Author:Ira Levin
Original title :Kiss Before Dying
Placed & time :United States 1953
The Story
Bud Corliss is born into a working-class family and raised by his mother after his father walked out. As an adult, he uses an uncanny ability to adapt his personality to any given situation to chase his dreams of wealth and success — to be achieved by any means necessary.
An overachiever, he is a stellar student in high school and enlists in the Korean War at 18, returning as a decorated hero. The most pivotal moment in his life occurs during the war, when he corners, shoots and kills a North Korean soldier, who is so terrified of an American soldier with a gun that he wets his pants. Corliss is both elated by the total power he held over the soldier and disgusted by a display of terror he considers weak and unmanly. He makes up his mind then and there to never show any sign of vulnerability.
Upon returning to the U.S., he enrolls in college and meets Dorothy Kingship, the daughter of a wealthy copper tycoon. Seeing an opportunity to attain the riches he has always craved, he becomes Dorothy's lover, but panics when she announces she is pregnant. He is sure that her stern, conservative father will disown her. Resolving to get rid of Dorothy, he tricks her into writing a letter that, to an unknowing observer, would look like a suicide note and then murders her. He runs no risk of getting caught, having urged Dorothy to keep their relationship a secret from her family and friends. He continues to live with his mother, who dotes on him and has no clue as to what he has done.
Corliss lies low for a few months until the press coverage of Dorothy's death has subsided. Then he pursues Dorothy's sister, Ellen. The romance is going according to plan — until Ellen begins to probe into Dorothy's death, convinced her sister did not kill herself. Ellen eventually confronts Corliss, who calmly confesses to the crime before murdering her as well.
Not to be discouraged, Corliss courts the last remaining Kingship daughter, Marion. This affair is the most successful; Corliss sweeps her off her feet, meets and charms her father, and eventually asks her to marry him, a proposal she gleefully accepts.
Detective Gordon Gant refuses to give up, however, breaking into Corliss' childhood home and stealing a written plan for meeting and seducing Marion to get her family's money, as well as news clippings about Dorothy's and Ellen's deaths. Days before the wedding, he shows up at the Kingship family home and presents Marion and her father with the evidence of Corliss' deception.
On a trip to one of the Kingship family's copper manufacturing plants, Marion, her father and Grant all corner Corliss while he is standing over a vat of molten copper and threaten to expose him. Corliss frantically pleads his innocence, but they are unmoved. Realizing his luck has finally run out and that he is facing the electric chair, Corliss at last loses his composure and wets his pants — just as the North Korean soldier, his symbol of pathetic cowardice, had done. Delirious with panic and shame, Corliss loses his footing and falls to his death into the vat below.
ReviewAn overachiever, he is a stellar student in high school and enlists in the Korean War at 18, returning as a decorated hero. The most pivotal moment in his life occurs during the war, when he corners, shoots and kills a North Korean soldier, who is so terrified of an American soldier with a gun that he wets his pants. Corliss is both elated by the total power he held over the soldier and disgusted by a display of terror he considers weak and unmanly. He makes up his mind then and there to never show any sign of vulnerability.
Upon returning to the U.S., he enrolls in college and meets Dorothy Kingship, the daughter of a wealthy copper tycoon. Seeing an opportunity to attain the riches he has always craved, he becomes Dorothy's lover, but panics when she announces she is pregnant. He is sure that her stern, conservative father will disown her. Resolving to get rid of Dorothy, he tricks her into writing a letter that, to an unknowing observer, would look like a suicide note and then murders her. He runs no risk of getting caught, having urged Dorothy to keep their relationship a secret from her family and friends. He continues to live with his mother, who dotes on him and has no clue as to what he has done.
Corliss lies low for a few months until the press coverage of Dorothy's death has subsided. Then he pursues Dorothy's sister, Ellen. The romance is going according to plan — until Ellen begins to probe into Dorothy's death, convinced her sister did not kill herself. Ellen eventually confronts Corliss, who calmly confesses to the crime before murdering her as well.
Not to be discouraged, Corliss courts the last remaining Kingship daughter, Marion. This affair is the most successful; Corliss sweeps her off her feet, meets and charms her father, and eventually asks her to marry him, a proposal she gleefully accepts.
Detective Gordon Gant refuses to give up, however, breaking into Corliss' childhood home and stealing a written plan for meeting and seducing Marion to get her family's money, as well as news clippings about Dorothy's and Ellen's deaths. Days before the wedding, he shows up at the Kingship family home and presents Marion and her father with the evidence of Corliss' deception.
On a trip to one of the Kingship family's copper manufacturing plants, Marion, her father and Grant all corner Corliss while he is standing over a vat of molten copper and threaten to expose him. Corliss frantically pleads his innocence, but they are unmoved. Realizing his luck has finally run out and that he is facing the electric chair, Corliss at last loses his composure and wets his pants — just as the North Korean soldier, his symbol of pathetic cowardice, had done. Delirious with panic and shame, Corliss loses his footing and falls to his death into the vat below.
It is a famous story of a young man who lets the American dream run away with his soul. Bud Corliss is a completely cynical version of the same character, a man who will do anything it takes to get what he wants, including committing two ghastly killings.
My comment
I loved this book! Once you start reading this book and getting into it, it captures you to where you never want to put it down. This book makes you gasp, laugh, cry, and also make you bite your finger nails! If you love romantic and suspenceful books this is the one for you. I truly must say that this is the best book i have read for a long time
1 comment:
Adel,
This blog is meant to improve YOUR writing, not give me practice in reading other people's writing!
Don't copy from the web. How can I correct your writing and help you to improve your English when what you write is not your own writing?
James.
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