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

[BornToFolk]

So, I've just finished this. I really enjoyed it but I felt a bit let down by the ending. I was expecting some kind of twist, or revelation and it just seemed to....end.

Did I miss something?

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.

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.

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!

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...!

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.

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.

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

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

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

read it again

No, he was very dodgy

I think I will!

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?

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

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?

I think she can only have seen Dr F.

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?

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?

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?

Also, i thhouht the he squeamishness between them was because neither of them fancied each other, he wanted the house and she wanted to get away from it.

Lorelei - no I don't think Caroline was pushed. I think she fell to her death probably out of fear.

Duchess, if she had the courage to shout at it and go after it, I wonder if it could have scared her so much?

Alice, when you say you think she can only have seen Dr F, you mean the real him?

Thanks all, loving this chat