Author: Sarah Waters
First Published: by Virago, 2009
Audience: Adult
Rating: 2 stars
About: The Little Stranger follows the story of local Warwickshire GP, Dr. Faraday, as his post-war practise calls him to the mysterious, and slightly delapidated, Hundreds Hall. His life soon becomes closely intertwined with those of it's inhabitants: Mrs Ayres, her two grown-up children, Roderick and Caroline, and their dramatic young servant, Betty. However, soon strange things start happening at the house as the building, and the family, begin their rapid decline. But are these occurances purely psychological - as Dr. Faraday believes - or caused by some other paranormal force?
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT
"the sense of threat and strain had overspilled in his mind to the extent that even 'ordinary things'...seemed to be rising up against him."
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters was one of the novels I needed to read for my English Literature coursework, and if it hadn't been a necessity, I probably wouldn't have finished it. Technically, it was very well written, the description was fluid, the characters were believable and dynamic but out of the 500 page story, about 300 was very montonous padding. It picked up a little bit in the middle and then further towards the end of the novel but by then it was too late, I'd lost interest and I was dying to finish it and move onto something I'd actually enjoy. I think the length of the book was it's let down. I feel as though it could have been a lot shorter and quite an intense ghost story, rather than having sections of intensity separated by large periods of boredom. Having the majority of the action and catastrophe at the end was also quite exhausting. However, Waters is a talented novelist and writer and I'm sure there was some literary purpose behind the method of her storytelling - I just didn't enjoy it.
Something else that irritated me about this novel was the narrator, and main protagonist, Dr. Faraday. When he was simply describing and narrating the scene, I had no problem with him, it was once his character begun to reveal itself through his thoughts, words and actions that I became irritated and couldn't warm to him. He could be very narrow-minded, obtuse and, at times, incredibly patronising towards the other characters, specifically Caroline. I felt that their relationship in particular was very odd, more Fatherly than romantic, and his consistent blindness towards the significance of their one-sided relationship frustrated me. He also had a tendency, towards the beginning of the book, to change his opinion of the characters frequently and, I felt, without much reason. I think that his judgemental tendency stems from his feeling of self-righteousness due to his position, as a doctor, another aspect of his character which was incredibly frustrating.
I must remember, however, that the purpose of reading this was to identify the relevance of 'Houses' in this novel. While reading this I realised that the relevance of Hundreds Hall to the story and the state of mind of the characters was extremely forced and obvious, to the extent that it was even being commented on by the characters. While there are other houses referenced in the novel - that of Dr. Faraday, that of the squatters huts and of the home of the Baker-Hydes - I feel as though I'd prefer to analyse a novel, such as Wuthering Heights, where the relevance of the houses involved is much more subtle.
I'm sorry that this was more of a complaint and a moan rather than a review, but I didn't enjoy reading this book. However, Sarah Waters is a very good writer and I admire her skill but this particular plot didn't grab me. For this reason, I am giving The Little Stranger 2 stars out of 5.
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