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?

Either the real him or his poltergeist

I'm really starting to think the actual live flesh and blood Dr Faraday did it, no dream selves.

It's rare that I find an open ending so enthralling but I guess that's because it seems to read differently every time.

We had a missed opportunity when Sarah Waters was on MN a few weeks ago discussing The Paying Guests. I wish I had been able to ask her about the ending then.

ah, but the point was to talk about the Paying Guests. I have read interviews about the ending of LS and I think it was left deliberately open ended. I'm just really interested that on my first reading, it didn't occur to me that Dr F might have done it and even after it was suggested to me, on a second reading, I still didn't think so. Something about it jumped out at me this time, even though I've read it after being told that others were pretty convinced he did it.

I think what struck me this time was the oddity of him still having keys. It is also weird that Caroline didn't ask for them back right away after ending her relationship.

Great thread - I haven't read this book for ages but still think about it sometimes. I've always felt it was Dr Faraday in the flesh and blood and the spooky things are a combination of hysteria and instability in the brother and mother which he his subtly encouraging and building (not sure if consciously or not) and unreliable naration.

I read it soon after reading Affinity, a book of hers which hinges on a 'supernatheal' event, but in the end it turns out (and it's fairly clear to the reader all along) that nothing supernatural is actually going on, it's just humans manipulating each other. So maybe that clouded how I read The Little Stranger.

Iisme, how interesting. I loved Affinity but it did not stop me from thinking, initially, that there was something supernatural at Hundreds.

Did you see the TV version of Affinity? So well done.

The interview I mentioned on Monday was actually a web chat from 2009 with the author:

www.mumsnet.com/onlinechats/sarah-waters

South, thank you! I wasn't on .mN then. I now feel even more convinced Dr F is to blame...

I just found this thread ... and hope that someone will read this most particularly The Little Visitor. Your ideas really engage me! The "unreliable narrator" is the key. When Sarah Waters uses in the clumsiest way (and as a writer, Waters is anything BUT clumsy), such absurd explanations as "As I was later told ..." to introduce whole sections of the narrative that are told in IMPOSSIBLE detail, what are we meant to understand about the source of this detail? It is as though we are, ourselves, floating in some omniscient space, able to see and know from an omniscient perspective that Faraday himself could not have had UNLESS HE WAS THERE. Faraday would HAVE to have been there, in some form real or surreal.
I'm also drawn to what you've written about Faraday's paternity: the possibility that he might be an illegitimate heir to Hundreds. And his deep connection to his mother and her attachment to Hundreds -- the thought he has as the marriage approaches: "if only my mother were here to see me become the master of Hundreds" or some such.

Oh heck, I'm going to have to re-read this now.

I seem to remember deciding that it was the Dr, and that he had so convinced himself that he was the saviour in all this that he couldn't see how he was building the situation up and 'causing' things.

It went down like a damp squid. Really felt like a waste of time. I expect a book to have an ending after I have spent time ploughing through 500 pages. Always feel that the author has no idea how it is going to end when she starts it. She just enjoys writing and hopes she will resolve it in the end. In this case I though it was probably beyond her so she gave up. How different from Paying Guests and Fingersmith which I enjoyed so much.

I LOVED the ending - one of the best books of all time. Thought about it for a few days afterwards.

I loved this book so much. Not sure when it came out but have read at least six times.

Now with this new observation about the detail, I might have to read it again, though I normally choose it when I need a book that I'm sure is a treat....

The thing is, there is a lot of detail in things that Faraday tells us but hasn't been present for - but many writers present this as info given by someone else eg everyone's description of the fire.

My main issue is Betty saying Caroline had picked up like a cat when it wants to be put down again, but I suppose a generally flailing falling figure could appear that way, then of course Betty might have wanted to embellish it.

*been picked up like a cat

For me I feel like the Hundreds is a character in itself and when Dr Faraday catches his reflection in the mirror its almost like the house has decided to arrange this realisation for the Dr - who was the only one that survived (along with Betty - which is doubly interesting as they are both working class members/visitors of the house and are the only ones that survived).
I always thought that DR F was in a way odd. The way he didn't believe any of the claims that said the house was haunted - even when all the rest of the household told him because they had had some kind of supernatural encounter. This could signal that the Dr could have had some kind of subconscious involvement in the events which also doesn't fit with many of the stories involving MrsA encounter with her dead daughter.

Just finished and loved the book. I immediately went searching for answers and live everyone's ideas. Curious though if anyone had any ideas about the photograph that Dr. F kept? I don't believe authors ever put things in for no reason and it was brought up a couple of times but with no real explanation. Who is the woman in the photo and what could it signify?

Sara, the woman in the photo is Dr Faraday's mum. That's why Mrs Ayres gave him the photo.

Other ideas I had about how it might end and who the ghost/poltergeist is while I was reading it:

The spirit of Faraday's mum. Maybe Ayres was Faraday's birth father (his mum worked at the hall) and it was all secret but she knew he was the rightful heir. Makes her all the more bitter about having worked their arses off to get him through his education while Rod had it on a silver platter.
His mum's ghost gets Susan the ghost involved because as the nursery maid Susan knows her and trusts her?
His mum's ghost does it to get him the building and get rid of the others?

It's a bit beyond and there's a touch of potential insest about it but throwing it in there.

See, I always had a hunch his mother was the ghost.

She was a nursemaid there. Then at some point in the book you're told a nursemaid was dismissed because she got pregnant (with him, the doctor?)

And at some other point there's reference to the father messing round with staff. So Doctor could be illegitimate heir to the house which is why he feels such a link to it.

And the spookiness always comes from the nursery. And he thinks he sees his mother when he's feverish in the car. Maybe she's possessing him to shove C off the balcony.

And his odd attraction to C would be explained as they would then be siblings. But no one I know has ever shared this view so I could be over thinking it.

Duh. Except MegMez obviously though tthe same thing too. And so did loads of other people on this thread. Should have read the thread before posting. Duh. But glad other people think this too.

Just finished The Little Stranger - Wonderful!
It was all his subconscious poltergeist doing the haunting and damage. The unhappy, troubled phantasm who wanted something badly was him and the thing Caroline saw on the landing, YOU! whilst he slept exhausted and dreaming in the car! The doctor was not aware of this thing that had broken away from him - It is all explained in the books that Caroline found between pages 362 and 364 and of course the end when he sees the baffled, longing reflection of himself, the shadow creature, the little stranger, spawned from the unconscious of someone connected with the house itself - as the presence glimpsed from the corner of his eye.