Edith's Diary
First edition (publ. Heinemann, UK)
Edith's Diary (1977) is a psychological novel by Patricia Highsmith.[1]
Synopsis
When Edith Howland's husband abandons her for a younger woman, leaving her with their alcoholic son and his senile uncle, she begins recording details of an imaginary, much more successful life where she has friends and grandchildren. However, this diversion soon grows unhealthy when she becomes slowly convinced that the fantasies are real…
Reception
- With Edith's Diary, Highsmith has produced a masterpiece. - The Times Literary Supplement
- Miss Highsmith is a writer of intense subtlety... She probes to the very core of her heroine with a controlled ferocity and single-mindedness that illuminates every page of the novel. It is a masterly book, a haunting book, a book that lingers long in the memory and constantly disturbs and delights... - The Times
- Her strongest, her most imaginative, and by far her most substantial novel. - The New Yorker
- Edith's Diary takes the form of an old-fashioned psychological chiller, but there is also something stronger, the poignancy of her struggle not to go under. She is betrayed by such ordinary dreams. - The New York Times Book Review
Adaptation
Edith's Diary was adapted into the German film Ediths Tagebuch (1983), directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer and starring Angela Winkler as Edith.[2] Highsmith called the film "dreadful."[3]
References
| ||||||||||