Evil comes on quiet feet (Roman)

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Evil comes on quiet feet (in the English original: Something Wicked This Way Comes ) is a novel by the American writer Ray Bradbury . The novel was published by Simon & Schuster in 1962 . The German first edition was published in 1969 by Marion von Schröder Verlag . In 1981 the Diogenes Verlag published the book in a German translation by Norbert Wölfl.

content

The novel is about friendship, the relationship between father and son, young people's longing to get older and old people to be young again.

The two thirteen-year-old neighbors and friends, Jim and Will, watch a fair pitching its tents on the meadows not far from their town late at night. The ring directors Cooger and Dark as well as the many creepy acrobats cast a spell over the boys. Dark is called the Illustrated Man and has tattoos all over his body that can develop a life of their own. With them, evil is slowly entering the city.

The boys find out that the carousel can change people's ages. For each turn forwards or backwards, the age increases or decreases by one year. However, this only affects physical age, nothing changes mentally. Jim is just as intrigued by the possibility of getting older as Will's 54-year-old father Charles, who wants to get younger because he mourns his younger years.

Many people succumb to the temptation of the carousel. But they pay a high price, because the fair holds them captive as acrobats with changed personalities and drags them with it.

Jim and Will's father Charles also struggle with their longing for a different age and with the temptation of ringmaster Dark to climb the carousel. It turns out that the many animated tattoos on his skin correspond to the poor manipulable souls of the acrobats.

Dark and his acrobats catch Jim and Will and want to make both followers. Will's father, however, thwarted Dark's plans by initially fighting more with himself than with Dark. His weapons are happiness and laughter. In addition, when dealing with the temptation of the carousel, he comes to terms with himself and his age.

Charles eventually kills Dark. The acrobats move away relieved in all directions. The fair dissolves. Jim and Will have grown a lot more confident and grown up.

useful information

The title of the novel is a quote from Macbeth by William Shakespeare :

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes ."

The action takes place in the 1920s or 1930s. Charles makes this clear when, in chapter 38, he estimated when and how often the fair was going on among the people.

filming

Under the English title of the same name, Something Wicked This Way Comes , the novel was filmed in a Walt Disney production in 1983. Ray Bradbury wrote the script himself. Jack Clayton directed the film . Starring Jason Robards (Charles Halloway), Jonathan Pryce (Mr. Dark), Vidal Peterson (Will Halloway), Shawn Carson (Jim Nightshade). The German version of the film was also released under the novel of the same name, The Evil Comes Quietly .

literature

  • Ray Bradbury: Evil comes on quiet feet. Verlag Diogenes, 2003. ISBN 3-257-20866-9 .
  • Jörg Krichbaum: Disch, Ballard and Bradbury: A Hypotactic Vision , in: Quarber Merkur , No. 39, 1975.

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