Edith's Diary

By: Patricia Highsmith

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Paperback | 21 August 2018

At a Glance

Paperback
256 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.96 x 13.97 x 2.54

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Edith Howland's diary is her most precious possession. After moving with her family from New York City to suburban Pennsylvania, Edith's husband abandons her for a younger woman, leaving her trapped in a bleak existence with her degenerate son and his senile uncle. As Edith's life turns sour, she retreats into her writing; and while her life plunges into chaos, a disturbing tale of success and happiness blooms in her diary. She invents a happy life, and as she knits for imaginary grandchildren, the real world recedes further still, marking a descent into madness that may well be unstoppable.

Originally published in 1977, Edith's Diary is a masterpiece of psychological suspense, a harrowing and tautly written tale of an ordinary woman whose life is slipping out of control. The author of Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith is one of the most original voices in twentieth-century American fiction.

Industry Reviews

Praise for Edith's Diary "A work of extraordinary force and feeling . . . Her strongest, her most imaginative, and by far her most substantial novel."--New Yorker

"With Edith's Diary, Patricia Highsmith has produced a masterpiece."--Times Literary Supplement (UK)

"Edith's fall takes the form of an old-fashioned psychological chiller, but there is also something stronger, the poignancy of her struggle not to go under. She is betrayed by such ordinary dreams."--New York Times

"[A] fine and chilling character study."--Newsweek

"Even as Edith is struggling to cope . . . moral speculations surface about the respective responsibilities of the uncaring and the unloved, tenterhooks cushioned with an enveloping intimacy of character and place."--Kirkus Reviews

"As original, as funny, as cleverly written and as moving as any novel I have read since I started reviewing."--Auberon Waugh, Evening Standard (UK)

"Edith's Diary is certainly one of the saddest novels I ever read, but it is also one of the mere twenty or so that I would say were perfect, unimprovable masterpieces."--A.N Wilson, Daily Telegraph (UK)

"Highsmith is a writer of intense subtlety . . . She probes to the very core of her heroine with a controlled ferocity and single-mindedness that illumines every page of the novel. It is a masterly book, a haunting book, a book that lingers long in the memory and constantly disturbs and delights."--Times (UK)

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