The Comfort Of Strangers - A Novel By Ian McEwan
The Comfort Of Strangers is Ian McEwan's second novel, first published in 1981.
A bored couple journey to an un-named city in search of excitement. There they meet an enigmatic stranger who entangles them in a web from which there may be no escape...
This is a horror novel. Not in the gory, blood splattered, hack and slash meaning of the term - but horrific nonetheless in a subtle, langorous, almost elegant fashion...
You can't always tell what's going on in the mind of a stranger...and sometimes it's better if you don't find out...
The Comfort Of Strangers was shortlisted for The Booker Prize in 1981
The Comfort Of Strangers is a superb follow-up to McEwan's first novel The Cement Garden. Very creepy and the ending, (although you can see it coming) is nevertheless, stark, shocking and disturbing...the fact that McEwan wrote the climax in an understated and clinically detached way, makes it even more so.
Like The Cement Garden, The Comfort Of Strangers is highly recommended for those who like psychological creepiness...
A film version of The Comfort Of Strangers was released in 1991. With a screenplay by Harold Pinter, the film stars Helen Mirren, Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson.
The Comfort Of Strangers - Contents
Ian McEwan - The Comfort Of Strangers
- Plot Summary Of "The Comfort Of Strangers" by Ian McEwan
- Reviews Of "The Comfort Of Strangers" by Ian McEwan
- "The Comfort Of Strangers" Novel
- "The Comfort Of Strangers" - Film
- More About The Author Of "The Comfort Of Strangers" - Ian McEwan
- Other Novels By Ian McEwan
- "The Comfort Of Strangers" - Comments
Plot Summary Of "The Comfort Of Strangers" by Ian McEwan
Synopsis of "The Comfort Of Strangers" by Ian McEwan
Their relationship is stale and they wander aimlessly through life and through the streets of the city in search of some kind of relief from the boredom of their own selves.
One night, on a seemingly fruitless quest to find a restaurant that meets their exacting standards, they encounter Robert, a local man who is clearly sinister yet undoubtedly charismatic...he tells them the story of his life and somehow meeting this dangerous but extraordinary man invigorates Colin and Mary and they once again experience the unfamiliar joy of living...but this comes at a price...
Like hungry spiders, Robert and his wife Caroline draw them deeper and deeper into the web of their complex and disturbing lives until there is no going back...when Mary sees the danger it is far, far too late for escape...
Dark, menacing and ultimately extremely disturbing, McEwan unfolds this tale slowly and relishes every moment of the inexorable journey towards tragedy...
Chilling...but mesmerising too...The Comfort Of Strangers is an excellent read and I highly recommend it - one of my favourite Ian McEwan novels!
Reviews Of "The Comfort Of Strangers" by Ian McEwan
- Late Reviews and Latest Obsessions: The Discomfort of Readers
- Late Reviews review of The Comfort of Strangers
"The Comfort Of Strangers" Novel
The Comfort of Strangers
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Amazon reader review
"This is by far McEwan's darkest book and he sets the mood perfectly. Mary and Colin are on holiday, experiencing some unexplained dissatisfaction with each other until a seemingly random encounter with Robert. Robert introduces the couple to his wife Caroline, and right away it is obvious something more sinister is at play. McEwan has written about the impact of strangers once in "Enduring Love," but Robert and Caroline are more calculating than the obsessive Jed. The conclusion is more shocking then "The Cement Garden."... "
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"The Comfort of Stangers" By Ian McEwan - Themes & Synopsis
The Comfort Of Strangers - Wikipedia article
The Comfort of Strangers is a 1981 novel by British writer Ian McEwan.It is one of his earlier and lesser known works, and is set in a city that is unnamed but is evidently Venice. It was adapted into a film in 1990 (The Comfort of Strangers), which starred Rupert Everett, Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren and Natasha Richardson.
Plot Summary Of The Comfort Of Strangers
Mary and Colin are an English couple on holiday in Venice, although the name of the city is never made explicit. Mary is divorced with two children; Colin is her angelically handsome lover who has been with her for seven years. Although they do not usually live together, their relationship is deep, passionate and intimate.
One evening, the couple get lost amongst the canals and are befriended by a forceful native named Robert, who takes them to a bar. Later, he insists on bringing them to his house where they meet his wife Caroline. Although the guests are at first shown great hospitality, it becomes clear that the hosts have a peculiar relationship with each other - Robert is the product of a sadistic upbringing and Caroline, who is disabled, has an uncomfortable view of men as being masters to which women should yield.
The liberal English couple withdraw from the house, but the events of the evening have set in chain a series of ever-increasingly disturbing events which neither foresaw.
Themes Used In A Comfort Of Strangers
McEwan's novella explores the closeness that exists between Mary and Colin. They have known each other for seven years and "often forget that they are two separate people". As well as being an expression of their love, this closeness makes them weak and puerile. It causes them pain, and enables Robert to take advantage of them.
The disturbing climax of the narrative suggests that McEwan is concerned with two main themes. First, the masochistic behaviour of Robert and the subservience of Caroline are manifestations of a raw and haunting human sexuality. Second, Robert's acts are placed in the context of his adolescence, suggesting that his highly-sexed family upbringing was responsible for his behaviour.
Read the article at The Comfort Of Strangers On Wikipedia
"The Comfort Of Strangers" - Film
The Comfort of Strangers - movie 1990
The Comfort of Strangers is a 1990 film directed by Paul Schrader.The screenplay is by Harold Pinter, adapted from a short novel by Ian McEwan. The film stars Natasha Richardson, Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett and Helen Mirren.
Plot
Colin (Everett) and Mary (Richardson), a couple unsure of where their relationship is going, are on holiday in Venice where they meet Robert (Walken), a smooth bar owner who tells them stories about his abusive father and the humiliating revenge which Robert's four sisters took on both the father and Robert himself. Although Colin and Mary find Robert and his wife, the stylish and demure Caroline (Mirren) less than agreeable company, they are inexplicably, almost hypnotically drawn to the older couple, who turn out to be even more dangerous than they seem, leading to a violent climax.
Differences between novel and film
Schrader has said of McEwan's book that it is "terrific, but a little one-sided" and that he was not sure its theme - that "no amount of civilisation can overcome the fundamental hostility between men and women" - was correct. The film therefore uses Pinter's ambiguous dialogue to create a more nuanced set of characters.
Changes were also made to the character of Robert. In the book, Robert is a young thug with a gold chain and a pattern of pistols embroidered into his shirt; Schrader did not think an audience would believe Colin and Mary would go off with such a man, so Walken plays the character as a suave, Armani-suited cosmopolitan.
Read this article on Wikipedia - The Comfort Of Strangers Film
"The Comfort Of Strangers" Film On CD
The Comfort Of Strangers movie
The Comfort Of Strangers
[1991]
"Paul Schrader, the director, has done a superb job capturing the atmosphere and tone of McEwan's novella. What always intrigues me is the "mixed" casting of actors from different countries in the same film. The presence of Walken, the only American among the otherwise British cast, provides an intense presence made all the more so by his out of whack persona.
This "out-of-whackness" reaches a crescendo at the film's climax which should not be revealed here. This is a strange, dark film that stings as much as the original novella and does so abundantly. McEwan, one of the most intelligent fiction writers around, cleverly sets this macabre story in Venice whose dark labyrinthine passages Schrader takes maximum advantage of, giving the film the creepy atmosphere it needs to make it so resonant."
More About The Author Of "The Comfort Of Strangers" - Ian McEwan
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Ian McEwan - British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, And Screenwriter
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Ian McEwan has been writing fiction since the 1970's and has written many bestsellers and received numerous literary awards and glowing critical acclaim. It is difficult to sum up Ian McEwan's writing...a few words and phrases spring to mind...
Other Novels By Ian McEwan
Other books by Ian McEwan...
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Black Dogs By Ian McEwan
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"Black Dogs" is a novel by multi-award winning British author Ian McEwan, first published in 1992. In 1946, a young couple, Bernard and June, set off on their honeymoon. Fired by their ideals and passion for one another, they plan an idyllic holiday...
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The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
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The Cement Garden" is the first novel written by award-winning British author, Ian McEwan. It was originally published in 1978. The Cement Garden is a beautifully woven, but very dark tale of childhood and lost innocence... The plot of The Ce...
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Enduring Love By Ian McEwan
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"Enduring Love" is a novel by award winning writer Ian McEwan, first published in 1997 On an ordinary spring day, while he is enjoying a picnic with his girlfriend, Clarissa, the calm, organised, ordinary life of science writer Joe Rose is turned up...
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The Child In Time By Ian McEwan
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"The Child In Time" is Ian McEwan's third novel, first published in 1987. The Child In Time deals with the tragic theme of child abduction. Stephen Lewis, a children's book author, takes his 3-year-old daughter Kate on a routine Saturday morning sh...
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The Innocent By Ian McEwan
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"The Innocent" is Ian McEwan's fourth novel, first published in 1989. "The Innocent" is centered around Leonard Markham, a young, idealistic English electronics engineer sent to Germany during the Cold War to work on an Anglo-American intelligence p...
Other Novels By Ian McEwan
Other books by Ian McEwan...
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On Chesil Beach By Ian McEwan
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"On Chesil Beach" is a novel by multi-award winning author, Ian McEwan first published in 2007 On a summer evening in 1962, two newlyweds sit down to dinner in the honeymoon suite of a Dorset hotel. Edward and Florence are both aged 22, both virgins...
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Amsterdam By Ian McEwan
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"Amsterdam" is a novel by multi-award winning author Ian McEwan, first published in 1998. The plot of "Amsterdam" follows two old friends, Clive, a composer and Vernon, a newspaper editor, who attend the funeral of a woman who had been a friend and...
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Atonement By Ian McEwan
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"Atonement" is a novel by award winning writer, Ian McEwan, first published in 2001. The plot of "Atonement" follows the life of Briony Tallis, from naive teenager to elderly woman. In 1935, Briony 13 years old, an aspiring writer and the youngest...
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Saturday By Ian McEwan
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"Saturday" is a novel by multi-award winning author, Ian McEwan, first published in 2005. "Saturday" is the story of a day in the life of a 48 year old London neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne. The novel is set on Saturday, 15th February 2003. Henry wake...
Short Stories By Ian McEwan
Other books by Ian McEwan...
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First Love, Last Rites By Ian McEwan
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First Love, Last Rites is Ian McEwan's first collection of short stories and was originally published in 1975. This collection was Ian McEwan's first published work and comprises a collection of eight short stories, all of which are summarised indiv...
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In Between The Sheets By Ian McEwan
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"In Between The Sheets" is a collection of short stories by award-winning author Ian McEwan, first published in 1978 Like McEwan's earlier short story collection, "First Love, Last Rites", the individual stories in "In...
"The Comfort Of Strangers" - Comments
Have you read "The Comfort Of Strangers"? Would you like to? Share your thoughts here!
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Reply
- BigGirlBlue BigGirlBlue Jul 9, 2009 @ 10:42 pm
- I had not heard of this book/movie but I'm going to zip list it right now.
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