The Lodger

I got this (Kindle: 99 cents) as Hemingway requested it from Max Perkins (Schribner) in his very early days. Apparently, Hemingway was enamored with the crime novels of the day, and especially the emerging "pulp fiction" of Hammett and then Chandler. Both genres seemed to be somewhat intertwined in style and brevity. Both fed off each other. I read this to get some background on the English style, as it might relate to the American crime novel (and possibly Hemingway's style).I find The Lodger to be very dated (written in early 1900s) and rather pompous and shallow of plot and excitement. However, the character development and depiction of the streets and neighborhoods of East London, along with the lower class working folk (and Cockney) was excellent. Not a page burner, as it were, but certainly and education base-line for the crime novel of its day.

Published in 1911, Marie Belloc Lowndes’ The Lodger, is filled with suspense and mystery.Mrs. and Mr. Bunting are three seconds from the poor-house, when they get a new lodger.He pays in sovereigns and he isn’t stingy. An answer to their unprayed prayers.But his behavior is strange. Very eccentric. He talks to himself, doesn’t tolerate women and takes walks at night during the nasty, cold fog.The Buntings barely have enough to think about him, with all the mutilated murders upstaging the usual London crimes.Just who is this unnatural murderer who dares to leave a calling card? The answer is close to home 🏠

Wow what a find! I loved this book. It is so well written. The dialog is descriptive and entertaining. The suspense is there on every page.One dark night, a young policeman stops to see some friends who have fallen on some very hard times to talk to them about some murders in the city that have been apparently committed by one man. After he leaves a knock at the door promises to bring a change of fortune to their lives. But will it be for better or worse.

Very interesting ending never thought it would end like that given the circumstances gripping right to the end gotta see the movie see how the story is handled in the film. Book was good and really odd the way the story was told one never knows how one will act in certain situations wow.

This is an attractive reissue of a classic mystery, which became the basis for Hithcock's first successful thriller in the late 1920s. The novel, which began as a short story, is loosely based on the infamous Whitechapel murders, which had occurred about three decades before Belloc-Lowndes fictionalized the events. A great virtue of this work is its capturing of time and place, the atmosphere of London a century ago, its understated presentation, and its delicate presentation of moral ambiguity. (The landlady and her husband are so miserably poor, in desperate need of their lodger's fees, that they cannot bring themselves to face fully their suspicions and complicity in crime.) And yet, after years of looking forward to reading it, I confess disappointment with this work. The pacing is slow, there is surprisingly little suspense, and the titular character is so full of ennui that he could kill you with boredom. While there are some fine turns of phrase, I found much of the prose flaccid. I made my way to the book's end: partly owing to stubbornness, in part hopeful that the conclusion would somehow redeem the longeurs. I was mistaken. This is finally a most curious work: perhaps the most famous of all fictionalized versions of Jack the Ripper, and one of the dullest. Given its subject matter, one would not think that possible, but time has not been kind to "The Lodger."

I enjoyed this story, which apparently was the basis of an early Hitchcock movie. I'd seen that old movie before I read this book, and Hitchcock changed the plot, especially the ending. Both versions of the story are good, but I like the book best. This story is not gorey at all, but is suspensful. You have to like the old-fashioned English writing style, but it's very clear and easy to follow. Just a bit archaic in style. If you like classic literature, and eerie tales, this is recommended.

Just enough, just enough incite into the characters, just enough suspense, just enough not to want to set the book down, and then there is the story itself. It was wonderfully expressed and developed. The next time you are on a plane from Los Angeles to Charlotte, NC or a train from San Francisco to Los Angles, be sure have a copy of "The Lodger" conviently handy if you are interested in being completely entertained as the length of time required for your trip passes quickly by!

This is a story with a difference and as such, gets two stars for creativity! But for diehard fans of the murder mystery in the classic style, gets two stars as a variation on the classic mode that left me dissatisfied.The murderer is known almost from the beginning of the book; the content of the book is mostly the emotional trials experienced by two of the main characters, especially one of them, in endeavoring not to accept what they know to be the truth. Call it a psychological thriller; there is nothing mysterious about the murders.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is an interesting insight into how people behave in a dilemma and the unspoken agreement between husband and wife. A very thought provoking book - what would you do under the same circumstances?

A bit slow for me

Strange but a good twist

This book is not only well written but really makes you feel as if you are back in the late 1800s.