; cho đến sự căng thẳng dồn nén cùng cảm giác nơm nớp lo sợ thân phận thật của mình bị phát hiện, nhất là khi tên bạn trai cũ quay trở về và tống tiền cô.
Tất cả những cung bậc cảm xúc ấy, những suy nghĩ sâu kín của nhân vật đó, đều được Woolrich miêu tả một cách chân thực và vô cùng tài tình. Chính những miêu tả tuyệt hay này đã góp phần tạo nên và đẩy cao bầu không khí giật gân, căng thẳng, khó đoán của câu chuyện, khi độc giả nhận ra mình đang lặng thầm ủng hộ cho mọi sự được hanh thông và an toàn đối với nhân vật nữ chính, khi chúng ta có thể dễ dàng đồng cảm với tình huống dường như bất lực của nữ chính trước tên bạn trai cũ hám tiền.
Và đúng với truyền thống viết truyện của bác Woolrich, sẽ luôn có một cú plot twist, dù to hay nhỏ, ở cuối truyện. Cá nhân mình thấy cuốn này không phải dạng quá ly kỳ, u ám như hai cuốn trước của bác mà mình đọc, là “Cô Dâu Đen” và “Ám Ảnh Đen”, vì thế cái plot twist của cuốn này cũng thuộc dạng vừa phải, nhưng theo mình là sẽ để lại nhiều dư âm và suy nghĩ hơn cho độc giả.
P.S.: Tự dưng mình thấy cốt truyện cuốn này có nét giống giống với bộ phim tình cảm hài lãng mạn “While You Were Sleeping” (của Mỹ chứ không phải TV series của Hàn nha :D), có Sandra Bullock đóng vai chính ^^ Dĩ nhiên là cốt truyện của bộ phim tình cảm hài này thì tươi sáng hơn rất rất nhiều so với cuốn sách này rồi, không có giết người, tống tiền gì sất :D Nhưng nếu bạn đã xem bộ phim này thì sẽ thấy có vài nét tương đồng đó, nhất là mọi chuyện cũng bắt đầu từ cái chuyện nhận nhầm người ha ha ha =)))))
Tất cả những cung bậc cảm xúc ấy, những suy nghĩ sâu kín của nhân vật đó, đều được Woolrich miêu tả một cách chân thực và vô cùng tài tình. Chính những miêu tả tuyệt hay này đã góp phần tạo nên và đẩy cao bầu không khí giật gân, căng thẳng, khó đoán của câu chuyện, khi độc giả nhận ra mình đang lặng thầm ủng hộ cho mọi sự được hanh thông và an toàn đối với nhân vật nữ chính, khi chúng ta có thể dễ dàng đồng cảm với tình huống dường như bất lực của nữ chính trước tên bạn trai cũ hám tiền.
Và đúng với truyền thống viết truyện của bác Woolrich, sẽ luôn có một cú plot twist, dù to hay nhỏ, ở cuối truyện. Cá nhân mình thấy cuốn này không phải dạng quá ly kỳ, u ám như hai cuốn trước của bác mà mình đọc, là “Cô Dâu Đen” và “Ám Ảnh Đen”, vì thế cái plot twist của cuốn này cũng thuộc dạng vừa phải, nhưng theo mình là sẽ để lại nhiều dư âm và suy nghĩ hơn cho độc giả.
P.S.: Tự dưng mình thấy cốt truyện cuốn này có nét giống giống với bộ phim tình cảm hài lãng mạn “While You Were Sleeping” (của Mỹ chứ không phải TV series của Hàn nha :D), có Sandra Bullock đóng vai chính ^^ Dĩ nhiên là cốt truyện của bộ phim tình cảm hài này thì tươi sáng hơn rất rất nhiều so với cuốn sách này rồi, không có giết người, tống tiền gì sất :D Nhưng nếu bạn đã xem bộ phim này thì sẽ thấy có vài nét tương đồng đó, nhất là mọi chuyện cũng bắt đầu từ cái chuyện nhận nhầm người ha ha ha =)))))
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November 10, 2024Mr. Woolrich, writing under the pen name William Irish, knows his craft: readable crime drama. Given a set of highly improbable coincidences, a pregnant and destitute Helen Georgesson survives a train wreck to assume the role of pregnant Patrice Hazzard, who perished along with her husband Hugh in the same accident. The couple were recently married in Paris, France, and were on their way to meet Hugh’s parents. The hospital incorrectly assumes Helen is Patrice, setting up the story line for Helen and her newborn to be welcomed into the Hazzard family home in Caulfield, as an aggrieved daughter-in-law. A romance develops between Helen, now Patrice, and Hugh’s brother, Bill. But Patrice is not in the clear. Stephen, the former derelict boyfriend, tracks Patrice down in Caulfield and begins a blackmail effort to position himself to capture a large portion of the Hazzard estate, which Patrice now stands to inherit along with Bill.
The plot captured my attention. And yet there were too many unbelievable occurrences to allow this book to sing effortlessly. Mr. Woolrich repeats a portion of the preface as postscript. He ends with thoughts from Patrice, “We’ve lost. And now the game is through.” What did they lose? I’m left confused.
The plot captured my attention. And yet there were too many unbelievable occurrences to allow this book to sing effortlessly. Mr. Woolrich repeats a portion of the preface as postscript. He ends with thoughts from Patrice, “We’ve lost. And now the game is through.” What did they lose? I’m left confused.
March 8, 2019
I had read this novel both in Chinese and then in English in the past, and in both times I had equally been impressed by what Cornell Woolrich could do with his plot twists, with the perfect noir atmosphere he'd created and the flawless, suspenseful dark romance between the male and the female lead. So here we have this intensive but scary romance between a man and a woman, with them both holding some secrets back from one another.
Plus it's an art form of its own kind to see Mr. Woolrich wrote his female characters! They feel so real with their own sensuality, inner strength and weakness; I just love it so much!
Plus it's an art form of its own kind to see Mr. Woolrich wrote his female characters! They feel so real with their own sensuality, inner strength and weakness; I just love it so much!
July 16, 2016
The tone is very 1940's. It brings to mind John O'Hara or Graham Greene, but not quite at their level. I really like the way Woolrich can pump up the drama, but this is probably not his best work.
July 30, 2020
I won’t go into too many particulars with the plot, but at the heart of Cornell Woolrich’s “I Married a Dead Man” is a case of mistaken identity that leads to one woman getting a new lease on life, a fresh start and the security she is looking for. I won’t belabor the point, but the novel goes much, much deeper than that, though.
As a reader, I felt so many things while reading this. I was emotionally drawn to Helen’s background and her story and her perspective, and she draws so much sympathy from the reader. I was paranoid once she takes over her new identity and meets her new family. I was tense and felt uncertain as the plot shifted in the second half of the book. And I was hopeful that she would find the safety she wanted.
I think one of the amazing things displayed in this book is that Woolrich can shift so many gears and wear so many hats as an author in presenting this novel. It’s amazing how Woolrich can shift the mood from heartfelt, to happy or sad, to paranoid, to claustrophobic, to loving, to sympathetic, to tense and anxiety-stricken in so many beats and pages. It’s a master craftsmanship really by Woolrich and the reader feels all these beats. He literally blends melodrama with psychological thriller, and it’s a master stroke of art and genius.
All praise aside, I would have preferred this book being one chapter—or two pages—less. Those being the last chapter, or the last two pages. I think it would have left a measured amount of ambiguity and conclusiveness to the book.
And, I do believe that Woolrich has a style all his own, and maybe some readers might not like it. He is not at all like modern novelists in his style. He has a flair for fatalism and the dramatics amid his works, and this reflects sometimes in his minimalist prose with sentences that are short, sparse, and sometimes choppy to add emphasis to a particular moment.
I Married a Dead Man has an odd blend: sentimentality and melodrama mixed with an aura of fatalism and darkness. There are poignant themes like acceptance and love, finding one’s place, or “home”, which counter with themes of “darkness”, “alienation” and “corrupt individuals” “good and evil” in the world. This odd dichotomy of contrasts work so aptly in Woolrich’s novel, and makes for a compelling read. I admit I was so hooked that I read the final one hundred or so pages in one setting because I had to find out how it ended, what fate pursued our heroine.
I guess I need to read some more Woolrich.
As a reader, I felt so many things while reading this. I was emotionally drawn to Helen’s background and her story and her perspective, and she draws so much sympathy from the reader. I was paranoid once she takes over her new identity and meets her new family. I was tense and felt uncertain as the plot shifted in the second half of the book. And I was hopeful that she would find the safety she wanted.
I think one of the amazing things displayed in this book is that Woolrich can shift so many gears and wear so many hats as an author in presenting this novel. It’s amazing how Woolrich can shift the mood from heartfelt, to happy or sad, to paranoid, to claustrophobic, to loving, to sympathetic, to tense and anxiety-stricken in so many beats and pages. It’s a master craftsmanship really by Woolrich and the reader feels all these beats. He literally blends melodrama with psychological thriller, and it’s a master stroke of art and genius.
All praise aside, I would have preferred this book being one chapter—or two pages—less. Those being the last chapter, or the last two pages. I think it would have left a measured amount of ambiguity and conclusiveness to the book.
And, I do believe that Woolrich has a style all his own, and maybe some readers might not like it. He is not at all like modern novelists in his style. He has a flair for fatalism and the dramatics amid his works, and this reflects sometimes in his minimalist prose with sentences that are short, sparse, and sometimes choppy to add emphasis to a particular moment.
I Married a Dead Man has an odd blend: sentimentality and melodrama mixed with an aura of fatalism and darkness. There are poignant themes like acceptance and love, finding one’s place, or “home”, which counter with themes of “darkness”, “alienation” and “corrupt individuals” “good and evil” in the world. This odd dichotomy of contrasts work so aptly in Woolrich’s novel, and makes for a compelling read. I admit I was so hooked that I read the final one hundred or so pages in one setting because I had to find out how it ended, what fate pursued our heroine.
I guess I need to read some more Woolrich.
February 2, 2022
I won’t go into too many particulars with the plot, but at the heart of Cornell Woolrich’s “I Married a Dead Man” is a case of mistaken identity that leads to one woman getting a new lease on life, a fresh start and the security she is looking for. I won’t belabor the point, but the novel goes much, much deeper than that, though.
As a reader, I felt so many things while reading this. I was emotionally drawn to Helen’s background and her story and her perspective, and she draws so much sympathy from the reader. I was paranoid once she takes over her new identity and meets her new family. I was tense and felt uncertain as the plot shifted in the second half of the book. And I was hopeful that she would find the safety she wanted.
I think one of the amazing things displayed in this book is that Woolrich can shift so many gears and wear so many hats as an author in presenting this novel. It’s amazing how Woolrich can shift the mood from heartfelt, to happy or sad, to paranoid, to claustrophobic, to loving, to sympathetic, to tense and anxiety-stricken in so many beats and pages. It’s a master craftsmanship really by Woolrich and the reader feels all these beats. He literally blends melodrama with psychological thriller, and it’s a master stroke of art and genius.
All praise aside, I would have preferred this book being one chapter—or two pages—less. Those being the last chapter, or the last two pages. I think it would have left a measured amount of ambiguity and conclusiveness to the book.
And, I do believe that Woolrich has a style all his own, and maybe some readers might not like it. He is not at all like modern novelists in his style. He has a flair for fatalism and the dramatics amid his works, and this reflects sometimes in his minimalist prose with sentences that are short, sparse, and sometimes choppy to add emphasis to a particular moment.
I Married a Dead Man has an odd blend: sentimentality and melodrama mixed with an aura of fatalism and darkness. There are poignant themes like acceptance and love, finding one’s place, or “home”, which counter with themes of “darkness”, “alienation” and “corrupt individuals” “good and evil” in the world. This odd dichotomy of contrasts work so aptly in Woolrich’s novel, and makes for a compelling read. I admit I was so hooked that I read the final one hundred or so pages in one setting because I had to find out how it ended, what fate pursued our heroine.
I guess I need to read some more Woolrich.
As a reader, I felt so many things while reading this. I was emotionally drawn to Helen’s background and her story and her perspective, and she draws so much sympathy from the reader. I was paranoid once she takes over her new identity and meets her new family. I was tense and felt uncertain as the plot shifted in the second half of the book. And I was hopeful that she would find the safety she wanted.
I think one of the amazing things displayed in this book is that Woolrich can shift so many gears and wear so many hats as an author in presenting this novel. It’s amazing how Woolrich can shift the mood from heartfelt, to happy or sad, to paranoid, to claustrophobic, to loving, to sympathetic, to tense and anxiety-stricken in so many beats and pages. It’s a master craftsmanship really by Woolrich and the reader feels all these beats. He literally blends melodrama with psychological thriller, and it’s a master stroke of art and genius.
All praise aside, I would have preferred this book being one chapter—or two pages—less. Those being the last chapter, or the last two pages. I think it would have left a measured amount of ambiguity and conclusiveness to the book.
And, I do believe that Woolrich has a style all his own, and maybe some readers might not like it. He is not at all like modern novelists in his style. He has a flair for fatalism and the dramatics amid his works, and this reflects sometimes in his minimalist prose with sentences that are short, sparse, and sometimes choppy to add emphasis to a particular moment.
I Married a Dead Man has an odd blend: sentimentality and melodrama mixed with an aura of fatalism and darkness. There are poignant themes like acceptance and love, finding one’s place, or “home”, which counter with themes of “darkness”, “alienation” and “corrupt individuals” “good and evil” in the world. This odd dichotomy of contrasts work so aptly in Woolrich’s novel, and makes for a compelling read. I admit I was so hooked that I read the final one hundred or so pages in one setting because I had to find out how it ended, what fate pursued our heroine.
I guess I need to read some more Woolrich.
August 12, 2021
By Cornell Woolrich (1903-68), originally written under the pseudonym "William Irish." The writing is highly mannered, stylized, rhetorical, and almost poetic. He uses repetition and detail to slow the pace to a painstaking crawl, heightening the tension till (in the last third or so) it's intolerable. The prose took some getting used to but then became invisible, leaving only the noticeable use of repetition: "I know that already. I've always known it. I think I've known it ever since the first few weeks." The plot is one that has been modified a number of times since (as in the movie While You Were Sleeping (1995)), but is so artfully done that there's no sense of having read it before. The mood is tense, somber, foreboding, as Woolrich manages to find darkness in salvation. A noir novel that has various warm and human moments interspersed with the paranoia, guilt, and fear that mark hell on earth.
July 22, 2021
Best one so far. Desperation, tragedy, and deceit meet decency, kindness, and generosity - all to be destroyed when the past rears its ugly head, and good intentions lead to inescapable misery. How could you not love it? And any writer who sees a cigarette being smoked in a dark doorway as a "red sequin" has my undying admiration.
Maybe Woolrich didn't know squat about babies (he never had any - thank goodness). But at least this time we get a woman with some actual emotions and thoughts and grit and guts, unlike some of his bloody-minded, sociopathic witches. The plot gets overly tricksy in the end - as his plots tend to do - but overall it's brimming with primal emotions of love and fear, and the writing crackles. Well done, Cornell!
Maybe Woolrich didn't know squat about babies (he never had any - thank goodness). But at least this time we get a woman with some actual emotions and thoughts and grit and guts, unlike some of his bloody-minded, sociopathic witches. The plot gets overly tricksy in the end - as his plots tend to do - but overall it's brimming with primal emotions of love and fear, and the writing crackles. Well done, Cornell!
July 23, 2023
I have a feeling that this novel probably works better in the original novella form it was published under. The book's first half is far more intriguing than the second -- in large part because Woolrich (here as William Irish) really embraces his oddities, offering bizarre and quite interesting asides on the likes of the bonds formed among strangers when traveling. But even with the promisingly bizarre premise of one pregnant woman mistaken for another (almost a riff on CHARLOTTE TEMPLE), I felt that Woolrich's ending was too easy given all the many other fun and promising twists in this otherwise enjoyable nutbar novel. I'm thinking that Woolrich was probably a better short story writer than a novel writer, but there's no question of his importance to noir.
April 20, 2021
I Married a Dead Man
by Cornell Woolrich
Helen is running away from a difficult situation. Impregnated by a callous man
Who gives her a train ticket and five dollar bill, she finds the train ride life changing moment. She is wrongly identified as a young bride Patrice Hazzard when there is a fatal train crash. Well things get sticky as she continues to live as the surviving “daughter-in-law. Bill, her "brother-in-law” fakes in love with her. Further complications arise when the man from her past tries blackmailing her. The author has written many, many books, but I am most familiar with a short story that became a Hitchcock movie “Rear Window”.
by Cornell Woolrich
Helen is running away from a difficult situation. Impregnated by a callous man
Who gives her a train ticket and five dollar bill, she finds the train ride life changing moment. She is wrongly identified as a young bride Patrice Hazzard when there is a fatal train crash. Well things get sticky as she continues to live as the surviving “daughter-in-law. Bill, her "brother-in-law” fakes in love with her. Further complications arise when the man from her past tries blackmailing her. The author has written many, many books, but I am most familiar with a short story that became a Hitchcock movie “Rear Window”.
May 26, 2020
Thanks to the film, "Mrs. Winterborn" I was expecting and preparing for this to be the cheesiest sort of romance novel... but, I was delighted to be completely wrong. I was particularly impressed with the fantastic noir plot and clever prose. I had a few construction issues, and the end didn't conclude nearly as much as I would have liked. But, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I'll definitely be looking for other Woolrich titles to read in the future.
October 26, 2015
The basis for my second favorite Stanwyck noir, NO MAN OF HER OWN (1950). Woolrich does not disappoint, but beyond that I will just say lovers of noir will enjoy this book hugely, all implausibilities aside.
June 30, 2021
A tale of deception and les. Love did abound and covered it all.
Patrice felt the pangs of guilt and Bill had more confidence.
The hardcover book was a reprint by Readers Digest an imprint of trusted Media Brands, Inc. 2019
Patrice felt the pangs of guilt and Bill had more confidence.
The hardcover book was a reprint by Readers Digest an imprint of trusted Media Brands, Inc. 2019
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