Death in the Square
Death in the Square is a short story written in four parts by the four British writers Roald Dahl (1916–1990), Ted Willis (1918–1992), Ruth Rendell (1930–2001) and Peter Levi (1931–2000) . Whether the story of the short story, which continues in the four parts, was determined jointly by the four authors before the final drafting, or whether Roald Dahl made the start and then, independently of the other authors, each author built on the already existing story and developed it further, is not known.
The short story was published on December 24, 1988 in Telegraph Weekend Magazine , the weekend supplement of The Daily Telegraph . A later further publication in another publication is not known. This short story has not yet been published in German.
Death in the Square was the last first publication of a short story for Roald Dahl, who wrote the first part.
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Part 1 by Roald Dahl
The narrator, a secretary in London, describes his almost seven years of daily walk to and from work through Kensington Square. He is always fascinated by the view through the windows of the houses of the rich upper class on the ground floor and knows the interior furnishings of the individual rooms very well down to the last detail. The narrator concludes that the rich just don't care what they see as ordinary people think of them. This can also be seen in the fact that - regardless of whether they are in the room or not - they generally do not close the curtains in their brightly-lit rooms even on winter evenings when it is already dark outside.
The narrator also uses an example from his professional environment to prove that members of the upper class look down on ordinary people. An elderly duke comes into the office to talk about his very complicated tax affairs. During his extremely detailed lecture on his income from the lease peasants he leaves the chief, his assistant and the narrator as in the presence clerk a good seven to eight seconds continuous deafening fart . This happens without the Duke faltering in his lecture, without blinking an eyelash, without blushing or at least smiling embarrassed. The Duke doesn't give a damn about the presence of the three common people.
On a cold December evening, as the narrator walks home from work as usual a few days before Christmas, he notices a change in one of the houses in Kensington Square. Instead of the usual brocade sofa in a living room, he suddenly sees a simple bed with a strange, unknown old man with white hair and closed eyes on it, as well as the black-haired woman of the house, who is well known to the narrator and who looks intently at the man. The narrator can no longer get the experienced scene at home out of his head and he goes back to the house to get a final certainty and confirmation of what has been seen before. He is surprised when he sees in the brightly lit room that the bed with the old man and the house owner have disappeared and the brocade sofa is back in its usual place. “Suddenly the black-haired woman came into the room. She went over to the window and looked out. She saw me looking inside. Our eyes met. She reached forward and drew the curtains. "
Part 2 by Ted Willis
The narrator claims that he was never inclined to an overly strong imagination and would have dismissed the whole thing if the lady had not looked at him so angrily and with such smoldering hatred that he trembled. Finally the narrator reports the experience of a friend named Carol, who explains the matter intellectually. After accompanying her on her way to her car, curiosity drives him to the house one more time. Suddenly the living room window pops open and the old man can be seen pressed against the glass with outstretched arms and a look of despair. The black-haired woman forcibly pulls him back and draws the curtains. As the narrator turns to leave, he catches a glimpse of a man with a red beard and smells the pungent smell of onions before he gets over-fried and passes out.
Part 3 by Ruth Rendell
The narrator wakes up in the hospital and is very surprised at the police disinterest in the attack on him. When describing his attacker, the police officer believes that the description applies to Sir George Bentley, who picked him up and brought him to the hospital. The narrator concludes that someone else must have hit him and that Sir George Bentley is just the person he saw shortly before he lost consciousness. After his discharge from hospital, the narrator goes to the house to thank Sir George Bentley and also to satisfy his curiosity. There the lights are on and the windows are open. Since nobody responds to his ringing, he goes in through the unlocked door. The house seemed to have been vacated all of a sudden because the TV was still on, a cigarette was still glowing and the food was only half eaten. There are pungent smelling onions on the kitchen counter. When he comes upstairs, the black-haired woman is lying in the bed he has seen earlier. She was fatally wounded in the forehead by a gunshot wound.
Part 4 by Peter Levi
When the narrator finds a revolver by the bed and examines it, he feels sick and nearly passes out. Finally he hears footsteps on the landing and the redhead shouting that he can't find a certain person anywhere outside the house and that they must therefore still be in the house. The redhead calls for the woman too. The narrator approaches the redhead and tells him about the finding of the dead woman. The man is overwhelmed by pain at the sight of them. After the police arrive, they all go to the bedroom. When the redhead goes in, he shoots himself and falls on the woman in bed. The police also believe the woman is suicidal and acquits the narrator of any involvement.
In reality, the couple were the butler and housekeeper of a rich old man whom they had held as a prisoner and robbed. The old man had been in hiding for a day, which caused the butler to look for him. Meanwhile, the old man shot the woman, escaped, and was never seen again.
For the narrator the pressing question remains, why and how he was hit by the blow on the head. He comes to the explanation that the heavy blow to the head came from panic on the old man. According to his doctor, if you are hit with a hard blow, sometimes you can feel the smell of onions. “I've always wanted to ask a specialist about it, but one thing leads to another and I hate to tell that story. So I write them down to get rid of them. It's actually almost Christmas. "
See also
literature
- Roald Dahl, Ted Willis, Ruth Rendell, Peter Levi: Death in the Square. A Christmas Mystery in Four Parts, Telegraph Weekend Magazine, Dec. 24, 1988, pp. 36-40
Web links
References and comments
- ↑ Information on Death in the Square
- ↑ Telegraph Weekend Magazine , front cover of the December 24, 1988 issue
- ↑ Solomon, p. 217
- ↑ Death in the Square , p. 38: “Suddenly the black-haired woman came into the room. She crossed over to the window and looked out. She saw me looking in. Our eyes met. She reached out and drew the curtains. "
- ↑ Death in the Squere , p. 40 : “I've always meant to ask a specialist about it, but one thing leads to another, and I hate telling this story. That's why I'm writing it down, to get rid of it. It's nearly Christmas now as a matter of fact. "