Psycho (novel)

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The novel Psycho was published in 1959 by Robert Bloch and filmed three times (see Psycho (1960) , Psycho (1998) and the television series Bates Motel ) .

action

Mary Crane, a clerk in a real estate office, embezzles $ 40,000 from her employer and is on her way to see her fiancé, Sam Loomis, to give him some of the money because he owes him. However, she gets lost and comes to Bates Motel one night during a storm. The owner, Norman Bates, receives her and tells her about himself and his mother. Mary takes a shower in her room and Bates watches her through a hole in the wall. Bates is drunk and falls asleep. The shower curtain is torn open by an "old mad woman" who cuts off Mary's head with a butcher's knife. When Norman wakes up again, Mary is already dead and he is removing the corpse, the car and any traces that could point to a murder in an adjacent swamp to protect his mother.

A week has passed since then and Lila, Mary's younger sister, goes in search of Mary and visits Sam. Sam, too, was worried about Mary because she didn't reply to his letters. Shortly after Lila's arrival at Sam's shop, Milton Arbogast, an insurance inspector, arrives and interrogates Sam and Lila about the stolen money and Mary's current whereabouts. Sam and Lila tell him that they miss Mary themselves and don't know where she is. Arbogast goes in search of Mary and arrives at Bates Motel. There he sees a woman sitting in the window. However, when he interrogates Norman and also wants to question his mother, he is also killed. As with Mary, Arbogast's body and his car are driven into the swamp. Norman hides his mother in the fruit cellar so she doesn't do any more nonsense.

Lila and Sam wait in vain for Arbogast and decide to inform the sheriff. However, the latter does not believe that Norman would be able to kill anyone and does not go to great lengths. Lila and Sam drive to the motel on their own, pretend to be a couple and take Mary's room. There they find an earring and blood. Lila is supposed to go to the sheriff's while Sam looks after Norman. Norman tells Sam that after she was poisoned, he dug up and stuffed his mother because he couldn't stand her dead. He also reports on the conversation between Lila and Sam, which he overheard, and says that Lila did not drive away, but was in the house. When Sam wants to see her, Norman hits him on the head with a bottle. When Sam comes to, the sheriff is sitting with him and they hear Lila's scream. Lila has searched the house and has come to the basement, where the mummified Mrs. Bates lies, and utters a cry of horror. Norman appears on the stairs, made up, in a lace dress (disguised as Mrs. Bates), knife in hand and wants to kill Lila, but is surprised by Sam.

Norman goes to psychiatry. It turns out that Norman suffered from multiple personality disorder and had three personalities: himself, young Norman, and his mother. His mother and uncle Joe wanted to get married, but Norman poisoned both of them with strychnine (rat poison), wrote a suicide note from his mother and was taken to hospital. He later regretted poisoning his mother, so he dug her up, stuffed her, and carried her around with him like a doll. When Norman murdered Mary Crane, he did it in a state in which his mother had possessed him because "she" was jealous of the feelings Norman had for Crane. At the end of the novel, the mother has completely adopted Bates' personality.

criticism

"A masterpiece of cold horror"

- The New York Times

Varia

The character of Norman Bates was inspired by the real case of the murderer Ed Gein .

expenditure

  • First edition: Psycho. Simon & Schuster, New York 1959.
  • German first edition: Keyword Psycho. Detective novel. Translated by Paul Baudisch. The Midnight Books # 51. Desch, Munich 1960, DNB 450500586 .
  • German paperback edition: Psycho. Translated by Paul Baudisch. Heyne TB # 1193. Heyne, Munich 1966. New edition: Heyne TB # 14027. Heyne, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-453-87877-9 .
  • current issue: Psycho. Translated by Hannes Riffel. With a comment from the author. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-499-23597-9 (= rororo 23597).
  • Ebook: Psycho. Translated by Hannes Riffel. Golkonda-Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-942396-47-9 .
  • Audiobook: Psycho . Read by Matthias Brandt . 5 CDs, 344 min. Der Audio Verlag, Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-89813-975-5 .

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