Pagina principaleGruppiConversazioniAltroStatistiche
Cerca nel Sito
Questo sito utilizza i cookies per fornire i nostri servizi, per migliorare le prestazioni, per analisi, e (per gli utenti che accedono senza fare login) per la pubblicità. Usando LibraryThing confermi di aver letto e capito le nostre condizioni di servizio e la politica sulla privacy. Il tuo uso del sito e dei servizi è soggetto a tali politiche e condizioni.

Risultati da Google Ricerca Libri

Fai clic su di un'immagine per andare a Google Ricerca Libri.

A Dark-Adapted Eye di Ruth Rendell
Sto caricando le informazioni...

A Dark-Adapted Eye (originale 1986; edizione 1993)

di Ruth Rendell (Autore), Barbara Vine (Pseudonym)

UtentiRecensioniPopolaritàMedia votiCitazioni
1,2324415,658 (3.84)68
A woman investigates the shocking secrets that brought down her once proud family in this suspenseful Edgar Award winner from a New York Times–bestselling author. Faith Severn has never understood why the willful matriarch of her high-society family, aunt Vera Hillyard, snapped and murdered her own beloved sister. But long after Vera is condemned to hang, a journalist's startling discoveries allow Faith to perceive her family's story in a new light. Set in post–World War II Britain, A Dark-Adapted Eye is both a gripping mystery and a harrowing psychological portrait of a complex woman at the head of a troubled family. Called "a rich, beautifully crafted novel" by P. D. James, Time magazine has described its author as "the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world."… (altro)
Utente:VaniceD
Titolo:A Dark-Adapted Eye
Autori:Ruth Rendell (Autore)
Altri autori:Barbara Vine (Pseudonym)
Info:Plume (1993), 288 pages
Collezioni:La tua biblioteca
Voto:****
Etichette:Nessuno

Informazioni sull'opera

A Dark-Adapted Eye di Barbara Vine (1986)

  1. 00
    Ora mi vedi di Sharon Bolton (kraaivrouw)
    kraaivrouw: Not the same, but definitely living in the same neighborhood.
  2. 02
    Un' inquietante simmetria: romanzo di Audrey Niffenegger (KayCliff)
    KayCliff: Both books are about devoted sisters whose relationship turns sour with deadly results.
Sto caricando le informazioni...

Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro.

Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro.

» Vedi le 68 citazioni

Paperback ( )
  davidrgrigg | Mar 23, 2024 |
Family history containing murder. Only at the end does it become clear who was murderer. The uncertainty of the why: craziness or child taking and that question is left to the reader’s imagination. It is a story of the English countryside in the World War Two era. ( )
  waldhaus1 | Jan 10, 2024 |
Ruth Randell/Barbara Vine is always reliable for a good read. I didn't realize it when I picked it up, but this may be the first Barbara Vine novel. I confess I spent a good chunk of the novel trying to remember all the characters and their relationships to each other. Maybe I was a bit spaced out when I read the beginning and it never quite came clear to me, or maybe it was just confusing. I generally appreciate it when the narrative isn't over-expository, but in this case I could have used a family tree diagram. The narrator of the story is Faith, and most of it is her recollections of her two aunts, particularly Vera, who was hanged in punishment for committing murder. Although her victim eventually becomes obvious, for the vast majority of the book it is never said, who Vera murdered. She is portrayed as a difficult woman with definite secrets, and passions which obviously led her to commit murder. Faith's recollections are prompted by a writer who is researching the murder, with an eye to writing a book about it, a notion that deeply rattles the characters who have outlived Vera. Secrets, not just Vera's but those of many others, are revealed and serve to muddy the waters in the style of a classic whodunnit, though this is much more the style of Barbara Vine's psychological mysteries. Not sinister or menacing, but disturbing, leaving the reader guessing, though somehow satisfied. ( )
  karenchase | Jun 14, 2023 |
Through a Glass, Darkly*
Review of the Penguin Books paperback edition (2016), with an Introduction by Val McDermid, of the original Viking UK hardcover (1986)

A dark-adapted eye is one that has adjusted to darkness so that it is able to discern objects. In the context of the novel, the title refers to Faith's ability, after many years, to examine and analyse her family's history and its tragedy. - an excerpt quoted from the book's Wikipedia page (see link below).


This became a 5 rating after a rough start which was making me angry (usually the harbinger of a 1 star rating). I went back and restarted the book and drew a character tree of family and significant associates to help orient myself which was of enormous help. In case it is of help to others, I've copied it below.

See image at https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/336532633_218068047425915_528...
A rough family tree for "A Dark-Adapted Eye". Image from my own screenshot.

This is by no means an easy book to follow and I can understand Ruth Rendell deciding to publish it using an alternate penname. It is far more complex than the lighter Inspector Wexford mysteries or the noirish non-Wexford books which were issued under Rendell's own name.

Vine starts the book on the morning of the execution of Vera Hillyard in the late 1940s. We open on a family breakfast with Faith (nee Longley, later Severn) and her father John and mother Vraani. We don't yet know why Vera has been condemned and will only learn about it gradually. A great number of characters are mentioned by name without any introductions, such as Helen, Chad, Francis, Jamie etc. and the confusion starts. Who are these people? And why aren't they being introduced properly? An element of frustration sets in for the reader, so you need to have patience.

Gradually the book takes shape as Faith (in later life) is enlisted as a source by a journalist who is writing a book about the Vera Hillyard case. Periodically we can read chapter excerpts of the planned book as they are passed on to Faith. These are written in a more factual manner which helps fill in the backstory. What seemed at first a case of one murder becomes a complex examination of other possible murders, child abductions, poisonings, abuse and sisterly rivalry within the extended Longley family, mostly taking place during the World War II years when Faith at a young age was sent to spend time with her aunts Vera and Eden in the countryside and away from London which was regularly under bombing attack by Nazi Germany. There are revelations from both those years and from Faith's discoveries in later life.

This was the most complex book yet in my current Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine binge read/re-read and my first of the Barbara Vine series. It is also my first 5 star for its masterful tension and suspense and complexity. There is a tiny element calling for an Ambiguous Ending Alert™, although I think most readers will have no trouble deciding on a parentage which is left somewhat open to doubt due to contradictory evidence in the book.

See cover image at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0b/ADarkAdaptedEye.jpg
Cover image for the original Viking UK hardcover edition from 1986. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Trivia and Links
A Dark-Adapted Eye was adapted for television in a 2-part TV miniseries as A Dark Adapted Eye in 1994 with Helena Bonham Carter in the role of the older Faith Severn. You can watch the entire 2 episodes on YouTube starting with Part One here.

* I used an excerpt from Corinthians 13:12 for my lede. ( )
  alanteder | Mar 18, 2023 |
Fiction*
  KarenRice | Jan 8, 2023 |
nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione

» Aggiungi altri autori (10 potenziali)

Nome dell'autoreRuoloTipo di autoreOpera?Stato
Vine, Barbaraautore primariotutte le edizioniconfermato
Orth-Guttmann, RenateTraduttoreautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Walter, HarrietNarratoreautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Devi effettuare l'accesso per contribuire alle Informazioni generali.
Per maggiori spiegazioni, vedi la pagina di aiuto delle informazioni generali.
Titolo canonico
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi. Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Titolo originale
Titoli alternativi
Data della prima edizione
Personaggi
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi. Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Luoghi significativi
Eventi significativi
Film correlati
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi. Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Epigrafe
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi. Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Dark adaptation: a condition of vision brought about progressively by remaining in complete darkness for a considerable period, and characterized by progressive increase in retinal sensitivity. A dark-adapted eye is an eye in which dark adaptation has taken place. James Drever, A Dictionary of Psychology.
Dedica
Incipit
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi. Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
On the morning Vera died I woke up very early.
Citazioni
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi. Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Jamie had a job in a bar between leaving school and going to Bologna ... the day after he started, an American came in and asked for a dry martini. Jamie hadn't the faintest idea how to make it but he knew Martini was vermouth so he did his best. In a little while the American brought it back to him and asked if he had put any gin in it. "Certainly not!" Jamie said, quite indignant.
Ultime parole
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi. Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
(Click per vedere. Attenzione: può contenere anticipazioni.)
Nota di disambiguazione
Redattore editoriale
Elogi
Lingua originale
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi. Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
DDC/MDS Canonico
LCC canonico

Risorse esterne che parlano di questo libro

Wikipedia in inglese (1)

A woman investigates the shocking secrets that brought down her once proud family in this suspenseful Edgar Award winner from a New York Times–bestselling author. Faith Severn has never understood why the willful matriarch of her high-society family, aunt Vera Hillyard, snapped and murdered her own beloved sister. But long after Vera is condemned to hang, a journalist's startling discoveries allow Faith to perceive her family's story in a new light. Set in post–World War II Britain, A Dark-Adapted Eye is both a gripping mystery and a harrowing psychological portrait of a complex woman at the head of a troubled family. Called "a rich, beautifully crafted novel" by P. D. James, Time magazine has described its author as "the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world."

Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche

Descrizione del libro
Riassunto haiku

Discussioni correnti

Nessuno

Copertine popolari

Link rapidi

Voto

Media: (3.84)
0.5
1 3
1.5 2
2 18
2.5 2
3 53
3.5 26
4 113
4.5 11
5 66

Sei tu?

Diventa un autore di LibraryThing.

 

A proposito di | Contatto | LibraryThing.com | Privacy/Condizioni d'uso | Guida/FAQ | Blog | Negozio | APIs | TinyCat | Biblioteche di personaggi celebri | Recensori in anteprima | Informazioni generali | 203,187,265 libri! | Barra superiore: Sempre visibile