Customer Reviews

The Lodger

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While this book is old, first published in 1913, believe; it never reads that way. The style and tempo are very modern, although some of the vocabulary is not. This makes in read like a well-done modern-day period piece. The suspense continues until the very end, and is a must-read for any mystery, or even horror, lover.

As for this edition, "purchased" the Public Domain Books version for free from the Kindle Store and downloaded it directly to my Kindle. It was well done without any spelling errors. It did have one extraneous period and a few missing commas, but expect that those errors were probably errors in the original text. The only issues that I had with this version were that a few times the start of a new paragraph was not indented. ll in all, an excellent job by the PDB volunteers.

A period piece shrouded in the Edwardian London fog but a good psychological thriller on the whole. Focuses on a husband and wife who run a boarding house (of the type that Holmes might have lived in) whose lives are changed by a mysterious lodger whom they increasingly suspect to be a serial murderer calling himself the Avenger. You get a good sense of the times and of the lives of the people involved: an ordinary couple who are suddenly forced to deal with the possibility of a homicidal madman in their house.

This is the suspenseful best-seller by Hillaire Belloc's sister that inspired Hitchcock's first talkie and the 1940s-era remake that won its star, Laird Cregar, an Oscar. The motivation of the murderess lodger's landlady may be hard for moderns to swallow. Her crisis comes from, on the one hand, guessing that her lodger is a serial killer, and, on the other, needing his rent money as well as harboring the working-class Victorian's deeply ingrained aversing to informing to the coppers -- this even though a young detective is a constant visitor and supportive friend. This conflict is never resolved. By accident only are the landlady and her husband saved from "The Avenger." Despite the protagonists' moral cowardice, the deus ex machina ending and considerable over-writing, this is a gripping, atmospheric page-turner, redolent with fine detail of every-day life in the London of the period. Their character warts don't prevent Mr. and Mrs. Bunting from being sympathetic. Indeed, those flaws help the book rise above its genre.

While this is written in an older style, it never loses pace or uses archaic words and is a remarkably quick read. Recommend if you enjoy the psychological thriller/suspense novel.

This is a literate, well-written thriller in the Poe tradition. What happens to the landlords when a strange lodger insists on paying handsomely for simple lodging? And what about the terrible murders that just begin as he moves in? Could they be related? But he is so nice. And he pays so well! The plot is simple. The setting and characters are tightly drawn. But readers are in for a frightening ride!

This is the first novel that I read in high school in l957. The suspense was so great at that impressionable age, that I have never forgotten the title or the author. The author's descriptive phrases captured my imagination. For many years I have searched for this book. Now through the use of my computer and Amazon.com, I can relive the danger, and suspense in the fog of London.

Marie Belloc Lowndes' THE LODGER was first published in 1913 and is as fresh as the newest psychological thriller. The grandmother of them all had what it takes to keep you turning the page with its tight plot, crisp dialogue, terror and suspense.

Bunting and his wife, Ellen are down to their last penny when an eccentric gentlemen answers their sign for "Rooms to Let" and engages three by paying a month in advance with gold sovereigns.

Their meager lives are again comfortable as "the lodger" requires small meals and light cleaning, but Ellen is torn by her suspicion that the quiet man may be the serial killer who is stalking London's foggy streets.

Mrs. Lowndes taught later writers how to build tension, suspense, and fear in the mind of the reader as the story unfolds. THE LODGER is a must read for fans of thriller fiction and mystery readers alike. This classic of the genre set the standard, which was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock and into an opera by Phyllis Tate.

HaintsWriting as a Small Business

I loved this book. It was not the horror story that I was expecting, but more of the classic tale of suspense and spine tingling situations. If you need a lot of "blood and guts", this is not the book for you. If you want a great book to read, cozied up the the fire with a cup of tea, prepare to enjoy!

The Lodger by Marie Lowndes, is a good seriel killer suspense. The story was not only well-written and well-developed, but the characters were also believable. The communication and mis-communication between the characters was true to life. I had a hard time putting the book down, and was surprised at the ending and pleased with developments within the story. I was glad I'd read it & would recommend it to others.

The Lodger, Marie Belloc Lowndes

In 1888 there was a series of brutal murders in the East End of London. In 1913 Marie Belloc Lowndes wrote a fictionalized version of these "Jack the Rippers" murders. Marie began as a journalist and wrote sixty books, forty of them novels. This novel is her only book to remain in print. It was first a short story, then a novel, and later made into a play, several movies, and an opera. Her novels were based on True Crimes and often used courtroom scenes. The `Introduction' by Laura Marcus quotes a young Ernest Hemingway's praise for this book. This provides a background to that era, and the event that inspired Marie Belloc Lowndes' greatest work. There is a `Bibliography' for this 1996 version, it does not list the 2002 book by Patricia Cornwell. Jean Overton Fuller's 1990 book claimed Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper.

The beginning introduces us to Robert and Ellen Bunting, who have fallen on hard times after being servants of the wealthy. Then a double knock on the door of their house announced a lodger. He will pay well for the rooms. Mr. Sleuth stays indoors during the day and only goes out at night. Another murder of an unfortunate woman is in the newspapers. The police are baffled. Detective Joe Chandler takes the Buntings and Daisy to visit the Black Museum at Scotland Yard (Chapter IX). "Money is the main thing that matters in this world" says Ellen. Ellen knew that most murders were for gold (Chapter VIII). She has a growing suspicion about their lodger. There is a description of a Coroner's Inquest (Chapter XIX). Time passes, there is another murder. Robert becomes suspicious too. Bunting fears the publicity could ruin their lives and make it impossible for them to get a good situation (Chapter XXIV). The Buntings, Daisy, and the lodger visit Madame Tussaud's waxworks. They learn the police have a clue to the identity of the murderer, a madman who escaped from an asylum near Liverpool. Their lodger suddenly leaves them and never returns. The murders in London now stop.

There is a flaw in this story: if the murderer was known to the police as a committed lunatic there would be no mystery. This story gives an idea of what life was like for people in that era. It's a good story as long as you don't analyze it. Having the lodger go away prevents a complex ending. The message of this story warns against owning your own business instead of staying in service. Was this meant to address the servant problem? The story shows how people can put up with an evil when they benefit from it. Was this a comment of the pre-war society and economics? Note how no papers or identity cards were required in those days. While it isn't mentioned, there was also the right of people to keep and bear arms.