Ondertitel: -
Verschenen in: 1991
Aantal blz.: 300
Leestijd: 7
Uitgelezen op: 28-10-2001

Verantwoording van de keuze

Ik had geen idee welk boek ik zou gaan lezen voor dit verslag. Ik ben dus door de rekken gaan dwalen, onderwijl zo nu en dan een boek uit het rek nemend. Na een keer of wat had ik ‘A kiss before dying’ in mijn handen. Op de voorkant werd je attent gemaakt op de verfilming van het boek, waar ik meteen aan dacht. Ik had goede verhalen gehoord over de film, maar ik had de film zelf nog niet gezien. Omdat het een ongeschreven wet is dat een boek vrijwel altijd beter is dan de film heb ik het boek meegenomen.

Verwachtingen vooraf

Zoals ik al zei ga ik er van uit dat het boek beter is dan de film. De verhalen die ik over de film heb gehoord, waren zeer positief: het was spannend, had diepgang, onverwachtse wendingen en ga zo maar door. Ik heb denk ik daarom vrij hoge verwachtingen wat spanning en dergelijke betrefd, alhoewel deze verwachtingen misschien wat te hoog gegrepen zijn…

Eerste reactie achteraf

Echt een heel goed boek! Ik heb het in één ruk uitgelezen, en dan niet in de figuurlijke zin, maar letterlijk! Ik ben zondag 28 november begonnen aan het boek, heb het eten overgeslagen en 7 uur later was het (helaas) uit!

	Niet	Een beetje	Erg
Spannend		X
Meeslepend		X
Ontroerend	X
Grappig	X
Realistisch		X
Fantasierijk		X
Interessant		X
Origineel			X
Goed te begrijpen			X

Samenvatting

The book is about a relationship between the 24-year-old student Bud Corliss and 3 sisters, Dorothy, Ellen and Marion Kingship, daughters of the copper- magnate Leo Kingship.

Part 1: Dorothy

When the main character, a student, learns from Dorothy, his girlfriend, that she is pregnant, he is very angry . But he pretends he loves her and makes her promise to take some pills to get rid of the baby. In a flashback it is shown that the youns man was very popular at school. After the war he had several jobs and had an affair with a rich widow. He decided to study at Stoddard University, where he met Dorothy Kingship.
He gives Dorothy the pills, promising to marry her her if they do not work. Dorothy is the daughter of the president of Kingship Copper, an enormous corporation, and the young man sees a golden future ahead of him. Dorothy has two elder sisters, Ellen and Marion. Their mother died a yeatt after she and her husband were divorced. After some hesitation Dorothy swallows the pills although the idea of getting married the following day seems very attractive to her. The pills do not work and they decide to pet married on Friday, in three days' time. Hle makes Dorothy promise not to mention the marriage to her sister Ellen. In fact the young man does not want to gett married and starts making plans to murder Dorothy.
He succeeds in getting into the university pharmacy supply room and obtaining the ingredients to make poison pills. On thursday he asks Dorothy to translate a Spanish line for him, which reads: Darlin, T hope you will forgive me for the unhappiness that T will cause, there is nothing else that T can do. He mails the translation, in Dorothy's handwriting, to Ellen Kingship.
That night he tells Dorothy he .gave her the wrong pills and she should take the right ones. Dorothy is very disappointed but promises to take the pills. Later he rings her up and she says she has taken them.
But on Friday morning Dorothy is not dead. She says the pills did not work, but he assumes she did not take them. He realizes that Ellen will receive the note in the afternoon and Dorothy must be dead before that time. The young couple decide to Ret married right away and Dorothy goes to the dormitory {studentenhuis) to pack and dress.
Her friends find out that the Marriage License Bureau is closed between twelve and one. At twelve-thirty they arrive at the Bureau and the young man pretends to be surprised and sorry to find it closed. He says they can spend the next half hour on the roof of the building, which is fourteen storeys high. Dorothy confesses she did not take the pills. They talk for some time until the man pushes Dorothy over the parapet to death.
The man oushes Dorothy over the parapet He throws some of Dorothy's belongings in the river and the rest onto a bonfire which has been built to encourage support for the college baseball team.
The newspapers report Dorothy's death and say it is suicide, because of ~t7e note her sister received. Dorothy's nervousness, caused by the prospect o" getting married, is ascribed to her suicide plan. A girl in Dorothy's dormitory, Annabelle Koch, lent her a belt but says she founci it later on Doro~hv's desk.
He throws some of Dorothy's belongings in the river and the rest onto a bonfire which has been built to encourage support for the college baseball team. The newsnaoers report Dorothy's death and say it is suicide because of the note her sister received. Dorothy's nervousness, caused by the prospect of gettins married, is ascribed to her suicide plan. A girl in Dorothy's dormitory, Annabelle Koch, lent her a belt but says she found it later on Dorothy's desk.
The young man is disappointed that the excitement about Dorothy's death soon fly away. But after some time he begins feeling proud of himself because he has committed a murder and got away with it.

Part 2: Ellen

Almost a year later, Annabelle Koch writes to Dorothy's father that the belt on Dorothy's desk belonged to the dead girl after all. She does not understand why Dorothy borrowed her belt. Mr Kingship tells his daughter Ellen to stop...








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