| The Living and the Dead | |
 Cover of 1st edition |
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| Author | Boileau-Narcejac |
|---|---|
| Original title | D'entre les morts |
| Translator | Geoffrey Sainsbury |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Hutchinson |
| Publication date | 1954 |
| Published in English |
1956 |
| Media type | print (hardback) |
| ISBN | NA |
The Living and the Dead (also published as Vertigo) (French: D'entre les morts) is a 1954 crime novel by Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud (Thomas Narcejac), writing as Boileau-Narcejac. Alfred Hitchcock directed an adaptation of the novel in 1958 as Vertigo.
Plot introduction
The story concerns a former detective who suffers from acrophobia, who is hired to follow the wife of a friend who suspects her of infidelity. The detective becomes obsessed with the woman, eventually falling in love with her but unable to explain her strange trances and her belief in a previous life. When she falls to her death from a tower, he is unable to save her due to his fear of heights and experiences a psychotic break. After his partial recovery he encounters a woman who is nearly the image of his dead love, and the obsession begins all over again...
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
- 1958 - Vertigo, USA, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film also alludes to the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Although the source novel's explicit references to the myth do not appear in the film, certain themes do, including the return of a dead beloved to life, and discovering the fatal consequences of "looking back."
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