This article is about the novel. For the 1955 film adaptation, see The Night of the Hunter (film).
The Night of the Hunter is a 1953 thriller novel by American author Davis Grubb. The book was a national bestseller and was voted a finalist for the 1955 National Book Award.
In 1955, the book was adapted by Charles Laughton and James Agee as the film The Night of the Hunter.
The story concerns an ex-convict Harry Powell who misrepresents himself as a prison chaplain upon his release from prison. Acting on a story told to him by his now-dead cellmate, "Reverend" Powell cons the cellmate's widow into marrying him in hopes that her children will tell him where their father hid the money from his last robbery. After killing their mother, he embarks on a hunt for the children, who have sensed his evil and are running from him.
The plot was based on the true story of Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children in Moundsville, West Virginia.
Grubb explores the presentation of the American South in the aftermath of the American Civil War. He uses tropes of the Southern Gothic genre to explore issues such as social corruption and instability. The figure of the Preacher is a symbol of the corruptive social force of religion in the American South, while the disruption of the family unit emphasises the broken sense of Southern identity after the War.
Editions
- Harper Brothers, 1953.
- Penguin Books, 1977. ISBN 0-14-004426-4
- Lightyear Press, 1993. ISBN 0-89968-431-9
- Blackmask.com, 2005. ISBN 1-59654-229-2
Bibliography
- Heaven & Hell to Play With: The Filming of 'The Night of the Hunter' by Preston Neal Jones. New York: Limelight Editions, 2002. In this well-detailed behind-the-scenes look at the film, Jones interviewed many of the principals, including Davis Grubb, producer Paul Gregory, cinematographer Stanley Cortez, art director Hilyard Brown, and actors Robert Mitchum, Donald Beddoe (who played Walt Spoon), and Lillian Gish. He also relied upon extensvie interviews with Charles Laughton conducted by others.
See also
 |
This article about a thriller novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
