Rear Window

by Cornell Woolrich

The story that inspired the Alfred Hitchcock film masterpiece! Cornell Woolrich. His name represents steamy, suspenseful fiction, chilling encounters on the dark and sultry landscape of urban America in the 1930s and 1940s. Here, in this special collection, are his classic thrilers, including 'Rear Window', the story of Hal Jeffries who, trapped in his apartment because of a broken leg, takes to watching his neighbours through his rear window, and becomes certain that one of those neighbours is a murderer. Also included are such haunting, heart-stopping tales as those involving a man who finds his wife buried alive; a girl trapped with a deranged murderer who likes to knife his victims while dancing; and a woman seizing her chance to escape a sadistic husband, only to find her dream go terrifyingly wrong.

Rear window --
I won't take a minute --
Speak to me of death --
The dancing detective --
The light in the window --
The corpse next door --
You'll never see me again --
The screaming laugh --
Dead on her feet --
Waltz --
The book that squealed --
Death escapes the eye --
For the rest of her life

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories, Noir, Classics, Crime, Thriller

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1942

About the author

Cornell Woolrich is widely regarded as the twentieth century’s finest writer of pure suspense fiction. The author of numerous classic novels and short stories (many of which were turned into classic films) such as Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Waltz Into Darkness, and I Married a Dead Man, Woolrich began his career in the 1920s writing mainstream novels that won him comparisons to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The bulk of his best-known work, however, was written in the field of crime fiction, often appearing serialized in pulp magazines or as paperback novels. Because he was prolific, he found it necessary to publish under multiple pseudonyms, including "William Irish" and "George Hopley" [...] Woolrich lived a life as dark and emotionally tortured as any of his unfortunate characters and died, alone, in a seedy Manhattan hotel room following the amputation of a gangrenous leg. Upon his death, he left a bequest of one million dollars to Columbia University, to fund a scholarship for young writers.

Source: [http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books_bi...]

Reviews

[Mcabeu · Rating 4 out of 5]

El protagonista del relat «La finestra indiscreta» té una cama enguixada que li impedeix sortir de casa i s’entreté mirant des de la finestra del seu pis als veïns del bloc del davant. Aquest passatemps ‘innocent’ es complica quan creu observar un assassinat i, com que la policia no l’acaba de creure, intenta obtenir-ne alguna prova. Fent que la trama s’enredi cada cop més, l’autor aconsegueix que la intensitat del text vagi creixent progressivament fins a arribar a un final gairebé d’infart que, tot i ser una mica el que t’esperes, no decep gens i fa que sigui un relat molt rodó que m’ha semblat molt ben escrit.

Aquest llibre recull un total de vuit contes de l’autor escrits entre 1935 i 1967 que són, en conjunt, un bon exemple de literatura negra clàssica. Woolrich planteja unes històries, en principi, quotidianes, però que a mesura que avancen van abandonant aquesta aparent ‘normalitat’ per a deixar pas al crim i el drama, amb el gran mèrit d’aconseguir mantenir en tot moment el suspens que provoca que no puguis deixar de llegir fins a arribar al desenllaç i saber com se ‘soluciona’ cada cas. A més del relat que va inspirar la pel·lícula de Hitchcock, vull destacar també «Los ojos que vigilan» que planteja la denúncia i la resolució d'un crim familiar per part d'una anciana tetraplègica que només pot moure els ulls i «Cocaína» que explica com un individu que creu haver comès un assassinat sota els efectes de la droga intenta esbrinar si és innocent o culpable. Aquests serien el meu top-3 del llibre, però tot el recull en conjunt val molt la pena i m’ho he passat molt bé llegint-lo.

RESSENYA AL BLOG: https://xarel-10.blogspot.com/2023/07...