Customer Reviews

Waltz into Darkness

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cornell Woolrich novels are perfect for those who want to discover the world of 'noir' crime novels of the mid-20th century. While most of these novels are long out-of-print, some of Woolrich's classics are still available. 'Waltz Into Darkness' is one of these classics.

'Waltz Into Darkness' is the story of a middle-aged bachelor who marries someone who he knows only through love letters. He winds up getting more than he bargained for. His wife, clear to all except himself, is no angel. Due to her cold-heartness and his warm-heartedness, he decends down to her level. While one can think of this as being a trite story, one which has been filmed under different titles, the story worked for me as a pure character study rather than a crime novel (..yes, crimes are commited). The ending is most painfully moving. The psychological elements of 'Waltz Into Darkness' reminds me of the wonderful novels by Patricia ('Talented Mr. Ripley') Highsmith.

My only complaint about this novel is Woolrich's tendency to concentrate on writing a great story and not "sweating the details" on descriptive details. This story is supposed to take place in New Orleans circa 1880. But Woolrich doesn't bother to make the reader feel he/she has been transported to such a time/place. Having recently read Kate Chopin's The Awakening, the setting being New Orleans circa 1900, I can plainly see how the superb 'Waltz Into Darkness' could have been better. Having said this, 'Waltz Into Darkness' has a richer literary feel than some of Woolrich's earlier works.

Bottom Line: terrific psychological crime novel. A great book for Woolrich fans and neophytes alike.

Cornell Woolrich weaves a beautiful, terribly tragic tribute to the intricacies of human relationships and the depths that we are willing to sink to if we think worthy the person we make our descent with. This is, in essence, a romance novel under the guise of a noir crime tale.

Louis Durand is a man not accustomed to the ways of love and finds himself overwhelmed by the extreme emotional states that accompany it. He could be argued as a weakling and a coward, but any true romantic (a category under which I myself likely would fall) will be moved by his unchanged, unshakeable devotion to the woman that he has his heart set on. He compromises his own morals and safety and way of life to win her over.

The character of Julia Russell and her successor (that is the only way I can phrase it without revealing too much) is the true star of the novel. She is a woman hardened by the world that has turned its nose up at her and throughout the novel grows out of her cynical, loveless, deceitful shell and evolves into a woman that she before was so afraid to become.

The novel is one of the definitive dark love stories of literary history, richly written by a brilliant author who clearly has personal stakes in the story. The novel will bear a much greater signifigance to those well versed in the ways of love and its darker faces. Detractors of love, cynics, and the naive in the world of relationships should steer clear, but for those who don't fit those descriptions and those who are looking for a tale of truly moving love and lack thereof, pick up this novel immediately.

I find it difficult to decide whether to give this book 3 stars or 4. I consider this book one of the weakest of Woolrich's novels that have been reprinted since the 1960's (there are 5 other novels that are considered minor at best and that have not been reprinted), but I still found that I was caught up in it and found it hard to put down.

Louis Durand is pathetic in his loneliness and desire for love. He will do anything to avoid being alone and loveless, even following his new wife when it is clear that this is the path to destruction. It is painful to follow him along, and yet we need to see him through. Terrible though the thought is, it is not so difficult to understand how his desire for love can direct him into the extreme circumstances that it does.

Although I probably won't be re-reading this one as often as his other novels and short stories, it is a welcome addition to my library.

Cornel Woolrich's WALTZ INTO DARKNESS has twice been made into films--Truffaut's MISSISSIPPI MERMAID with Catherine Deneuve, and ORIGINAL SIN with Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie--, but neither film captured the original novel's quirky and queasy masochistic appeal or its suspenseful drive. Neither film also retained the 1880s Gold Coast setting for Woolrich's novel which is also part of its peculiar charm. A wealthy New Orleans merchant initiates a lonely-hearts correspondence with a St. Louis spinster. When she arrives in his city by riverboat to marry him, she is much more beautiful and attractive then he ever imagined. But during their marriage's early days she displays all kinds of discrepancies--and mysteries--regarding her behavior, and when he allows her to withdraw money from his bank account, she disappears the next day with all his liquid assets. This is just the beginning of Woolrich's extremely psychologically acute rendition of the odd link that joins a con artist and her victim. The novel suffers a bit from the hero's dull-wittedness (the reader figures out the cons the merchant falls for pages and pages before he suspects a thing, even right to the end), but the novel is one of Woolrich's very best. Like many of his books, it would make the terrific basis for an opera.

Waltz into Darkness transports us to a time long ago, to the year 1880. Louis Durand is a wealthy but lonely New Orleans bachelor who, early in the narrative, marries a comely young woman named Julia Russell. But Louis and Julia are essentially strangers to each other. Their courtship, such as it was, has taken place entirely by mail. The first days of their marriage are quite blissful. But then author Cornell Woolrich masterfully introduces ever increasingly unsubtle hints that Julia is other than she presents herself to be. By the time Louis realizes he has made a terrible mistake in taking Julia as his wife, it's too late. In the blink of an eye, he is removed from, what is to him, paradise and thrust into a hellish nightmare. And that's just the beginning. There's much, much more.

Waltz into Darkness is written as a third person narration. By using an arcane sounding, flowery prose and incorporating a number of melodramatic embellishments, Woolrich expertly recreates the kind of writing one would expect to find in a Victorian era romance novel. And his use of the element of suspense is no less than magnificent. Time and time again he brings the reader right up to the heart pounding brink only to then pull back so the suspense can build once more.

This book is superbly crafted and shows what a virtuoso novelist Cornell Woolrich was. Highly recommended.

"Waltz Into Darkness" is spellbinding. I was mesmerized from the first page. Woolrich creates tension that is taut, nearly unbearable. His writing is so vivid that it's like watching a movie on the big screen. Cornell Woolrich is unsurpassed as a weaver of psychological suspense.

SPOILER ALERTS!
The movie "Original Sin" is one of my favorites so when I saw it was based on a book I had to read it. It took me a long time to find a copy, since it is out of print and used copies are $40 and above. I discovered it in a collection of his other novels and stories at the library and picked it up immediately. The book was satisfying in every sense, well, almost every sense. I'm so used to the raunchy version that is the movie so I was a little disappointed (it was written in 1947 so that was not heard of back then, to have such sex scenes). Also, I was saddened to read that he dies at the end and that there is no such happy ending. But, hey, what can you do. Its still a good read.

I've read a good deal of Woolrich over the years, especially many of his short stories. Waltz into Darkness is quintessential Woolrich. Woolrich's stories have been a staple for so many film noirs and this novel typifies one of the most familiar noir motifs - how a basically decent man can be destroyed because of his obsession for an amoral woman. Woolrich's personal life sorely lacked any romantic connection and this yearning for that physical and emotional connection is embodied in the character of Louis Durand. Nowhere is all of Woolrich's literature is the romance of loneliness, despair, and fatalism so richly explored than here.

Loved it! Deep and heart felt. The very definition of infatuation. Anyone who's ever been lonely and lost in love/lust should relate.

While I felt this book was overwritten, I realize this is a generational thing. The writing style is very old-fashioned. It seemed written in the style of Theodore Dreiser, who was about forty years before Woolrich. But for all that, it is an accomplished story. HOWEVER, the ending was just ridiculous. Overly romantic, and entirely unrealistic. Sociopaths don't suddenly grow hearts. Still, fair dues to Woolrich for a compelling read. Maybe his editor made him tag on the absurd ending.