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Marnie
What's the childhood secret Marnie is running from? Told in the first person, Marnie is a self-portrait of a con artist who serially changes identity in order to build a better life for herself. The secret to her success is complete emotional detachment. So when her latest boss falls in love with her, they're both headed for a series of painful surprises. This 1961 novel was filmed in 1964 by Alfred Hitchcock, who wanted Grace Kelly, but settled for Tippi Hedren.
243 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1961
122 people are currently reading
2200 people want to read
About the author
Winston Graham
215 books1,150 followersWinston Graham was an English novelist best known for the Poldark series of historical novels set in Cornwall, though he also wrote contemporary thrillers, period novels, short stories, non-fiction, and plays. Born in Victoria Park, Manchester, he moved to Perranporth, Cornwall in 1925 and lived there for 34 years. Graham published his first novel, The House with the Stained Glass Windows, in 1934 and married Jean Williamson in 1939, who inspired the character Demelza in Poldark. During World War II, he joined the Auxiliary Coastguard Service. Graham became a member of the Society of Authors in 1945, serving as chairman from 1967 to 1969, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, receiving an OBE in 1983. His Poldark series began with Ross Poldark in 1945 and concluded with Bella Poldark in 2002. He wrote 30 additional novels, short stories, and non-fiction works, including the acclaimed thriller Marnie, adapted by Alfred Hitchcock in 1964. Several other novels, including The Walking Stick and Fortune Is a Woman, were adapted for film. Graham also wrote plays, some adapted from his novels. His works have been translated into 31 languages, and his autobiography, Memoirs of a Private Man, was published posthumously in 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 222 reviews
March 30, 2025
5 "crackling, probing, stylish" stars !!
7th Favorite Read of 2024 Award
Ok folks I am going to fucking GUSH !
Did I tell you ? I am going to fucking GUSH !
Last autumn my sweetheart and I re-watched all of Hitchcock's films and some of his television. I had seen everything before several times but never Marnie. So I watched Marnie once, then again, then thrice...I was fascinated and perplexed. Some of the film was so darn amazing and others parts were so damn bad that it was so damn good ! The film was campy noir and I knew I had to read the book. What on earth inspired this deliciously inconsistent film ?
Ok now I am going to fucking Gush....
Marnie is not literary fiction. This is however, popular fiction at its very best. Deeply interesting, educational and tremendously entertaining. I wish so many of these popular chicklit thriller writers could come up with somethin one quarter as excellent. I am looking at you Flynn, Lapena, Harding, Feeney, Hepworth and so many others....do your research and learn about Character and not the crap you write....
This was published in 1961 and holds its own in these contemporary times.....
This is not just a psychological thriller but a deep character study with a small dollop of welcome melodrama (so much better and coherent than the film).
Marnie is 24 and a very sharp grifter. Born to the gutters with a hidden past. She is extremely charming, chameleon- like and very easy on the eyes. Marnie is not a sociopath. Marnie is deeply disturbed. I suspect in today's diagnostic code she would be somebody with a very high functioning personality disorder of the borderline and avoidant subtypes (plus or minus dissociative features).
As the story unfolds we learn more and more about her past and what led to her way of living, her misanthropy, her distrust and need for solitude....the story is enticing, fascinating and absolutely pitch perfect....this will be especially interesting to those that adore books with psychoanalytic undertones....psychodynamic therapy can still be extremely helpful to those with high functioning personality dysfunction. On a more macro level this novel also reflects on how patriarchal strictures can lead to personality dysfunction in some women.
The supporting cast is absolutely essential and believable and carries Marnie's story. I loved Marnie's interior psychological processing and her ever changing thoughts, projections and psychic defenses. A reader cannot help but sympathize with Marnie but be careful as like a serpent she can either strike or slither away.
I was afraid and beguiled by Marnie just like any other man I guess....
I hope somebody would do a new film and the role of Marnie would just have to be played by Mia Goth (ok I promise not to gush about how amazing Mia Goth is but she truly is....)
End of GUSH....
7th Favorite Read of 2024 Award
Ok folks I am going to fucking GUSH !
Did I tell you ? I am going to fucking GUSH !
Last autumn my sweetheart and I re-watched all of Hitchcock's films and some of his television. I had seen everything before several times but never Marnie. So I watched Marnie once, then again, then thrice...I was fascinated and perplexed. Some of the film was so darn amazing and others parts were so damn bad that it was so damn good ! The film was campy noir and I knew I had to read the book. What on earth inspired this deliciously inconsistent film ?
Ok now I am going to fucking Gush....
Marnie is not literary fiction. This is however, popular fiction at its very best. Deeply interesting, educational and tremendously entertaining. I wish so many of these popular chicklit thriller writers could come up with somethin one quarter as excellent. I am looking at you Flynn, Lapena, Harding, Feeney, Hepworth and so many others....do your research and learn about Character and not the crap you write....
This was published in 1961 and holds its own in these contemporary times.....
This is not just a psychological thriller but a deep character study with a small dollop of welcome melodrama (so much better and coherent than the film).
Marnie is 24 and a very sharp grifter. Born to the gutters with a hidden past. She is extremely charming, chameleon- like and very easy on the eyes. Marnie is not a sociopath. Marnie is deeply disturbed. I suspect in today's diagnostic code she would be somebody with a very high functioning personality disorder of the borderline and avoidant subtypes (plus or minus dissociative features).
As the story unfolds we learn more and more about her past and what led to her way of living, her misanthropy, her distrust and need for solitude....the story is enticing, fascinating and absolutely pitch perfect....this will be especially interesting to those that adore books with psychoanalytic undertones....psychodynamic therapy can still be extremely helpful to those with high functioning personality dysfunction. On a more macro level this novel also reflects on how patriarchal strictures can lead to personality dysfunction in some women.
The supporting cast is absolutely essential and believable and carries Marnie's story. I loved Marnie's interior psychological processing and her ever changing thoughts, projections and psychic defenses. A reader cannot help but sympathize with Marnie but be careful as like a serpent she can either strike or slither away.
I was afraid and beguiled by Marnie just like any other man I guess....
I hope somebody would do a new film and the role of Marnie would just have to be played by Mia Goth (ok I promise not to gush about how amazing Mia Goth is but she truly is....)
End of GUSH....
May 6, 2015
This was an excellent read. It is very dated, couldn't take place in the age of IT, she'd be outed on Facebook in no time. But as a story of its time featuring a young, female con-artist, an unusual heroine. If you are the sort of person who questions everything at every turn, don't read it, watch the film instead, but if you can suspend disbelief and just go with the story, then this is a good, light read.
September 1, 2012
Winston Graham's 1961 novel Marnie is best know today as the source of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 movie of the same title. The movie was somewhat controversial at the time for its relatively frank treatment of sexual problems and today if anything it divides audiences even more.
The novel was very successful at the time. Winston Graham (1908-2003) was a best-selling author most widely known for his Poldark historical novels. He also wrote thrillers and Marnie fits into the latter category. It’s a psycho-sexual crime novel with much more emphasis on sex than on crime.
Marnie is a thief. And a very successful one. Her crimes are intricately planned and daring. She has devised a remarkably successful modus operandi. She invents a false identity for herself, talks her way into a job and then manoeuvres herself into a position where she has access to the company’s money. This is easy for her because she has a natural gift for mathematics which employers quickly recognise. She is also a very competent employee and even in the short time she stays in a job she usually wins promotion. After that the successful completion of the robbery is just a matter of waiting for the ideal time. It may take weeks, but the results are inevitable. Marnie has created a whole series of these false identities and has carried out a whole series of robberies but she covers her tracks very thoroughly indeed.
The fact is that Marnie is so gifted and capable that she could easily make a success of any job. She has no real need to steal. At least she has no material need to be a thief. But she does have a deep psychological need to do so. Marnnie has issues, and although she has never admitted it to herself those issues revolve around sex. It also has to be admitted that she enjoys stealing although again it’s as much the fulfillment of a psychological need as it is the excitement of the life she leads.
Marnie believes she is happy. She also believes that she steals in order to support her invalid mother. As with most things in Marnie’s life there’s a fair amount of self-deception in this, a self-deception that is entirely unconscious.
All goes well with her criminal career until she gets a job with a printing company called Rutland’s. She makes the mistake of staying there longer than usual, and she makes the further mistake of becoming involved on a social level with the people there. In particular with two men. Marnie has never had any interest in men, or in love or marriage or sex. She especially has had no interest in sex. She is a virgin and she intends to stay that way. Her mother has told her how disgusting the sexual aspects of marriage are and Marnie has no intention of finding out about such distasteful matters for herself. Despite this she allows herself to become friendly with two men, Terry Holbrook and Mark Rutland, both descendants of the original founders of the firm.
In the case of Terry it’s certainly not Marnie who is the instigator of things and she really dislikes him. With good reason, since he’s a rather unpleasant young man. With Mark it is different. He’s really the first man who has ever interested her as a person, the first man she’s ever felt at ease with, and the first man who seems to understand her. She’s fended off Terry’s advances quite successfully and she’s confident she can avoid going too far with Mark. She certainly would not let either of them touch her, but without realising what has happened she has developed rather a liking for Mark’s company.
She finally decides she has stayed too long, cleans out the company’s safe and disappears. But her one passion in life, her love of horses, has led her to make a fatal mistake. Mark has discovered where she keeps her horse stabled and tracks her down. She assumes that he will hand her over to the police but Mark has other plans. He intends to get the money back, but he also intends to marry Marnie.
This is where the book really starts to get interesting. The marriage is a complex web of misunderstandings, wishful thinking, deception and self-deception. The way Marnie sees it is that she has been blackmailed into marriage. The way Mark sees it is that he loves her and she loves him. He knows she is a strange woman but he believes that love will conquer all. He can save her.
As you might expect their wedding night is not a success. In fact nothing happens. Nothing happens for a week or more until finally Mark’s passions get the better of him. Marnie is so obviously appalled that that is the last time he tries to have sex with her. But he still loves her and he still believes that patience and understanding will prevail and that Marnie’s fear of sex can be overcome. After all psychiatrists are good at that sort of thing aren’t they? Surely a psychiatrist will find this to be a relatively simple matter. In fact her psychiatrist finds her to be anything but an easy case.
This is a mystery-suspense novel but the mystery and suspense come more from the unravelling of the secrets of Marnie’s past, and her mother’s past, than from the unravelling of a crime. In the course of this unravelling Marnie will make some startling discoveries but by the time she does this she has other problems to worry about. Her criminal past is also about to catch up to her. Now the challenge is not just to escape the chains of the past but also to stay out of prison.
If you think the explanation of Marnie’s problem is the sort of obvious explanation that a modern writer would choose you will be surprised. Writers in 1961 were rather more original and rather more subtle than writers of today and the explanation is not the obvious one at all.
The plot and the themes are rather similar to those of the film but with a few important differences. In particular the Marnie-Mark relationship is different in several respects, the explanation of Marnie’s sexual problems is somewhat more complex and also different in important respects compared to the film, and the ending is quite different. So if you’ve seen the movie don’t assume that this going to be the same story. Hitchcock and his screenwriter Jay Presson Allen use the same basic plot as a jumping-off point but they do different things with it so if you have seen the movie the novel is still well worth reading for both its similarities and its differences.
f is a fine example of a crime novel in which crime is not really the focus. The author has other intentions besides writing a crime novel but even judged as a crime novel it’s exceptionally interesting. Of course the assumptions about psychiatry and about the solving of psychological problems purely by discovering the hidden trauma in the past are a little dated but Winston Graham handles the story with sufficient skill to make this a fascinating read.
Apart from being a kind of sexual mystery it is also a novel about identity, or rather different layers of identity. Marnie has other reasons for her constant re-invention of herself besides its usefulness to her as a criminal. She needs masks to hide behind and perhaps in some ways this is more important to her even than thieving. The lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell others, the lies that we live, these are all issues addressed in this novel. The truth exists, but do we really want the truth?
Highly recommended.
The novel was very successful at the time. Winston Graham (1908-2003) was a best-selling author most widely known for his Poldark historical novels. He also wrote thrillers and Marnie fits into the latter category. It’s a psycho-sexual crime novel with much more emphasis on sex than on crime.
Marnie is a thief. And a very successful one. Her crimes are intricately planned and daring. She has devised a remarkably successful modus operandi. She invents a false identity for herself, talks her way into a job and then manoeuvres herself into a position where she has access to the company’s money. This is easy for her because she has a natural gift for mathematics which employers quickly recognise. She is also a very competent employee and even in the short time she stays in a job she usually wins promotion. After that the successful completion of the robbery is just a matter of waiting for the ideal time. It may take weeks, but the results are inevitable. Marnie has created a whole series of these false identities and has carried out a whole series of robberies but she covers her tracks very thoroughly indeed.
The fact is that Marnie is so gifted and capable that she could easily make a success of any job. She has no real need to steal. At least she has no material need to be a thief. But she does have a deep psychological need to do so. Marnnie has issues, and although she has never admitted it to herself those issues revolve around sex. It also has to be admitted that she enjoys stealing although again it’s as much the fulfillment of a psychological need as it is the excitement of the life she leads.
Marnie believes she is happy. She also believes that she steals in order to support her invalid mother. As with most things in Marnie’s life there’s a fair amount of self-deception in this, a self-deception that is entirely unconscious.
All goes well with her criminal career until she gets a job with a printing company called Rutland’s. She makes the mistake of staying there longer than usual, and she makes the further mistake of becoming involved on a social level with the people there. In particular with two men. Marnie has never had any interest in men, or in love or marriage or sex. She especially has had no interest in sex. She is a virgin and she intends to stay that way. Her mother has told her how disgusting the sexual aspects of marriage are and Marnie has no intention of finding out about such distasteful matters for herself. Despite this she allows herself to become friendly with two men, Terry Holbrook and Mark Rutland, both descendants of the original founders of the firm.
In the case of Terry it’s certainly not Marnie who is the instigator of things and she really dislikes him. With good reason, since he’s a rather unpleasant young man. With Mark it is different. He’s really the first man who has ever interested her as a person, the first man she’s ever felt at ease with, and the first man who seems to understand her. She’s fended off Terry’s advances quite successfully and she’s confident she can avoid going too far with Mark. She certainly would not let either of them touch her, but without realising what has happened she has developed rather a liking for Mark’s company.
She finally decides she has stayed too long, cleans out the company’s safe and disappears. But her one passion in life, her love of horses, has led her to make a fatal mistake. Mark has discovered where she keeps her horse stabled and tracks her down. She assumes that he will hand her over to the police but Mark has other plans. He intends to get the money back, but he also intends to marry Marnie.
This is where the book really starts to get interesting. The marriage is a complex web of misunderstandings, wishful thinking, deception and self-deception. The way Marnie sees it is that she has been blackmailed into marriage. The way Mark sees it is that he loves her and she loves him. He knows she is a strange woman but he believes that love will conquer all. He can save her.
As you might expect their wedding night is not a success. In fact nothing happens. Nothing happens for a week or more until finally Mark’s passions get the better of him. Marnie is so obviously appalled that that is the last time he tries to have sex with her. But he still loves her and he still believes that patience and understanding will prevail and that Marnie’s fear of sex can be overcome. After all psychiatrists are good at that sort of thing aren’t they? Surely a psychiatrist will find this to be a relatively simple matter. In fact her psychiatrist finds her to be anything but an easy case.
This is a mystery-suspense novel but the mystery and suspense come more from the unravelling of the secrets of Marnie’s past, and her mother’s past, than from the unravelling of a crime. In the course of this unravelling Marnie will make some startling discoveries but by the time she does this she has other problems to worry about. Her criminal past is also about to catch up to her. Now the challenge is not just to escape the chains of the past but also to stay out of prison.
If you think the explanation of Marnie’s problem is the sort of obvious explanation that a modern writer would choose you will be surprised. Writers in 1961 were rather more original and rather more subtle than writers of today and the explanation is not the obvious one at all.
The plot and the themes are rather similar to those of the film but with a few important differences. In particular the Marnie-Mark relationship is different in several respects, the explanation of Marnie’s sexual problems is somewhat more complex and also different in important respects compared to the film, and the ending is quite different. So if you’ve seen the movie don’t assume that this going to be the same story. Hitchcock and his screenwriter Jay Presson Allen use the same basic plot as a jumping-off point but they do different things with it so if you have seen the movie the novel is still well worth reading for both its similarities and its differences.
f is a fine example of a crime novel in which crime is not really the focus. The author has other intentions besides writing a crime novel but even judged as a crime novel it’s exceptionally interesting. Of course the assumptions about psychiatry and about the solving of psychological problems purely by discovering the hidden trauma in the past are a little dated but Winston Graham handles the story with sufficient skill to make this a fascinating read.
Apart from being a kind of sexual mystery it is also a novel about identity, or rather different layers of identity. Marnie has other reasons for her constant re-invention of herself besides its usefulness to her as a criminal. She needs masks to hide behind and perhaps in some ways this is more important to her even than thieving. The lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell others, the lies that we live, these are all issues addressed in this novel. The truth exists, but do we really want the truth?
Highly recommended.
October 6, 2017
A psychological mystery in the tradition of Daphne du Maurier or Mary Stewart, Marnie is a wonderfully suspenseful and well-written novel. This novel became famous as an Alfred Hitchcock movie in the 1960s, it reads as if Winston Graham had Hitchcock in mind all the way.
You have a sense right from the beginning that there is more to this woman than meets the eye; that she has a past, secrets, issues, that will explain her inability to connect to people and her need to be someone other than herself.
Loads of fun, and even better because I had Lori to help me peel the layers away and made me want to do it SLOWLY.
You have a sense right from the beginning that there is more to this woman than meets the eye; that she has a past, secrets, issues, that will explain her inability to connect to people and her need to be someone other than herself.
Loads of fun, and even better because I had Lori to help me peel the layers away and made me want to do it SLOWLY.
January 25, 2021
Hitchcock's adaptation of Graham's novel, Marnie, is one of my favourite Tippi Hedren films. I idolized Tippi Hedren. I never much cared for Hitchcock and was disgusted when I read, years later, that he sexually harassed Hedren. When she refused to "oblige him" on the casting couch, he made her life a sheer misery on set - and off. Tippi Hedren gained the respect of the film crew for her endurance and her professionalism in the face of Hitchcock's vindictive antics.
I have often said that some authors can't seem to get into the heads of a female character. I certainly thought so at the end of this novel (and the movie as well). No spoilers here, but even back then, I was not very impressed by the trope whereby the male protagonist comes to the rescue of a poor, mentally ill or socially inadequate woman, shows her the error of her ways and voila, she is cured or saved and ready to play nice and be a devoted wife to him.
I have to admit that the ending of the movie was a better fit, but then I was too busy admiring Sean Connery at the time, so maybe THAT was why I preferred the movie over the book?
I have often said that some authors can't seem to get into the heads of a female character. I certainly thought so at the end of this novel (and the movie as well). No spoilers here, but even back then, I was not very impressed by the trope whereby the male protagonist comes to the rescue of a poor, mentally ill or socially inadequate woman, shows her the error of her ways and voila, she is cured or saved and ready to play nice and be a devoted wife to him.
I have to admit that the ending of the movie was a better fit, but then I was too busy admiring Sean Connery at the time, so maybe THAT was why I preferred the movie over the book?
August 11, 2018
Η ιστορία μιας όμορφης απατεώνισσας που αλλάζει ταυτότητες και πιάνει δουλει�� σε επιχειρήσεις τις οποίες ξαφρίζει και εξαφανίζεται, ώσπου ο ψηλός μελαχρινός με το θεληματικό πηγούνι ανακαλύπτει τις κομπίνες της και της βάζει το δίλημμα "ή με παντρεύεσαι ή σε δίνω στεγνά στην αστυνομία". (Say what???)
Είναι γραμμένο σε μία εποχή που ο άντρας σατράπης θεωρείται σέξι και έχει την ελευθερία να λεει φράσεις όπως "come here woman", "kiss me woman", "θα σου γκρεμίσω την ζωή και θα σου την φτιάξω από την αρχή woman" σε κάποια γυναίκα της δικής του επιλογής, (πόσο φαλλοκρατικό), την τραβάει από το μπράτσο, την κολλάει πάνω του και την φιλά με δύο μέτρα γλώσσα, (σεξουαλική παρανόχληση) και η άλλη ανταποκρίνεται σαν παλαβή που της έχουν χορηγήσει 4-5 ηρεμιστικά. (Τραβάτε με κι ας κλαίω.) Φράσεις και πράξεις δηλαδή που αν προέρχονταν από κάποιον άντρα σήμερα πιθανότατα να ξυπνούσε με μερικές δεκάδες ασφαλιστικά μέτρα εις βάρος του.
Όπως και να 'χει, το βιβλίο είναι καλύτερο από την ταινία του Χίτσκοκ, διότι σου εξηγεί βαθύτερα το ιστορικό της μοιραίας γυναίκας και από που προκύπτουν η καμιά εκατοστή περίεργες φοβίες που παρουσιάζει όπως για παράδειγμα ότι δεν μπορεί να βλέπει το κόκκινο χρώμα. (Φανταστείτε να τα έφτιαχνε με Ολυμπιακό δηλάδη.). Από την άλλη, στην ταινία πρωταγωνιστεί ο Sean Connery στα νιάτα του που ειναι eye candy και καταπίνεις λιγάκι πιο εύκολα τις χοντράδες του ήρωα.
Αστεράκια 3 γιατί έτσι.
Είναι γραμμένο σε μία εποχή που ο άντρας σατράπης θεωρείται σέξι και έχει την ελευθερία να λεει φράσεις όπως "come here woman", "kiss me woman", "θα σου γκρεμίσω την ζωή και θα σου την φτιάξω από την αρχή woman" σε κάποια γυναίκα της δικής του επιλογής, (πόσο φαλλοκρατικό), την τραβάει από το μπράτσο, την κολλάει πάνω του και την φιλά με δύο μέτρα γλώσσα, (σεξουαλική παρανόχληση) και η άλλη ανταποκρίνεται σαν παλαβή που της έχουν χορηγήσει 4-5 ηρεμιστικά. (Τραβάτε με κι ας κλαίω.) Φράσεις και πράξεις δηλαδή που αν προέρχονταν από κάποιον άντρα σήμερα πιθανότατα να ξυπνούσε με μερικές δεκάδες ασφαλιστικά μέτρα εις βάρος του.
Όπως και να 'χει, το βιβλίο είναι καλύτερο από την ταινία του Χίτσκοκ, διότι σου εξηγεί βαθύτερα το ιστορικό της μοιραίας γυναίκας και από που προκύπτουν η καμιά εκατοστή περίεργες φοβίες που παρουσιάζει όπως για παράδειγμα ότι δεν μπορεί να βλέπει το κόκκινο χρώμα. (Φανταστείτε να τα έφτιαχνε με Ολυμπιακό δηλάδη.). Από την άλλη, στην ταινία πρωταγωνιστεί ο Sean Connery στα νιάτα του που ειναι eye candy και καταπίνεις λιγάκι πιο εύκολα τις χοντράδες του ήρωα.
Αστεράκια 3 γιατί έτσι.
July 1, 2020
Мене поманила ця червона м’яка обкладинка, але великих очікувань не було: щось детективне і 1961 року випуску. Чого чекати?
Ми одразу знайомимося з Марні – дівчиною-шахрайкою, яка влаштовується на роботу, працює, втирається в довіру і підмічає вдалий момент, щоб викрасти гроші. Після цього міняє місто, зачіску, ім’я і починає знову. Вона утримує матір і бреше, що працює на багатого начальника.
Книга буквально приклеїла мене до себе тим, що я просто не уявляла, куди ми прямуємо і яким буде закінчення. Давно зі мною такого не було! Неочікувана книжка з нечітким жанром. У відгуку на звороті можна побачити «кримінальний роман», і хоча ця назва одразу вимальовують перед моїми очима якісь розбірки мафії, але, мабуть, це найточніше визначення, яке спадає на думку. Ну, може ще «психологічний». Проблеми, які піднімаються по ходу реально дисонували з роком написання. Чи то я така упереджена?
І закінчення теж було неочікуваним: я очікувала хоч якийсь труп! Хоча…деякою мірою, ми його отримуємо)
Ми одразу знайомимося з Марні – дівчиною-шахрайкою, яка влаштовується на роботу, працює, втирається в довіру і підмічає вдалий момент, щоб викрасти гроші. Після цього міняє місто, зачіску, ім’я і починає знову. Вона утримує матір і бреше, що працює на багатого начальника.
Книга буквально приклеїла мене до себе тим, що я просто не уявляла, куди ми прямуємо і яким буде закінчення. Давно зі мною такого не було! Неочікувана книжка з нечітким жанром. У відгуку на звороті можна побачити «кримінальний роман», і хоча ця назва одразу вимальовують перед моїми очима якісь розбірки мафії, але, мабуть, це найточніше визначення, яке спадає на думку. Ну, може ще «психологічний». Проблеми, які піднімаються по ходу реально дисонували з роком написання. Чи то я така упереджена?
І закінчення теж було неочікуваним: я очікувала хоч якийсь труп! Хоча…деякою мірою, ми його отримуємо)
January 21, 2019
A surprisingly good read. I was familiar with the story from the 1964 Hitchcock movie but did not know that it was based on a book by Winston Graham (of the Poldark series). As usual, the book is better than the movie. Both are psychological thrillers, but Hitchcock focused on Marnie’s sexual repression and Graham on her self-discovery. And that secret Marnie’s mother has always hidden from her... it’s different in the book and more shocking.
February 25, 2018
Let me start by saying that for me 3 stars isn't bad. It just means the book is not amazing. 4 stars is outstanding and 5 stars is almost life-changing.
Marnie is an enjoyable read (other than two racial slurs that were a shock and were part of old expressions that are now execrable).
I loved the movie (and if you've seen the movie, you know how most of the book goes other than the ending which is somewhat different).
Marnie is a compulsive thief. She plans her thefts carefully, though; there's nothing impulsive about them. She comes from poverty and, with the help of some elocution lessons and a lot of brainpower, has transformed herself into a respectable, middle class secretary with a secret life.
Then she meets Mark Rutland. He's her employer in the next heist she's planning.
To say more, would be spoilers and not worth it. The pleasure in the book is the voice of Marnie herself (it's told in first person pov--hers) and in the easy reading of it.
Graham is the author of one of my favorite series--Poldark. At least, I loved it in my teens; it's been many (many) years since I've read them) but he really knows how to tell a story and keep the reader's attention.
So, Marnie is light reading but very pleasurable. I enjoyed it very much.
Marnie is an enjoyable read (other than two racial slurs that were a shock and were part of old expressions that are now execrable).
I loved the movie (and if you've seen the movie, you know how most of the book goes other than the ending which is somewhat different).
Marnie is a compulsive thief. She plans her thefts carefully, though; there's nothing impulsive about them. She comes from poverty and, with the help of some elocution lessons and a lot of brainpower, has transformed herself into a respectable, middle class secretary with a secret life.
Then she meets Mark Rutland. He's her employer in the next heist she's planning.
To say more, would be spoilers and not worth it. The pleasure in the book is the voice of Marnie herself (it's told in first person pov--hers) and in the easy reading of it.
Graham is the author of one of my favorite series--Poldark. At least, I loved it in my teens; it's been many (many) years since I've read them) but he really knows how to tell a story and keep the reader's attention.
So, Marnie is light reading but very pleasurable. I enjoyed it very much.
June 2, 2017
This book was a huge thing for me, since I knew it was the book my Grandmother read when she decided that my name should be Marnie. She always told me that one day when I'm old enough she would have me read it myself. Sadly she passed on before I ever had the opportunity.
Now I would really like to ask her about it. I think we would have been awsome reading buddies, as I discovered that our tast in reading material is very similar, we would have spent hours discussing plots and characters. I now just wished I had the opportunity.
Winston Graham is a great author with a mind that I'm very sure of blew his readers away in the 60's as his topics were controversial and blunt to the point.
The main character in Marnie is a full, live like character you can relate to and personally there were a lot of things she did and went through that was close to me and that made the book even more realistic to me.
I don't think this is a book for everyone, but it does have a deeper meaning to it. A live lesson as such.
I will not forget this Marnie and her life story very soon,in fact I think it will stay with me a while.
Now I would really like to ask her about it. I think we would have been awsome reading buddies, as I discovered that our tast in reading material is very similar, we would have spent hours discussing plots and characters. I now just wished I had the opportunity.
Winston Graham is a great author with a mind that I'm very sure of blew his readers away in the 60's as his topics were controversial and blunt to the point.
The main character in Marnie is a full, live like character you can relate to and personally there were a lot of things she did and went through that was close to me and that made the book even more realistic to me.
I don't think this is a book for everyone, but it does have a deeper meaning to it. A live lesson as such.
I will not forget this Marnie and her life story very soon,in fact I think it will stay with me a while.
January 9, 2015
Man, I was smooth. I told my friend, Look, all you have to do is grab it and put it in your pocket like it's no big deal. Like this. We were halfway out of the store and all was quiet when my friend said, That was easy, wait here. The key word, of course, is "halfway" out of the store. Soon as we hit the mall, some big lug was on our tail and we were toast. It's possible I smarted off to the guy a bit. It's possible that's why he called the cops. It's certain that an hour later, we were both downtown in a detention cell. What are you in for? this scary tough kid asks. Stealing a necklace, I say. Oh, man, you should be home watching Popeye. I didn't ask what he was in for.
This is more or less how Marnie begins her life of crime, with a minor theft at the age of ten. Thankfully, it's also where the parallels with my own life end. When we first meet Marnie, she's passing a cop who wishes her a good night. She wonders what he'd say if he knew what was in her handbag. Over a decade later, she's graduated to felony theft. Warrants have been issued for her arrest. But she doesn't mind: the warrants are all under false names in towns she's long since left behind. Now she's on the move again.
But this time she picks the wrong target, or the wrong man to work for. Mark Rutland, of Rutland's Printing, is a lonely widower whose wife died very young. Marnie captures his imagination. While it can't be said she encourages his attention, she doesn't entirely rebuff him either. It's enough for Mark to fall in love. When Marnie makes her move, Mark catches her. Believing he can help her, he coerces her into marriage. And that's when Marnie's uncomplicated, if criminal, existence comes to an end.
I didn't know until I saw the credits that Alfred Hitchcock's film was based on this novel, or any novel for that matter. Unlike many of the books his films have been based on -- Psycho, The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, to take those I've read myself -- this one doesn't seem to have come down to us with a reputation in its own right. I find this strange for two reasons. First, Winston Graham, the author, wrote over 40 books, including 12 in a series popular in Britain. Second, and more significantly, I think this book is better than the others I've read. Head and shoulders better.
Perhaps it has something to do with its genre. Where the other books are all considered thrillers, this one is classified as a crime novel. Whatever that is. I have to admit, if that was all I had to go on, I doubt I ever would have picked up this book. So let's make this a little clearer: Marnie is a psychological suspense story that happens to involve crime.
Not that the crime is incidental -- Marnie's M.O. is richly detailed. Watching her go about the business of ingratiating herself into a company, planning the heist, and then carrying it out is one of the pleasures of the book. But what really makes it enjoyable is Marnie herself, who approaches her "work" with a detachment and matter-of-factness that is both funny and frightening. She's pathological, but utterly charming. (She reminds me a bit of Julie Bailey, Cornell Woolrich's dazzling angel of vengeance in The Bride Wore Black.)
Of course, Marnie's crimes are only one manifestation of her mental condition. The other is her detestation of men. One leads to her marriage, the other threatens to destroy it. Though Hitchcock's film is, in terms of plot, remarkably similar to Graham's book, the two are unique in that their emphases are different. The movie pushes Mark into the foreground; the book, narrated by Marnie herself, keeps him at a distance -- though not quite far enough away to suit Marnie. And we can't help but sympathize with her. She was, after all, virtually blackmailed into marriage. But where the movie can be seen as a war for dominance, the book details a war of suppression. Mostly that means running away -- distancing herself from Mark, going out with his hated cousin and business partner -- but Marnie is too bright not to consider the implications of her lifestyle. As Graham drops one clue after another about the source of Marnie's derangement, we begin to sympathize with Mark, as well, or with his aim at least. This isn't about a man trying to tame a woman; it's about a woman discovering that she has a problem. And it's all played out against a tense backdrop of crime, jealousy, frustration, and intrigue.
With this book, at least (and now I'm curious about all those other books), Graham shows himself to be, like Hitchcock, a master of suspense.
This is more or less how Marnie begins her life of crime, with a minor theft at the age of ten. Thankfully, it's also where the parallels with my own life end. When we first meet Marnie, she's passing a cop who wishes her a good night. She wonders what he'd say if he knew what was in her handbag. Over a decade later, she's graduated to felony theft. Warrants have been issued for her arrest. But she doesn't mind: the warrants are all under false names in towns she's long since left behind. Now she's on the move again.
But this time she picks the wrong target, or the wrong man to work for. Mark Rutland, of Rutland's Printing, is a lonely widower whose wife died very young. Marnie captures his imagination. While it can't be said she encourages his attention, she doesn't entirely rebuff him either. It's enough for Mark to fall in love. When Marnie makes her move, Mark catches her. Believing he can help her, he coerces her into marriage. And that's when Marnie's uncomplicated, if criminal, existence comes to an end.
I didn't know until I saw the credits that Alfred Hitchcock's film was based on this novel, or any novel for that matter. Unlike many of the books his films have been based on -- Psycho, The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, to take those I've read myself -- this one doesn't seem to have come down to us with a reputation in its own right. I find this strange for two reasons. First, Winston Graham, the author, wrote over 40 books, including 12 in a series popular in Britain. Second, and more significantly, I think this book is better than the others I've read. Head and shoulders better.
Perhaps it has something to do with its genre. Where the other books are all considered thrillers, this one is classified as a crime novel. Whatever that is. I have to admit, if that was all I had to go on, I doubt I ever would have picked up this book. So let's make this a little clearer: Marnie is a psychological suspense story that happens to involve crime.
Not that the crime is incidental -- Marnie's M.O. is richly detailed. Watching her go about the business of ingratiating herself into a company, planning the heist, and then carrying it out is one of the pleasures of the book. But what really makes it enjoyable is Marnie herself, who approaches her "work" with a detachment and matter-of-factness that is both funny and frightening. She's pathological, but utterly charming. (She reminds me a bit of Julie Bailey, Cornell Woolrich's dazzling angel of vengeance in The Bride Wore Black.)
Of course, Marnie's crimes are only one manifestation of her mental condition. The other is her detestation of men. One leads to her marriage, the other threatens to destroy it. Though Hitchcock's film is, in terms of plot, remarkably similar to Graham's book, the two are unique in that their emphases are different. The movie pushes Mark into the foreground; the book, narrated by Marnie herself, keeps him at a distance -- though not quite far enough away to suit Marnie. And we can't help but sympathize with her. She was, after all, virtually blackmailed into marriage. But where the movie can be seen as a war for dominance, the book details a war of suppression. Mostly that means running away -- distancing herself from Mark, going out with his hated cousin and business partner -- but Marnie is too bright not to consider the implications of her lifestyle. As Graham drops one clue after another about the source of Marnie's derangement, we begin to sympathize with Mark, as well, or with his aim at least. This isn't about a man trying to tame a woman; it's about a woman discovering that she has a problem. And it's all played out against a tense backdrop of crime, jealousy, frustration, and intrigue.
With this book, at least (and now I'm curious about all those other books), Graham shows himself to be, like Hitchcock, a master of suspense.
May 10, 2024
I didn’t read the book but saw Hitchcock’s adaptation of 1964. The movie was qualified as a “psychological thriller”.
The story is arranged as to make the reader/viewer wonder about the central character: Marnie (played by Tippi Hedren) and understand her behavior. Marnie: a compulsive thief.
She started robbing $10,000. A well-planned coup regarding her hair-color (then dark), no traces left, evasion, social security cards etc.
Marnie then visits her mother with an expensive gift for her; yet mother doesn’t like Marnie being too-blond now. At mother’s there are those red gladiolus Marnie totally rejects; she prefers Chrysanthemums. It’s obvious their relationship is not good: Marnie feels rejection. During sleep her mother watches Marnie’s nightmares: accompained by feelings of being cold. Marnie tells mother they didn’t have a father; she says:”we don’t need men!”.
Now she’s looking for a new job; she applies for an interview in a publishing house and despite not having references she gets the job as secretary. She’s already planning, meticulously, another robbery.
Her boss Mark (played by Sean Connery) starts a relation with her; takes her to the horses races. He tries to understand Marnie’s fears of thunder,… and the red color issue.
Marnie trusts nobody, but horses.
Meanwhile Marnie managed to rob the editorial house; but Mark knows about it. He’s in love with Marnie; persuades her to travel on a cruise…and get married; but things won’t work because Marnie is totally frigid. She even tried suicide.
Mark will proceed in a sort of psychoanalyst/psychologist’s work trying to unravel Marnie’s past. Maybe that will work.
Mild story. Mild Hitch too, this time around.
January 17, 2018
An excellent suspense novel published in 1961 by the much loved author of the “Poldark” series, told as a first person account by a beautiful, clever thief named Marnie Elmer who is trapped into marriage by one of her victims, Mark Rutland. It’s clear that Mark’s motives are purely from the heart; he fell in love with Marnie before she stole from him and now he wants to help her go straight. But the psychological damage she suffered as a child, which has led her to a life of crime, among other things, is so far reaching and buried so deeply, not even Marnie herself is aware of them.
The book was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1964, which remains controversial to this day on a couple of different levels: some think it’s a masterpiece, some a failure; and the film’s sexual politics feel suspicious to some modern viewers who are sensitive to the stereotypes of female hysteria in old school psychiatry.
But neither the film nor the book traffics in much Freud (who in any case was not wrong about everything). The novel’s psychological dimension is well researched and frankly up to the minute (for 1961). And we still believe fifty years later that unacknowledged trauma can lead to all kinds of acting out in depressed people, from soldiers in a war zone to abused children, so Marnie’s career of stealing has plenty of documented case histories to back it up. So does her extreme sexual dysfunction (she’s terrified of any kind of contact or intimacy), which is exacerbated by the experiences of her poverty stricken childhood.
What is brilliantly handled by Winston Graham in the novel is the reader’s slowly dawning awareness that Marnie, the person telling the story, thinks she’s coping just fine and that the world is simply full of meddlers, such as her husband and the therapist he forces her to see. It’s a canny portrait of the mind of a con artist, and the lengths she’ll go to keep herself in the dark.
Fans of the film may be disappointed to find that Hitchcock took several liberties in making the story his own, but that was nearly always true with the Master of Suspense. Sometimes he greatly improved the material in the name of cinematic storytelling, other times he fell short. This book is a case where he did not particularly improve upon the source; Winston Graham’s “Marnie” stands on its own as a unique page turner.
The book was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1964, which remains controversial to this day on a couple of different levels: some think it’s a masterpiece, some a failure; and the film’s sexual politics feel suspicious to some modern viewers who are sensitive to the stereotypes of female hysteria in old school psychiatry.
But neither the film nor the book traffics in much Freud (who in any case was not wrong about everything). The novel’s psychological dimension is well researched and frankly up to the minute (for 1961). And we still believe fifty years later that unacknowledged trauma can lead to all kinds of acting out in depressed people, from soldiers in a war zone to abused children, so Marnie’s career of stealing has plenty of documented case histories to back it up. So does her extreme sexual dysfunction (she’s terrified of any kind of contact or intimacy), which is exacerbated by the experiences of her poverty stricken childhood.
What is brilliantly handled by Winston Graham in the novel is the reader’s slowly dawning awareness that Marnie, the person telling the story, thinks she’s coping just fine and that the world is simply full of meddlers, such as her husband and the therapist he forces her to see. It’s a canny portrait of the mind of a con artist, and the lengths she’ll go to keep herself in the dark.
Fans of the film may be disappointed to find that Hitchcock took several liberties in making the story his own, but that was nearly always true with the Master of Suspense. Sometimes he greatly improved the material in the name of cinematic storytelling, other times he fell short. This book is a case where he did not particularly improve upon the source; Winston Graham’s “Marnie” stands on its own as a unique page turner.
April 26, 2018
A few years ago we went to see Alfred Hitchcock's movie Marnie at the Redford Theater, a historic theater with an organ that shows classic movies. The theater is located in Detroit draws hundreds out for every show.
We went partly because Tippi Hedron was appearing in person, with talks before the movie and during intermission and autographing photos and posters. And we went because when I was ten years old I saw Marnie from the back seat of our family car at the local drive-in movie theater. I was supposed to be asleep. Just like when I was supposed to be asleep during The Birds and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Each movie left me with bad dreams, but it was Marnie that left me struggling to understand it.
So when at a local book sale I saw a battered paperback of Winston Graham's novel Marnie, released in conjunction with Hitchcock's movie, I spent my quarter and picked it up. Perhaps the book would help me to peg down the story.
Graham is best known for the Poldark series which inspired the Masterpiece Theater series of that name, which my husband has been reading. Marnie is set in England not long after WWII, and is told in the first person. We learn that Marnie grew up in a tough neighborhood with a dad lost in the war and a strict but distant mother. Marnie gets into fights and steals and lies. Her mother insists her daughter avoid men.
When Marnie buys a horse she must find a way to support him, and being a smart gal, she plans and executes a series of thefts, assuming false identities to obtain jobs where she can get her hands on money. She is twenty-three when she has finished another heist and her employer Mark Rutland tracks her down.
Mark has fallen in love with the beautiful Marnie. She warns him that she is a liar and thief, but Mark insists he can't control his heart. He offers her an ultimatum: he can turn her in and she will be imprisoned for her crimes, or she can marry him and he will cover for her.
Marnie can't stand to be close to anyone, is unable to love, and hates the thought of men and sex. Her horse is the only creature in the world she cares for. Forced to marry Mark, she won't submit to him as a wife should. Frustrated, he forces himself on her once, then they learn to live together in distant animosity and distrust.
Mark forces Marnie into counseling, but she is too clever for even the psychologist, continuing her habit of lies and false stories. Over time, men recognize Marnie from her past lives. And at the death of her mother, Marnie learns her mother's secret history and double life.
Different from Hitchcock's version, Graham's version of the mother's crisis is not of Marnie's doing. And Graham includes a co-worker of Mark's who tries to cozy up to Marnie, and ends up betraying her.
Marnie is one messed up girl, but Mark is perhaps even sicker. He marries Marnie for her physical beauty in spite of her inability to feel emotion that allows her to plot crimes without a sense of wrongdoing. He entraps Marnie and even rapes her when she is not complicit. He is willing to cover up her crimes and endeavors to even enlist the help of a retired judge to figure out how Marnie can avoid the consequences of her crimes.
Marnie returns to her mother's house to discover she has died. She finds a newspaper clipping telling that her mother had murdered her newborn baby, which had been kept from Marnie.
Graham offers a moment of hope for Marnie near the end of the book. At a fox hunt, she feels revulsion of the cruelty of those around her, questioning why their killing for pleasure was legal when her crimes would merit jail. She turns from the death scene of the fox, allowing her horse his head, Mark chasing after her. Unfamiliar with the landscape, her horse jumps over a hedge and onto a riverbank, suffering a fatal injury. Marnie also falls, and so does Mark, his face in the mud. Marnie leaves her suffering horse to save Mark, lifting him from the mud and wiping it from his nose. There is a glimmer of morality and compassion in her choice.
She later meets a bereft boy who has lost his mother and she holds him.
"I thought, that's right, be a mother for a change. Bite on somebody else's grief instead of your own. Stop being to heartbroken for yourself and take a look round. Because maybe everybody's griefs arent'that much different after all. I thought, there's only one loneliness, and that's the loneliness of all the world."
Just before the twisted ending, Marnie, feeling all 'emotional and female and hopeless,' wonders if she was in love with Mark.
Marnie is the story of trauma, mental illness, crime, deception, and a man's sick obsession with a woman.
It is little wonder that I have been disturbed by this story for about fifty years. And it is little wonder that the twisted Hitchcock wanted to film it. Poor Tippi-- Hitchcock derailed her career when she rebuffed his sexual advances. Her studio contract gave her no options, including legal ones.
Fifty years later, Tippi at age 87 cheered the actresses standing up against the abuse suffered under Harvey Weinstein, as seen in her Tweet of October 2017:https://mobile.twitter.com/Tippi_Hedren
Now I am filled with compassion and respect for Tippi's standing up to power, speaking out her truth, and for introducing a film that was at once her triumph and secret tragedy.
We went partly because Tippi Hedron was appearing in person, with talks before the movie and during intermission and autographing photos and posters. And we went because when I was ten years old I saw Marnie from the back seat of our family car at the local drive-in movie theater. I was supposed to be asleep. Just like when I was supposed to be asleep during The Birds and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Each movie left me with bad dreams, but it was Marnie that left me struggling to understand it.
So when at a local book sale I saw a battered paperback of Winston Graham's novel Marnie, released in conjunction with Hitchcock's movie, I spent my quarter and picked it up. Perhaps the book would help me to peg down the story.
Graham is best known for the Poldark series which inspired the Masterpiece Theater series of that name, which my husband has been reading. Marnie is set in England not long after WWII, and is told in the first person. We learn that Marnie grew up in a tough neighborhood with a dad lost in the war and a strict but distant mother. Marnie gets into fights and steals and lies. Her mother insists her daughter avoid men.
When Marnie buys a horse she must find a way to support him, and being a smart gal, she plans and executes a series of thefts, assuming false identities to obtain jobs where she can get her hands on money. She is twenty-three when she has finished another heist and her employer Mark Rutland tracks her down.
Mark has fallen in love with the beautiful Marnie. She warns him that she is a liar and thief, but Mark insists he can't control his heart. He offers her an ultimatum: he can turn her in and she will be imprisoned for her crimes, or she can marry him and he will cover for her.
Marnie can't stand to be close to anyone, is unable to love, and hates the thought of men and sex. Her horse is the only creature in the world she cares for. Forced to marry Mark, she won't submit to him as a wife should. Frustrated, he forces himself on her once, then they learn to live together in distant animosity and distrust.
Mark forces Marnie into counseling, but she is too clever for even the psychologist, continuing her habit of lies and false stories. Over time, men recognize Marnie from her past lives. And at the death of her mother, Marnie learns her mother's secret history and double life.
Different from Hitchcock's version, Graham's version of the mother's crisis is not of Marnie's doing. And Graham includes a co-worker of Mark's who tries to cozy up to Marnie, and ends up betraying her.
Marnie is one messed up girl, but Mark is perhaps even sicker. He marries Marnie for her physical beauty in spite of her inability to feel emotion that allows her to plot crimes without a sense of wrongdoing. He entraps Marnie and even rapes her when she is not complicit. He is willing to cover up her crimes and endeavors to even enlist the help of a retired judge to figure out how Marnie can avoid the consequences of her crimes.
Marnie returns to her mother's house to discover she has died. She finds a newspaper clipping telling that her mother had murdered her newborn baby, which had been kept from Marnie.
Graham offers a moment of hope for Marnie near the end of the book. At a fox hunt, she feels revulsion of the cruelty of those around her, questioning why their killing for pleasure was legal when her crimes would merit jail. She turns from the death scene of the fox, allowing her horse his head, Mark chasing after her. Unfamiliar with the landscape, her horse jumps over a hedge and onto a riverbank, suffering a fatal injury. Marnie also falls, and so does Mark, his face in the mud. Marnie leaves her suffering horse to save Mark, lifting him from the mud and wiping it from his nose. There is a glimmer of morality and compassion in her choice.
She later meets a bereft boy who has lost his mother and she holds him.
"I thought, that's right, be a mother for a change. Bite on somebody else's grief instead of your own. Stop being to heartbroken for yourself and take a look round. Because maybe everybody's griefs arent'that much different after all. I thought, there's only one loneliness, and that's the loneliness of all the world."
Just before the twisted ending, Marnie, feeling all 'emotional and female and hopeless,' wonders if she was in love with Mark.
Marnie is the story of trauma, mental illness, crime, deception, and a man's sick obsession with a woman.
It is little wonder that I have been disturbed by this story for about fifty years. And it is little wonder that the twisted Hitchcock wanted to film it. Poor Tippi-- Hitchcock derailed her career when she rebuffed his sexual advances. Her studio contract gave her no options, including legal ones.
Fifty years later, Tippi at age 87 cheered the actresses standing up against the abuse suffered under Harvey Weinstein, as seen in her Tweet of October 2017:https://mobile.twitter.com/Tippi_Hedren
Now I am filled with compassion and respect for Tippi's standing up to power, speaking out her truth, and for introducing a film that was at once her triumph and secret tragedy.
May 17, 2025
Це було добре.
Це про розумну, хитру і беземоційну дівчину, що змінює своє життя, свій зовнішній вигляд так легко і майстерно, що цим неможливо не захоплюватися!
Особисто для мене середина книги провисла, бо було затягнуто, нуднова-то, але сюжет шалено пустився галопом на останніх 30 сторінках. І через це стався такий нашвидкоруч скомканий і відкритий фінал, що я розчарована. Мені не вистачає відповідей і тут треба друга книга)
Авторка пише добре, вміє привернути увагу, зацікавити.
Але фінал, мотиви, розгадки не прописані, не деталізовані і від того дратують своєю обірваністю та незавершеністю. Такий накал, нааакал і в кінці такий пшик🫠
Ця книга неймовірно наповнена темами, що можна обговорювати годинами. Психологічні і психіатричні проблеми кожного персонажа глибокі та не лежать на поверхні, їх треба осягнути, щоб зрозуміти.
Якщо я до кінця книги була на боці Марка, то після обговорення цього твору, я вже не можу стати ні на чий бік, бо багато недоліків були розкриті моїм очам. Там нема нормального, здорового персонажа, всі відносини, абсолютно всі НЕ здорові. І це прикольно, це цікаво. І, до речі, в мене не виникло відчуття, що цей твір написаний в 1960х роках. Мова жива і сучасна, можливо, завдяки хорошому перекладу.
Книгу можу радити
Це про розумну, хитру і беземоційну дівчину, що змінює своє життя, свій зовнішній вигляд так легко і майстерно, що цим неможливо не захоплюватися!
Особисто для мене середина книги провисла, бо було затягнуто, нуднова-то, але сюжет шалено пустився галопом на останніх 30 сторінках. І через це стався такий нашвидкоруч скомканий і відкритий фінал, що я розчарована. Мені не вистачає відповідей і тут треба друга книга)
Авторка пише добре, вміє привернути увагу, зацікавити.
Але фінал, мотиви, розгадки не прописані, не деталізовані і від того дратують своєю обірваністю та незавершеністю. Такий накал, нааакал і в кінці такий пшик🫠
Ця книга неймовірно наповнена темами, що можна обговорювати годинами. Психологічні і психіатричні проблеми кожного персонажа глибокі та не лежать на поверхні, їх треба осягнути, щоб зрозуміти.
Якщо я до кінця книги була на боці Марка, то після обговорення цього твору, я вже не можу стати ні на чий бік, бо багато недоліків були розкриті моїм очам. Там нема нормального, здорового персонажа, всі відносини, абсолютно всі НЕ здорові. І це прикольно, це цікаво. І, до речі, в мене не виникло відчуття, що цей твір написаний в 1960х роках. Мова жива і сучасна, можливо, завдяки хорошому перекладу.
Книгу можу радити
March 24, 2016
Excellent story. I had seen the movie, or parts of it previously, a couple of years ago and it wasn't my favourite Alfred Hitchcock movie. But the book, with little anticipation, was excellent. It's written in a very familiar, down-to-earth sort of style. Marnie is matter-of-fact, a thief, with little feelings for those she steals from. She's methodical and takes on a new job. She has her reasons for her lifestyle, a story that comes out as the book progresses. Her personality, while frustrating at times, develops nicely and is very interesting. The story is very well-paced and develops so nicely, you just have to keep reading. Most enjoyable story, surprisingly so.
July 26, 2016
Brilliant mystery.
I couldn't put it down!
Who is Marnie?
Love Winston Graham who is a true master of his art.
Loved it!
I couldn't put it down!
Who is Marnie?
Love Winston Graham who is a true master of his art.
Loved it!
January 11, 2025
Прекрасно написаний психологічний роман. Така собі історія про Femme Fatal, тільки з її перспективи.
І я б могла щиро ним насолодитися, якби це не була б ще й історія кохання. А як виявилось в кінці, це все-таки вона і була.
Давно я вже не ненавиділа чоловіків в книгах так сильно, як Марка. Важко було прийняти стосунки Марні з чоловіком, який був готовий переламати її через коліно фізично і морально, виправдовуючись коханням і тим, що "йому краще знати". І я не бачу, як те, що вона неврівноважена, травмована злод��йка, хоч якось робить ситуацію краще, а не тільки гірше.
Вибішувало, що Марк описаний, як жертва, нещасний закоханий чоловік, яким скористалася жінка. Рятівник, якого вона не заслуговує. Нагадаю, їх стосунки почались з примушення до шлюбу і згвалтування, після якого вона спробувала себе вбити.
І її повернення до нього в кінці представлене, як надія на краще майбутнє, ознака її розвитку в кращу сторону, тому, нажаль, тут точно немає двозначності в оцінці цієї історії від автора 😣
І так, я розумію, коли це було написано, і дуже старалась це враховувати, але це було боляче читати. Нічого не можу з собою зробити, враження це підпортило 🤷🏻♀️
І я б могла щиро ним насолодитися, якби це не була б ще й історія кохання. А як виявилось в кінці, це все-таки вона і була.
Давно я вже не ненавиділа чоловіків в книгах так сильно, як Марка. Важко було прийняти стосунки Марні з чоловіком, який був готовий переламати її через коліно фізично і морально, виправдовуючись коханням і тим, що "йому краще знати". І я не бачу, як те, що вона неврівноважена, травмована злод��йка, хоч якось робить ситуацію краще, а не тільки гірше.
Вибішувало, що Марк описаний, як жертва, нещасний закоханий чоловік, яким скористалася жінка. Рятівник, якого вона не заслуговує. Нагадаю, їх стосунки почались з примушення до шлюбу і згвалтування, після якого вона спробувала себе вбити.
І її повернення до нього в кінці представлене, як надія на краще майбутнє, ознака її розвитку в кращу сторону, тому, нажаль, тут точно немає двозначності в оцінці цієї історії від автора 😣
І так, я розумію, коли це було написано, і дуже старалась це враховувати, але це було боляче читати. Нічого не можу з собою зробити, враження це підпортило 🤷🏻♀️
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2021
Do we ever really know what's hidden deep down inside us? Or what dark secrets lurk in our past? Well, Marnie definitely had to face up to all her truths and lies up until the very end of the book. Winston Graham has written a convincing psychological thriller from a woman's perspective that takes the reader on a gripping ride to self-discovery. Not Marnie or I saw it all turn out quite like that. The only drawback seemed the author's obsession with Marnie's asexuality as a manifestation of her psychological problems. It was an important aspect of her persona, but it kind of felt at times like the only defining aspect of her. However, the book was written in different times and should not be judged from our modern-day perspective. I haven't seen Hitchcock's film based on the book, but maybe one needs to start also doing a classic film challenge of some sort.
January 4, 2018
“People might think it lonely living on my own nearly all the time, but I never found it lonely. I always had plenty to think about, and anyway maybe I'm not so good on people.”
A fascinating psychological train-wreck. I'd seen the movie several times growing up since Alfred Hitchcock was behind the helm - and it stuck in my mind while reading the story so I can't help comparison. It followed a lot of the book faithfully, although the ending was completely different, as was her hidden trauma, and there lies some of the weakness of the story that dropped it to a four star rating over five. I'm sure I would feel the same even if I didn't see the film.
Marnie isn't exactly a likable character. She has redemption at the end but her heart of stone only thaws so much, and the author kind of abruptly cuts the story off at the end. I'd had loved to see the scene where she came back to Mark and he knew it, and to see where they went from there, and where she told him - and/or- the doctor all she'd discovered, but as a reader I kind of feel cheated of that. I only like unknowns looming ahead if it adds spice to this story, but the way the ending handled itself frustrated me.
Still the book is difficult to put down. The beginning is especially potent when Marnie is going through the motions as thieving Mary, then is discovered, then answers and fields questions from both Mark and the doctor. Mark as a character is a shining gem- the patience and tragedy of the man was maybe more depressing to me than Marnie's mental struggles.
The book is almost 400 pages, and you'd think a lot of shifting scenes may be needed to keep it interesting - but it doesn't need that for the pacing doesn't suffer. Winston Graham's writing style is perfect for this type of story and even the dialogue shifting when Marnie is regressing was well-done. It's first person POV and surprisingly well-done. I may have to hunt down more of this author's work.
It was interesting to be in the head of a thief like this too. Thieving is despicable, but there are different forms of that addictive madness so they can still be intriguing to read about. Toss in psychological horrors and hidden secrets, and it gets even better.
Even if the ending is a little frustrating, when I started it yesterday I've found it difficult to put down, the writing got to me, and the characters are well-done and absolutely different from the norm. Worth a read if you find a copy or pick up the e-book copy. And then, if you haven't already, you need to watch the movie at some point - despite some melodrama of the time, it's another unique and twisted take on the story, adding a completely different ending and color blindness being part of the psychological trauma.
A fascinating psychological train-wreck. I'd seen the movie several times growing up since Alfred Hitchcock was behind the helm - and it stuck in my mind while reading the story so I can't help comparison. It followed a lot of the book faithfully, although the ending was completely different, as was her hidden trauma, and there lies some of the weakness of the story that dropped it to a four star rating over five. I'm sure I would feel the same even if I didn't see the film.
Marnie isn't exactly a likable character. She has redemption at the end but her heart of stone only thaws so much, and the author kind of abruptly cuts the story off at the end. I'd had loved to see the scene where she came back to Mark and he knew it, and to see where they went from there, and where she told him - and/or- the doctor all she'd discovered, but as a reader I kind of feel cheated of that. I only like unknowns looming ahead if it adds spice to this story, but the way the ending handled itself frustrated me.
Still the book is difficult to put down. The beginning is especially potent when Marnie is going through the motions as thieving Mary, then is discovered, then answers and fields questions from both Mark and the doctor. Mark as a character is a shining gem- the patience and tragedy of the man was maybe more depressing to me than Marnie's mental struggles.
The book is almost 400 pages, and you'd think a lot of shifting scenes may be needed to keep it interesting - but it doesn't need that for the pacing doesn't suffer. Winston Graham's writing style is perfect for this type of story and even the dialogue shifting when Marnie is regressing was well-done. It's first person POV and surprisingly well-done. I may have to hunt down more of this author's work.
It was interesting to be in the head of a thief like this too. Thieving is despicable, but there are different forms of that addictive madness so they can still be intriguing to read about. Toss in psychological horrors and hidden secrets, and it gets even better.
Even if the ending is a little frustrating, when I started it yesterday I've found it difficult to put down, the writing got to me, and the characters are well-done and absolutely different from the norm. Worth a read if you find a copy or pick up the e-book copy. And then, if you haven't already, you need to watch the movie at some point - despite some melodrama of the time, it's another unique and twisted take on the story, adding a completely different ending and color blindness being part of the psychological trauma.
July 4, 2017
I hardly have any Dutch books but I have one and that is Marnie which is The Dutch translation of this book. I loved this when I was much younger and was never able to give it away. Now reading it again I get why. It is so good.
Now I am a firm believer of first reading a book before watching a movie. Why you might ask: Well when you first read the book you will make up in your mind how the characters look like, how they are and if you watch a movie first someone else is doing that for you. When you then read the book you will see the pictures of the movie instead of your own which is a waste. of your brain with its beautiful way of being able to fantasize.
This is such an excellent book I can not highly recommend it enough to you guys. Beware though. Once you begin it is very hard to stop reading.
Now I am a firm believer of first reading a book before watching a movie. Why you might ask: Well when you first read the book you will make up in your mind how the characters look like, how they are and if you watch a movie first someone else is doing that for you. When you then read the book you will see the pictures of the movie instead of your own which is a waste. of your brain with its beautiful way of being able to fantasize.
This is such an excellent book I can not highly recommend it enough to you guys. Beware though. Once you begin it is very hard to stop reading.
March 23, 2014
Marnie the book is darker and more complex than Marnie the movie, and so is Marnie the character. Hitchcock's depiction of the traumatized Marnie always seemed icky to me, and Sean Connery as her husband is the most loathsome Hitchcock character ever. Really, I'd rather date Norman Bates. The basic premise is the same in the book as in movie: pretty con artist Marnie is caught stealing from her employer by a widower who has fallen in love with her. He blackmails her into marrying him, but alas, to his horror she turns out to be frigid. Surprisingly, raping her doesn't help, so he starts investigating her past. Winston Graham's book, while dated, tells the story from Marnie's point of view, creating a more sympathetic character. She may be a liar and a thief, but somehow that doesn't seem so bad compared to her blackmailing rapist husband. The ending is much better than in the movie.
January 8, 2022
"Marnie" mi je jedan od omiljenih Hičkokovih filmova i stvarno nisam znala šta da očekujem od knjige koja je napisana 1961. Započela sam nekoliko naslova koji mi stoje na polici i nijedan me nije držao tako da sam na kraju krenula da skidam e-knjige iz očaja (početkom godine me uhvati čitalački fomo i sve mislim da sam u zaostatku ako ne iskoristim praznike da pročitam što više). "Marnie" je pobedila jer nisam mogla da se odvojim od nje. Nije neko preterano kompleksno niti maestralno napisano štivo, ali mi je bilo uzbudljivo i šarmantno (?), pre svega zbog vremena u kome se odigrava radnja. Roman je zapravo mračniji od filma, ima mnogo dodatnih pojedinosti, likova, situacija. Knjiška Marnie je gora osoba, a knjiški Mark jednostavno nije Sean Connery.
July 25, 2019
I loved the feel of this story, so retro and twilight zonish.
November 15, 2018
What an interesting and unusual book. I liked it a lot better than the movie (I can't imagine anyone's reading that book and thinking Sean Connery would be a perfect Mark Rutland. And I really don't understand why they added the character of his sister-in-law, Lil, and changed his mother to a father, but whatever.) This truly was a novel of suspense, as advertised, and the ending was one I didn't see coming at all. Overall, a remarkable book.
April 22, 2023
Marnie has always been one of my favorite Hitchcock films, so I thought I would read the book and see what the differences are between the book and the movie. This is a case where I much prefer the movie to the book, not just because I am more familiar with the movie, but because the book drags on and on. There is a lot of introspection on the part of the main character. And there is much less suspense than in the movie. Plus there are many British colloquialisms which I am unfamiliar with and since the book was written over sixty years ago, it is practically impossible to Google them. If you're a fan of the movie, my recommendation would be to skip the book, but reader's choice.
October 12, 2022
Чи зустрічали ви людей, які скаржаться на життя, але систематично продовжують свій не надто чесний шлях?
Такою є наша головна героїня – Марні. Вона "переміряла" вже десятки імен та професій, щоразу стираючи всі спогади про себе й зникаючи. Марні – аферистка й крадійка. Вона ніколи не залишається довго на одному місці, часто змінює міста і свої амплуа.
Історія розгортається тоді, коли Марні, усвідомлено чи ні, затримується на одному місці задовго. Вона також заводить близькі знайомства, які тепер обтяжуватимуть її втечу. Чи допоможе їй ця відкритість врятувати себе? Чи потягне на дно?
Це нам і доведеться дізнатися.
Перша половина книжки для мене виявилася неймовірно цікавою. Безліч подій і фантастичних вивертів Марні, щоб досі залишатися неспійманою мене захоплювали. Крім того, сама персонажка є дуже цікавою і вдало прописаною. Їй складно вірити і складно зрозуміти. Вся оповідь балансує на межі божевілля. Якщо спочатку думаєш, що Марні сплановує все до дрібниць і керується холодним розумом, то згодом замислюєшся, що це майже намагання божевільної.
Мені ця книжка дуже сильно нагадувала класичний твір Дефо - "Радощі та прикрощі славнозвісної Молл Фледерс" (відгук є в профілі нижче). Однак в книзі В. Грехема мені більше подобається кінцівка. Вона водночас для мене є ще одною кульмінацією.
Щодо мінусів, то книжка здається трохи затягнутою. Якщо б скоротити останні 100 сторінок - сюжет б здавався жвавішим. Також, мені не дуже сподобалося, як автор описував Марні. Зі ставлення до жінок, дуже помітно, що ця історія була написана в минулому столітті.
Загалом, книжка залишила у мене позитивне враження. Однак це і близько не трилер. І я розумію, чому багатьом вона не зайшла. Та мені було цікаво дізнатися, хто ж ця Марні: майстерна маніпуляторка чи людина з психічним розладом?
Такою є наша головна героїня – Марні. Вона "переміряла" вже десятки імен та професій, щоразу стираючи всі спогади про себе й зникаючи. Марні – аферистка й крадійка. Вона ніколи не залишається довго на одному місці, часто змінює міста і свої амплуа.
Історія розгортається тоді, коли Марні, усвідомлено чи ні, затримується на одному місці задовго. Вона також заводить близькі знайомства, які тепер обтяжуватимуть її втечу. Чи допоможе їй ця відкритість врятувати себе? Чи потягне на дно?
Це нам і доведеться дізнатися.
Перша половина книжки для мене виявилася неймовірно цікавою. Безліч подій і фантастичних вивертів Марні, щоб досі залишатися неспійманою мене захоплювали. Крім того, сама персонажка є дуже цікавою і вдало прописаною. Їй складно вірити і складно зрозуміти. Вся оповідь балансує на межі божевілля. Якщо спочатку думаєш, що Марні сплановує все до дрібниць і керується холодним розумом, то згодом замислюєшся, що це майже намагання божевільної.
Мені ця книжка дуже сильно нагадувала класичний твір Дефо - "Радощі та прикрощі славнозвісної Молл Фледерс" (відгук є в профілі нижче). Однак в книзі В. Грехема мені більше подобається кінцівка. Вона водночас для мене є ще одною кульмінацією.
Щодо мінусів, то книжка здається трохи затягнутою. Якщо б скоротити останні 100 сторінок - сюжет б здавався жвавішим. Також, мені не дуже сподобалося, як автор описував Марні. Зі ставлення до жінок, дуже помітно, що ця історія була написана в минулому столітті.
Загалом, книжка залишила у мене позитивне враження. Однак це і близько не трилер. І я розумію, чому багатьом вона не зайшла. Та мені було цікаво дізнатися, хто ж ця Марні: майстерна маніпуляторка чи людина з психічним розладом?
January 4, 2022
My interest in Winston Graham’s novel started when I saw the Metropolitan Live in HD film of Nic Muhly’s opera version late in 2018. After reading the novel, I saw a cropped version of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 film. Three stories about more or less the same characters and events, but some subtle and some major differences. I’m sure that the changes made in the film script had been studied before; bringing in the changes for the libretto would be fascinating. Each version has its strengths, each of the adaptations brings small improvements in the dramatic effect. Only the novel can present Marnie as first person narrator. The delving into the psyche of a scarred woman (the causes of which changes significantly) will ensure that all three versions will remain interesting to story lovers.
Die roman Marnie is in 1964 al verwerk tot ’n rolprent; onlangs is daar ook ’n opera van gemaak. Al drie weergawes vertel ’n fassinerende storie van ’n vrou met diep sielkundige wonde; die verskille in die drie vertellings sal ’n boeiende studie oplewer. Al drie sal egter toekomende geslagte storievrate interesseer en boei.
Die roman Marnie is in 1964 al verwerk tot ’n rolprent; onlangs is daar ook ’n opera van gemaak. Al drie weergawes vertel ’n fassinerende storie van ’n vrou met diep sielkundige wonde; die verskille in die drie vertellings sal ’n boeiende studie oplewer. Al drie sal egter toekomende geslagte storievrate interesseer en boei.
June 12, 2010
I was already a great fan of Winston Graham based solely on my enjoyment of his Poldark series (now re-released and which I highly recommend! Ariel, I'm talking to you!). I decided it was time to dabble in his non-Poldark oeuvre, and began with Marnie - likely his most popular as it was made into an Alfred Hitchcock movie (that is now in my queue).
It's not a psychological "thriller" in the sense of bodies in the library or stalkers in the hall. But it is definitely a psychological thriller in that you delve into the mind and motivations of a con artist and began to feel the suspense of waiting to get caught. I really enjoyed the read, and made Jonas listen to an hour-long plot summary and analysis of the book. I love Graham's ability to help his audience get into the mind of his characters. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed the Poldark books so much. I'm looking for more Graham to add to my reading list.
It's not a psychological "thriller" in the sense of bodies in the library or stalkers in the hall. But it is definitely a psychological thriller in that you delve into the mind and motivations of a con artist and began to feel the suspense of waiting to get caught. I really enjoyed the read, and made Jonas listen to an hour-long plot summary and analysis of the book. I love Graham's ability to help his audience get into the mind of his characters. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed the Poldark books so much. I'm looking for more Graham to add to my reading list.
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April 26, 2020Movie review
I watched it because it was a Hitchcock movie and Sean Connery was in it too.Hitchcock made so many great films,this film is not quite up to that standard.Still,it is watchable and not bad in its own right.
James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli writes in his book that even in early career,Sean Connery did not want to be identified as James Bond only.He told Broccoli that he wanted to work with "fooking" Hitchcock ! This was duly arranged.
The critics at the time were not too happy with relative newcomers Connery and Tippi Hendren.Their performances were pretty good,however.
Marnie steals and flees,again and again.She has a troubled past and wants to stay away from her husband.A rather improbable story,but still good entertainment.
3 stars for the film.
I watched it because it was a Hitchcock movie and Sean Connery was in it too.Hitchcock made so many great films,this film is not quite up to that standard.Still,it is watchable and not bad in its own right.
James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli writes in his book that even in early career,Sean Connery did not want to be identified as James Bond only.He told Broccoli that he wanted to work with "fooking" Hitchcock ! This was duly arranged.
The critics at the time were not too happy with relative newcomers Connery and Tippi Hendren.Their performances were pretty good,however.
Marnie steals and flees,again and again.She has a troubled past and wants to stay away from her husband.A rather improbable story,but still good entertainment.
3 stars for the film.
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