Comments on: Let's talk about THE LITTLE STRANGER by Sarah Waters

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 02:47:26 +0000

Remember when Seeley describes the incidents at Hundreds as being the result of “some ravenous shadow-creature … spawned from the troubled unconscious of someone connected with the house itself’? He calls the explanation a “reasonable extension of psychology.” I was doing some required reading for my psych class and I came across this passage from Freud’s 1919 essay, “Uncanny” that immediately reminded me of the book! In the article, Freud attributes feelings of terror produced by ordinary, familiar things to a repressed belief in the “omnipotence of thoughts.”

Freud writes:

“The uncanny [is] associated with the omnipotence of thoughts, with the prompt fulfillment of wishes, with secret injurious powers and with the return of the dead…We – or our primitive forefathers – once believed that these possibilities were realities and were convinced that they actually happened. Nowadays…we have surmounted these modes of thought; but we do not feel quite sure of our new beliefs, and the old ones still exist within us ready to seize upon any confirmation. As soon as something actually happens in our lives which seems to confirm the old, discarded beliefs, we get a feeling of the uncanny; it is as though we were making a judgment something like this: ‘So, after all, it is true that one can kill a person by the mere wish!’

By: Book Review: The Little Stranger « ReviewsbyLola's Blog

Book Review: The Little Stranger « ReviewsbyLola's Blog — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:10:35 +0000

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By: Book Review: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters | Capricious Reader

Book Review: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters | Capricious Reader — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 10:28:35 +0000

By: Lisa Laino

Lisa Laino — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:10:20 +0000

Just finished this book, loved it! While I think that there was a “ghost” haunting the Ayres, however, I think Faraday was the one who was in the house at the end and frightened Caroline, either pushing her or sending her in a panic over the railing to her death. He was heading home at 2:00 in the morning, he mentioned a couple of times heading towards Hundreds Hall, then blacked out and didn’t remember the rest of the night. The maid testified that Caroline woke up at 3:00 and heard her say “you!” in an angry tone – I think if it was a ghost she would have been more frightened. Remember after her mother died Caroline said the house was quiet and and the spirit gone? Faraday was stalking Caroline since she broke off the engagement, not because he loved her so much, but he was devastated in losing the estate.

By: JOAnn

JOAnn — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:47:45 +0000

I loved the book. After reading all the different ideas from everyone it was very odd that no one discussed the moment before Caroline died; she said …you!
That to me meant that she knew her killer and that it was not her dead sister it was Faraday.He was able to manipulate the different things that happened in the house because he had his own personal key of which he never gave back even after the house was sold. Waters doesn’t tell you of course that he could have entered the house at various times and set the stage for all the horrible things that happened… plus remember he was a doctor he could have just put Mrs. Ayres under and then put her on the back of the door. I believe it was Farraday as a mortal self of uncontrollable jealousy and lust for the house.

By: Anne

Anne — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:49:19 +0000

I’ve been avoiding your review because I hadn’t read The Little Stranger when you wrote it, but I just finished the book last night. *Loved* it! My thoughts echo a lot of the above conversation – I think the evil in the house was a paranormal energy born out of Faraday’s desires and resentment surrounding class issues – but that we’re not really supposed to know, and can read the story on two levels of who or what was to blame/what was real, just like The Turn of The Screw.
.-= Anne´s last blog ..Read this next: The Little Stranger =-.

By: Nicol

Nicol — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:05:21 +0000

I just finished the book and loved it. Hope I’m not too late for the discussion. I do believe that it was Faraday. I also believe that there is significance in the fact that Faraday is introduced as a child and that he is actually present in Hundreds Hall at one point while his mother worked there. Remember he broke an item in the house and kept the part he broke. I believe that his desire to live in and be a part of Hundreds began back in his childhood, as did the growth of the manifestation of the ghostly being (Faraday’s manifestation). The strange occurrences in the house did not begin with the Gyp. Betty was already aware of them before Faraday returned to the home as an adult. Faraday’s obsession is growing when he is a child and is quite evident in the countless trips made to Hundreds and his clear obsession with Caroline after she breaks off the engagement.

By: On the perks of being picky [or, I explain why I've been gushing so much lately] « The Book Lady's Blog

Tue, 11 May 2010 13:36:31 +0000

[...] @ The Book Lady's Blog 2010 has been a year of great books for me already. It started with The Little Stranger and The Unnamed (the first pantyworthy book of the year). It continued with my [...]

By: On the perks of being picky [or, I explain why I've been gushing so much lately] « The Book Lady's Blog

Tue, 11 May 2010 13:36:31 +0000

By: March Reading Wrap-Up/First Quarter Check-In « The Book Lady's Blog

March Reading Wrap-Up/First Quarter Check-In « The Book Lady's Blog — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:57:58 +0000

[...] The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: Award nominees (Booker Prize 2009); from the TBR pile (how’s two-birds-with-one-stone for my first completed book of the year?) [...]