Vertigo

An intriguing mystery, revolving around an obsessional neurotic's decent into psychosis. Flavières' fixation upon the otherworldly Madeleine is creepy from the outset, develops into unpleasantness, finally twisting into a controlling abusiveness. Well-worthy of the Hitchcock treatment, a psychological drama which left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Yes, this is the book of the famous Hitchcock masterpiece. This is not a masterpiece but is nonetheless a superior psychological crime thriller. Although the basic plot idea is the same as the film there are many significant differences. The setting is Paris and the south of France rather than San Francisco. The book covers a longer time period and is set before and after WW2. The ending is different. The story focusses much more on the thoughts of the main character. A lot of alcohol is drunk! It's hard to say more without introducing spoilers.

Even if you've seen the film this book is worth reading for its own intrinsic value. However, it's fair to say the changes Hitchcock made, made for a better film. He certainly did not spoil this show more book! show less

I was intrigued to read the book which became a Hitchcock film. Especially because I read that Boileau and Nacejac wrote it with Hitchcock in mind, after he failed to secure the rights to their first novel. I like the film. The book is just different enough to make it better than the film. The setting of Paris at the start of WW2 adds to the melancholy of the anti-hero Flavières. I think his status as a young enough man not at war is more important than his titular vertigo. The second part of the book is significantly different, and more satisfying, than the film. The story is exquisitely turned, the characters sighingly believable.

How very bizarre this book is. An overwrought, slightly hysterical crime melodrama - but one with a central idea so brilliant, so fantastically clever and elegantly simple that no wonder Hitchcock went crazy for it. It's rare to find a book which is so utterly improved upon by it's film adaptation. The hero as played by James Stewart is far more sympathetic and interestingly vulnerable than the slightly self pitying nutjob here. Similarly there's better pacing in terms of how the obsession begins to take form and then horribly explodes by the end of the narrative. Here it seems slightly rushed. Better still was Hitch's idea to reveal the twist at just past the halfway point. The pathos and horror of what's going on is far richer because show more of it. As with almost all of the things where the book differs from the film, the decisions Hitchcock made are just revealed to be more and more impressive. If you want a proof of his resolute genius - and that of the writers of the screenplay Coppel and Taylor - the ending is all you need. The book peters out in a bit of sensationalist silliness that would have befitted a Victorian melodrama. The film's ending is just *perfectly* judged - in terms of structure, narrative and with the climax of the character's emotional development. You can see what made Truffaut suggest it to Hitchcock, but it really is proof of who the genius really was. Interesting but deeply flawed. show less

Yep, this is that Vertigo, the one that Alfred Hitchcock made famous although you shouldn’t go into this hoping to find it similar to the movie. For starters, this was not based in San Francisco. The book was written in 1954 by French collaborators (a poor choice of words) Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud under the pen name Boileau-Narcejac. Originally titled D'entre les morts, "Among the Dead" it is based in Paris during the years just before and shortly after the German occupation. It is a fascinating tale of suspense that is oh so French, complete with lots of lunches in Parisian cafés and walks along the Seine. And passion. We mustn't forget the passion. This is Paris, after all.

Former policeman Roger Flavières is hired by an show more old acquaintance to keep tabs on his wife whom he claims has been behaving strangely. She has apparently developed an unhealthy obsession with a grandmother that had committed suicide long ago. The acquaintance, Gévigne, says that his wife has begun copying the dress and mannerisms of the deceased granny and he is worried about her. Flavières reluctantly agrees to look into the matter but his reluctance vanishes quickly once he lays eyes on the Mme. Gévigne, and he rapidly falls head over heals in love with her.

It doesn't end well, but I'll let you discover that for yourself.

For a long time I had no idea where this story was going. Is it a crime story, a psychological drama, maybe even something a bit paranormal? I had no clue. I hadn't seen the movie in decades and couldn't remember how it ended but from all that I had heard, the endings might be totally different. (They still might. I have a copy of the movie on hold at the library.) The ending totally took me by surprise, which made up for a few slow spots in the third quarter that bordered on tedious.

Bottom line: This book has been on my tbr list for a few years and I am glad that I finally read it. Now I definitely want to read Celle qui n'était plus which director Henri-Georges Clouzot made into the magnificent movie, Diabolique.

My thanks to the folks at the Pulp Fiction group for introducing me to this and many other fine books and giving me the opportunity to discuss it with them. show less

Being a huge Hitchock fan this book particularly intrigued, but even if you’ve never seen a single Hitchcock film in your life, VERTIGO is an engaging, fascinating, and frequently beautiful book. If you are also a fan of the film, then there is greater nuance here than the film, and plenty to conjecture about for the reader.

Set at the start of World War II, the central character of Flavières is troubled by many things, not just the need at one point to flee the war’s encroachment. He seems, on the face of it, a man who was destined to be obsessed with the wife of his friend. Her behaviour whilst mysterious, is mesmerising and her beauty in the eyes of Flavières incomparable. His obsession and the moral dilemmas presented to him by show more her husband’s insistence that he continue the friendship are understated, yet beautifully illustrated.

The reasons posited for her behaviour are unexpected and yet oddly believable, but nothing is ever that straight-forward and VERTIGO delivers some twists and turns and stings in the tail that make it end up sitting somewhere between a mystery and a morality play.

Beautifully translated with nary a bump to be detected in the language, VERTIGO is complicated, clever and another of those wonderful, one sitting reading experiences.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-vertigo-pierre-boileau-and-thomas-... show less

This is certainly a mind-bending thriller, as the back cover proclaims. Paul Gévigne hires his old friend Roger Flavières to shadow his wife, Madeleine, whom Gévigne thinks is subject to trances and likely to commit suicide. Flavières ends up becoming obsessed with Madeleine, and dramatic events ensue that are familiar to those who have seen the film. This translation, by Geoffrey Sainsbury, does the job well and did not make me wonder what the original French was, as can sometimes happen to me with French-to-English translations. I did lose some patience with Flavières' anguish and carrying on, though.

Overall, this is a good way to experience the source material for one of Hitchcock's best-known films.