The ending of "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters. Warning! Spoilers within!

OMD MrsMolesworth, what a good thought. It never occurred to me that the Colonel had an affair with her..presumably that wasn't the nanny who was dismissed though because then Mrs A would not have been keen to dig out the photo?

Ages since I read it so may have misremembered, but did no one else think Faraday's mum was the ghost? She used to be a nanny there. |And you hear that an unspecified nanny had an affair with Caroline's dad and was subsequently dismissed. I thought that Faraday was the product of that affair, so an illegitimate heir to the house which is why he feels such a strong attachment to it. Some of the disturbances are linked to the nursery. He dreams of his mother the night Caroline dies. And he is attracted to but repulsed by Caroline as a lover - she could be his half sister.

Or did I overthink that?

Duchess, I forgot to ask, if you think Caroline saw a dream self of Dr F, do you think that dream self or phantasm pushed Caroline to her death?

I think she can only have seen Dr F.

Southeast, Caroline was born after her sister died. That's why I was wondering how familiar Caroline could be with the ghost of her sister, there's no indication that Susan has ever visited Caroline and I think she'd have to have done that quite a bit for caroline to shout "you", I guess?

Caroline would know her sister, though, wouldn't she?

Then again, I just went to the library and looked at the last page and it seems the last paragraph is a hint that you and Duchess are right about the Doctor appearing as some kind of phantasm, and I remember I read in an interview that the author did that the final paragraph is telling about the cause of the killings.

Duchess, Yes, I thought that on my previous reading. And of course, Waters spent some time on that theory of phantasms of the living.

Which next brings the question of whether or not Dr F could be blamed for what a detached part of him might do independently. Fascinating stuff and also puts me in mind of Affinity before the big reveal. Loved that one too.

Is it possible that Caroline "saw" him even though he wasn't really there? I wondered whether he was able to travel out of himself to create a projected image of himself. I know I'm not explaining this very well. But yes I think Caroline may very well have seen him even though he wasn't physically there, hence my feeling that he was involved in her death without actually being there to kill her, in person.

I really need to find time for a re-read :)

southeast, that's exactly how I interpreted it the first times I read it. Now I feel it unlikely that she would shout "you!" at a ghost. I think it's a shout you'd make at a real person.

If she had complete familiarity with the ghost, maybe, but it seems unlikely. Plus if she had had time to get familiar with the ghost, I think she owld have got her mum out before.

I don't remember anything about the key's but am inclined to agree with Duchess. He wasn't physically there when Caroline and her mother died but somehow caused the supernatural being to kill them both. IIRC, the ghost/poltergeist only emerged after he appeared at the house as as an adult at the start of the book.

But what do you think of Caroline calling out 'You!' just before she died? Maybe it was the ghost of the eight your old daughter of Mrs Ayres?

No, he was very dodgy

I think I will!

alice, did we love the idea so much that we overlooked Dr F..?

read it again

Oh you're making me want to read it again! I think it was about in the last 20% I became suspect about him.. I loved the idea of a living ghost, a bad spirit, a poltergeist.

alice - yes, me too, and the first time someone suggested Dr F might have killed Caroline I didn't see it at all....I was too consumed by the idea of Susan haunting the place. Now I can't believe I didn't see it.

God I love this book

I LOVED the ending of this book. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. Yes, really!

yes, Duchess, that's what I thought, but on this reading I suddenly realised how strange it was he didn't give back the keys, after breaking up with Caroline....and previously I perceived the manner of her fall as meaning that someone had picked her up like a cat...but this time I realised that she would fall like regardless - well it would depend how she was pushed....

and that shadow he sees a few times....it could be him.

It's a long time since I read the novel, but I don't recall thinking that he killed Caroline. However, I don't think he was entirely innocent. It's hard to explain, but I think I thought he was in some way a catalyst for all their deaths but without actually being present. There was an unexplained presence throughout the novel and I think he was either knowingly or not involved. He came across as rather sinister in a creepy way rather than a murderous way to me.

I know I am resurrecting a zombie thread....but I just re-read the Little Stranger for about the 5th time...and for the first time, I really really took on the possibility of Dr F having killed Caroline. He had keys, after all, and he could have exited via the back staircase.

Caroline would have fallen with her arms and legs waving like a cat regardless of how she fell if you see what I mean.

So I'm curious to know if other people think he killed her. I think I do, now. Though it wouldn't explain anything else that happened in the house. He wasn't there often enough to slip hallucinatory drugs into their tea...!

I loved this book and saw what the ending was trying to do. Some of the insightful and interesting comments below have been most enjoyable to read. Thank you all

I followed it with the Night Watch which was a decent read but I am glued to Fingersmith right now - truly brilliant also - draws heavily on the Woman in White which is one of my favourite books (even more so than Stranger did from Turn of the Screw I'd say).

Brilliant writer!

Just caught up on the posts made while I was posting sloooowly -- really interesting stuff

This thread has opened my eyes to all kinds of subtleties I'd missed.

Have you read Josephine Tey's The Franchise Affair? Was part of the inspiration for this book, apparently. Not supernatural though, and in fact not especially similar in style at all, different genre really but still good. Class issues, etc.

Quite like the suggestions made by your friend, theyoungvisiter.

I finished this book recently and was left a little perplexed by the ending. All the comments have been insightful and informative so cheers! I'm off to read it again

ah, took me a long time to get into it, so i put it down for about 6 weeks in the middle.... i had forgotten about him feeling unimportant at the party....and i'd obviously bought into the suggestion that betty complained of ghostly goings on not just that she projected her lonely "frit" feelings onto the hall

didn't know if it was him creating a poltergeist or as simple as him physically doing things but unconsciously....with it getting closer to his consciousness towards the end when he talks of seeing caroline's death and then he goes mad...completely out of touch with reality, floating around the decrepit hall that isn't even his...a ghost of his former self if you like...

a different me...i raced thrugh the last third of the book too!...it all changed for me after that conversation he has with caroline about poltergeists then he goes to seeley(who he doesn'y usually have time for) about how these things usually originate with women...then he's doing post mortems on his own cases and i started then to think how much he was covering his own back....until then i was reading it as a ghost story "proper"

Ooh, yes, Polly, you were wondering the same things and coming to the same conclusions! I thought Faraday's greed for the Hall and the lifestyle it had represented to him as a child, was creating some kind of poltergeist.

I don't think he was conscious of it, but do you remember Gyp's attack on the Baker-Hyde child came just after Faraday realised he was just a makeweight at the party and Caroline and her mother were setting out to catch the rich bloke.

Gouging out the acorn as a child seemed very significant because he was damaging the Hall in his desire to possess it.

Nothing really happened until he started visiting. Betty complained the house was so big, empty and lonely that it frightened her but she didn't say anything else.

Then, of course, there was the nightmare that he was rushing to the hall the night Caroline died. And she recognised someone when she was running away.

He seemed increasingly deranged towards the end, urging Caroline to stay at the Hall when any normal fiance, even if they thought the supernatural stuff was hokum, would be encouraging her to leave because of all the horrible memories, not to mention the fact it's becoming increasingly uninhabitable.

And then the end, when he wonders about the ghost, and sees his own face.

I didn't pick up on Faraday/conductor at all. That was clever of you.

But, yes, I'm sure he was causing the little stranger and I think he remained unaware of it.

I did love it being so open-ended. I think the best spooky stories are never cut and dried, but leave lots of unanswered questions.

I think you're all a lot more clever than me! Now that I read the theories, I can see exactly what each of you means but I was so busy tearing through it to find out what happened, I read it too fast and didn't analyse enough.........