Sun 25 Oct 2009
Reviewed by Marvin Lachman: CORNELL WOOLRICH – The Bride Wore Black.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
by Marvin Lachman
CORNELL WOOLRICH – The Bride Wore Black. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1940. Reprinted many times in both hardcover and soft, including: Pocket #271, 2nd printing 1945; Pyramid #80, 1953, as Beware the Lady; Dell D186, 1957, Great Mystery Library #1; Ace G-699; Collier, 1964; Raven House, 1981; Ballantine, July 1984.
Film: Films du Carosse, 1968, as La mariée était en noir (The Bride Wore Black). Co-screenwriter & director: Francois Truffaut.
The Bride Wore Black is Cornell Woolich’s first novel and has been reprinted by about half a dozen different paperback houses. If you’ve never read Woolrich, it is a splendid introduction and [when this review was first written] a recent edition from Ballantine may still be available.
While it is not Woolrich at his very best (for that, you’d have to read pulp novelets like “Goodbye, New York” or later books like Rendezvous in Black, also reprinted by Ballantine), it is very good indeed.
Woolrich is best known for his heart-stopping suspense, emotional prose, and use of outrageous coincidences. In The Bride Wore Black, we have his usual narrative drive, but the language is a bit more objective than it sometimes is, and the result is a bit less reader involvement than is needed.
The coincidences are there, in spades, and that makes suspending disbelief a bit tougher than usual. Still, only someone who’s read the best Woolrich would dare to cavil at this book, so don’t miss it if you’ve never read it.
(very slightly revised).
Editorial Comment: As soon as I’m able, I’ll be posting the three reviews of Woolrich novels that Mike Nevins did for 1001 Midnights, one a day, perhaps, beginning tomorrow. The three: The Bride Wore Black, The Black Curtain, and The Black Angel.
October 26th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Bride is also a little different than the usual Woolrich novel in that the protagonist is an actual detective and investigator rather than a victim.
Despite being a bit over the top in places and Woolrich’s tendency to sometimes purple prose this is a perfect example of his theory of the ‘line of suspense,’ and shows his skills at developing character and plot within the hot house atmosphere of his novels.
As is often true in Woolrich’s works the ending is a stunner. In the case of this and so many Woolrich works we could simply do a two word review: Read it!
October 26th, 2009 at 11:28 am
There were at least 12 books in the Ballantine set of Woolrich novels and story collections. With their dark, distinctive covers, they’re a good set to have, but while they may have still been easy to find back in 1987, when Marv wrote this review, they aren’t today.
I regret not buying them at the time — telling myself I already had all of the books in various other editions — and I’m only slowly putting a set together, one or two at a time, ever since.
Thanks to Google, I’ve found a web page with the 12 covers shown. Check it out at http://members.toast.net/woolrich/balcover.htm
October 27th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I commented elsewhere about Truffaut’s film of this: completely changes the ending, both in styl;e and substance, yet stays true to Woolrich’s vision.