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    The Little Stranger
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    The Little Stranger
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    The Little Stranger
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Little Stranger

    Written by Sarah Waters

    Narrated by Simon Vance

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "The #1 book of 2009...Several sleepless nights are guaranteed."-Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly

    One postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country physician, is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. Its owners-mother, son, and daughter-are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with conflicts of their own. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become intimately entwined with his.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 30, 2009
    ISBN9781101053027
    Unavailable
    The Little Stranger
    Author

    Sarah Waters

    Sarah Waters nació en Gales, Gran Bretaña, en 1966. Estudió literatura inglesa en las universidades de Kent y Lancaster, y ha publicado artículos sobre género, sexualidad e historia en revistas como Feminist Review, Journal of the History of Sexuality y Science as Culture. En enero de 2003 fue seleccionada por la revista Granta en su lista decenal de los Young British Novelists.

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    Reviews for The Little Stranger

    3.5/5

    1,910 ratings209 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The Little Stranger is a creepy atmospheric novel that was a finalist for The Booker Prize in 2009. This is one of the best novels I have read in some time, and even though I figured out the “mystery” before I got to the end of the book, the closing pages were still chilling.

      This novel introduces us to Dr. Faraday, who grew up in the quaint English countryside and as an adult returns to reside as a somewhat successful doctor. As a young boy his mother was a nurse maid at Hundred’s Hall, a mansion of the rich Ayres family. As a young teenager he became enamored of the mansion but eventually left for school.

      Years later he is suddenly called to the house to treat the family’s young maid and is immediately taken aback by the decline of the house and the family’s fortunes. The Ayres family has fallen on extremely hard times financially and emotionally after World War II and are struggling to keep the huge house afloat, mostly without success. The decline of the family’s fortunes mirrors that of Hundred’s Hall.

      The remnants of the family include Mrs. Ayres who is an aging woman clinging desperately to the past and her daughter Caroline who is a capable but somewhat plain, unmarried 27 year old who seems resigned to her fate as an old maid in the declining house. Then you have Mrs. Ayres’ son Roderick, who has a severe leg injury from the war but is trying to keep the family estates and fortune afloat, but appears to be in way over his head. The decline of the house and this insular, eccentric family are stark and inexorable.

      Dr. Faraday quickly ingratiates himself with the family and finds himself a frequent visitor to the mansion. And he finds himself again enamored of it, despite it’s failing and decrepit shape. Then strange things begin to happen. Roderick starts having visions and begins to sink into what appears to be insanity as he starts having severe headaches and sees a malevolent spirit. The docile family dog Gyp attacks a small child visiting with her family, ripping her face up. Strange markings are found in Roderick’s room and other parts of the house. Mrs. Ayres sees visions of her other, more beloved daughter who died at a young age. Strange fires break out. Is there really something haunting the house? Dr. Faraday, who has fallen in love with Caroline and wants to marry her, doesn’t think so. But strange things continue to happen, until the very end.

      This novel is extremely well written and has great depth and well explored characters. While the novel starts out slowly as it builds up the atmosphere the reader will inhabit, the payoff is a very intricate and somewhat oppressive story about the decline and fall of what is left of the Ayres family, their homestead, Hundred’s Hall, and a mysterious haunting. I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Review from blog. This is one of those novels that might be better enjoyed if the reader comes to it without the knowledge that this is a ghost story. Although it does have strange goings on at the big house, it has a lot more going for it than just a few ghostly chills. The story is told to the reader by a country doctor, who documents a year in his life, slowly becoming embroiled in the struggles of the last three members of the local landed gentry. A glamour of nostalgia draws him to their manor house even though its best days are long past. The old and the new collide again again throughout the story; from the doctor's country practice to the proposed NHS; superstitions and science; traditional remedies and the doctor's new treatments; the old manor encroached by new cheap housing; even poetry gets a mention - "What's wrong with nice long lines and a jaunty rhythm?" asks the old lady of the house, comparing Tennyson to Emily Dickinson. An air of melancholy slowly builds into foreboding before the first terrible event rips into the family. It's all very well written with lots of little undertones that keep the narrative interesting. The old matriarch lost in her memories and clinging to a world that has largely been washed away. The young son, scarred inside and out by the horrors of war, driven too far by the responsibility expected of a male heir. The doctor falling in love, but with the young daughter, or the house, or an ideal and too quick to fit everything into what is rational or reasonable. I lived in Warwickshire when I was away at college back in the early 1980s and I felt that the place depicted here could just as easily have been any rural area in an English county. The book doesn't really work as a ghost story. It's too long and not paced right but I don't think that matters, because I don't think the book was ever even trying to fit into that genre.
    • 3/5
      Fiction, Britain, Ghost story, post WW II, Doctor, Aristrocracy
    • 4/5
      Good ghost story.
    • 2/5
      The matter would've been improved with either a brisker gothic tale or a novel about class tensions in postwar England.
    • 3/5
      The story is worth it, and it IS creepy here and there, but it's too long. This book would be 4.5 stars if it was 350 pages instead of 608. Simply too much mundane life description that can be cut without removing anything from the story. Great writing style.
    • 3/5
      I think I like her happy books better! This was a good ghost story though along with the story of the end of aristocracy in post WWII England.
    • 3/5
      This gothic romance tells the story of Hundreds Hall and the strange happenings that occur there. Dr Faraday has been enamored with the estate home since his boyhood and is quite excited to be called out there on a professional visit. He becomes the family doctor, visiting on a near weekly basis for therapy on Roderick’s leg, who suffered great injury when his plane was downed in WWII. In time, Faraday falls for Caroline, Roderick’s sister, a hearty young woman whom Mrs Ayers fears will never marry. Faraday remains skeptical of all the strange things occurring in the home, yet they continue to grow worse.The plot moves very slowly in this book. It takes nearly two thirds of the book before Dr Faraday realizes that he fancies Caroline, when the reader could have told him as much by the end of chapter two. Also, nothing truly strange occurs at the house until about a third of the way into the book. As I said, it moves slowly. This isn’t to say this is bad. After all, some people rather enjoy slow-burn romances. I appreciate that the ending leaves the reader wondering just what really happened. A film version is coming out in late August and having read the book, I am eager to see how it was adapted for film.
    • 4/5
      Dr. Faraday last visited the grand Hundreds Hall as a boy thirty years ago with his mother who was one of the servants. When his services are requested by the Ayres matriarch to treat an ailing servant, he is appalled to discover the mansion has fallen into disrepair. The family's wealth has diminished resulting a significant reduction of staff to two.Faraday becomes entangled with the Ayres when he convinces Rod, the new lord of Hundreds Hall, to allow him to treat injuries he sustained during WW2, and because of an attraction to his sister, Caroline. Shortly after Faraday becomes a frequent guest, the treated servant, Betty, tells Faraday of some amorphous evil which lurks within the manor. Believing her perception the result of an overactive imagination, Faraday plays it no heed. However, when Rod becomes increasingly fearful, sequestered in his bedroom, drinking his fear away, Faraday begins to believe that there might be something to Rod's paranoia.The author skillfully plays homage to earlier writers, such as Shirley Jackson and Edgar Allen Poe, in the setting of Hundreds Hall and in the subtlety of its evil. The deterioration of the manor was mirrored in the lot of its residents. A great choice for an October and Halloween read.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to read this because it is a family saga set in an English country house with great details about life in England in the 1940s. All of this is set in the context of a ghost story, which I'm not normally drawn to. The book had all the components I love, and I even enjoyed the mystery of the ghost story, but somehow I feel very dispassionate about this book (even though it was well-written) and never really connected with any of the characters.
    • 4/5
      This was a great gothic ghost story. Maybe it got a little long winded but for the most part, I didn't want to put it down. Creepier than The Haunting of Hill House but not quite as spooky as The Woman in Black. I know a lot of Waters' fans didn't like this one and the mixed reviews are why it sat on my shelf for so long. Although I liked both Fingersmith and The Night Watch more, I thought this one was a good read, too.
    • 4/5
      A country doctor is called out to the local big estate and ends up becoming the family physician to its inhabitants, landed gentry who feel increasingly left behind as modernization occurs around them and they no longer have the cash flow to keep up. Worse yet, as the old house starts crumbling around them, strange and unaccountable things begin happening within its walls.This book is very well written and incredibly atmospheric. While much of the book reads more like a costume drama, there are parts that do get spine-tingling with its creepiness. For readers who like Gothic horror, this book is a good choice. However, I must admit it feels like a lot of simmering that never quite comes to a boil. The ending was just a little too open-ended and vague for me (arguably even a bit anticlimactic), although spoilers-allowed discussions did give me additional thoughts to ponder. There certainly is a lot to chew over with this book and its characters.Overall, I was impressed enough to consider reading other books by this author in the future, especially given that I heard from several people that Waters's others titles are better than this one. I am also keen to see the soon-to-be-released movie based on The Little Stranger.
    • 3/5
      Imagine a cuisine where the appetizer IS the meal. No matter its artful presentation, even the most tasty hors d'oeuvre will not only leave you hungry but chafing at its parsimony. This is not to say that The Little Stranger is a skimpy book -- it's broad, detailed and engrossing. Yet, at the end, there's an appetite unsatisfied. I suppose we could debate the meaning of "ghost" or "madness" or how they might even work in tandem, but it doesn't preclude a feeling of somehow being cheated of a full meal.
    • 4/5
      This was just a good old-fashioned creepy Gothic tale, with all appropriate elements in place, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Nothing much to debate or discuss. Perhaps the deteriorating dark and dreary manor house known as "The Hundreds" is haunted, or perhaps its occupants are all slowly, and one at a time, going mad. Either way, the pages of The Little Stranger seem to turn by themselves, and before I knew it 500 of them had sped by me.Review written in 2015
    • 5/5
      SO GOOD! The spiritual cousin to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House in its beauty and ambiguity. Raises more questions than it answers, but wonderfully.
    • 3/5
      I received this book from Amazon vine. I want to say that Sarah Waters is a favorite author of mine. I have read all of her books, and I have seen the British films made of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith. Wonderful on all counts. I was thrilled to see that a new book was soon to be released, and I was particularly happy to be able to read an advance copy, and not have to wait.The story mostly takes place at Hundreds, the family estate of the Ayres family. When we are first introduced to this home it is in its heyday, the family at it's peak of social and financial success. The story takes place after the war however, a time when many estates are failing. Hundreds has not escaped this fate. The Ayres family is doing their best to save their home. In fact, they are struggling even to keep food on the table and feed their livestock on the estate farm. The bulk of the responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of Roderick, the man of the family since his fathers passing. Roderick suffers from emotional and physical injuries sustained in a plane crash while he served his country. The burden of saving the family's home and fortune is almost impossible for him to bear. Caroline, his older sister busies herself with keeping house and caring for her mother. Roderick will not allow her to help him with what he sees as his duty to the family. Mrs Ayres has perfected the ability to live in denial. We are introduced to Dr. Farraday, when he is summoned to care for Betty, the young girl who works for the family. He is to play a huge role in this story and the fate of this family. I am sad to say that none of the characters in this novel appealed to me as much as those in her previous novels. These characters were lackluster and annoying. The story seemed to trudge along, rather than flow naturally as all of Water's other novels do.Perhaps if one has not become so enamored with the type of novels that Water's has written in the past, one would enjoy it more. I knew this was going to be a bit of a departure for her, but perhaps it is just not what she does best. I am sorry to say that I was disappointed.
    • 5/5
      I think I had tried to read this before and just couldn't sit still to get started. I must have been in the right mood this time and finished this swiftly and really enjoyed it!
    • 4/5
      This is quite a good novel. It's scary in an understated way that makes it even scarier. Add in the elements of sexism and the paternalistic manner of members of professions that see themselves as the sole keepers of reason, and this novel leaves the reader feeling just as trapped as the characters.It feels a bit like an alternate ending to Downton Abbey, only I never felt the need to leave the lights on after watching Downton Abbey.
    • 4/5
      Dr. Faraday, a local GP in a Warwickshire town, is called out to tend to a sick housemaid at the local manor house, Hundreds Hall. There he meets the Ayres family, the last of a noble line, and sees their once-beautiful estate fallen to ruins through impoverishment and neglect. A relationship forms between Faraday and the Ayres family, and he becomes both doctor and guest to the widowed mother and her two surviving children, who are in their twenties. Terrible and inexplicable tragedies occur at Hundreds Hall. Injuries, death, and madness plague the family and their guests. Sarah Waters is a dab hand at invoking atmosphere, and much like Shirley Jackson's Hill House, the building itself becomes a place of tension, fear, and power. The book is creepy, not a book to be read when one is alone at night, and it is a well-narrated tale that genuinely captures the essence of its characters. I would have given the book more stars were I not dissatisfied with the ending, about which I will say nothing more. It's a good book for anyone who likes spine-tingling tales.
    • 5/5
      Sooooo good!
    • 5/5
      This shouldn’t be a book I’d like. It moves slowly. The hints of supernatural events don’t show up until 100 pages into the story. The narrator is annoying and full of himself, and the other characters aren’t really ones that I came to love, although I came to care about them. And yet, I did like it. I stayed glued to it and read it avidly. Waters puts an incredible amount of detail into her writing; I could see every blade of grass and mote of dust, feel every fear and anger. . The narrator, Dr. Faraday (he seems to have no first name), is in an unhappy state. Son of working class parents who worked themselves to put him through medical school, he, in his forties, is still poor. He’s not totally accepted by the other doctors because they came from a higher class, and he looks down on the working class. He frets that the soon to be established National Health Service will take his patients away from him. What a break from his routine it is, then, when a chance house call takes him out to Hundreds, the crumbling estate of the penniless but upper class Ayres family. He’s long been enchanted by Hundreds; his mother, a maid there at one time, took him there once when he was a child and he felt it was the grandest thing ever. When, finishing a call on the 14 year old live in maid of all work, he finds that the man of the house, 20 something Roddy has returned from WW 2 with nasty burns and a bad leg, he decides to try treating the leg gratis since the family doesn’t have the means to pay him. This brings him to Hundreds frequently, and a relationship blooms between him and the family, crossing class boundaries. Eventually, Faraday becomes the de facto man of the house, even though he doesn’t live there. When the strange events begin, Faraday, the man of science, explains them away as logical events and ‘nerves’. All the women, in his mind, need sedating and rest. They are unreliable witnesses who don’t think clearly. But Faraday himself is revealed as unreliable himself; who can we believe? As events become more and more horrible, his attempts to explain them become more strained. The beautiful but ruined (much like the Ayres family itself) house is itself a character in the story- is it sentient? Is it evil? Or is there a ghost, or a poltergeist? Or is everyone crazy? Answers are few. This is definitely a Gothic novel, more Gothic than horror. The isolation of the characters- both physically and emotionally- is frightening. Everything and everyone is falling into decay- the house rots, leaks, burns, crumbles; the people sink into bad mental states. But it’s not just a Gothic tale; it’s much more interesting than that. It’s a sociological portrait of an era, with all the anxiety, shortages, classism, sexism, and even ageism it entailed. There are touches of ‘Turn of the Screw’, ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ and even Freud, but it is NOT derivative. It’s a gorgeous, brilliant book with an atmosphere that will cling to your brain for a few days after you finish it.
    • 4/5
      Laura read it aloud on our drive from Chicago to Florida and we just finished it yesterday, so I'm still chewing on it. I'm resisting the temptation to read reviews online. As always, Waters creates such fantastic characters and makes you feel like you're living in their world. A good read for those who like general literary fiction or mystery/thrillers or horror. On the Booker long list.
    • 5/5
      Immersive as hell! Nothing about the setup and development of the story feels contrived, and that’s saying something for a haunted house story written in 2010 about the aftermath of WWII. Like all of her other novels, the impressions and details of day-to-day life in decades or centuries that most of us living have never experienced is a wonderful gift. I had read this too quickly once before and picked up on a conviction/ theory this time around about the ambiguous ending which I see other people have proposed, when I google it. I was so sad to turn the last page!
    • 4/5
      This was a wonderfully suspenseful novel about the decline of an English gentry family and their home. As in many gothic novels, the house is a character in this book and declines as the family does. There's a supernatural element introduced and Waters does a great job intertwining the family and the home's decline so that it's never clear where the destruction is stemming from. The book is narrated by a doctor who befriends the family and has his own ties to the house. His mother had been a servant there and he remembers visiting the home as a child. His reliability in relating the story was questionable throughout and added an interesting element to the book.This is a book that will keep you turning the pages; it's well written and fun to read. In the end, though, I don't feel like it was really anything new, so I haven't rated it very highly. I think most people would really enjoy it though - it was fun to read.
    • 4/5
      A very enjoyable novel which was beautifully written and appeared to be tightly edited. The characters were very well defined and the suspense which increased with every chapter was gripping. Highly Recommended
    • 4/5
      Adult fiction; suspense/horror. Really creepy; you never really find out what exactly is responsible for all the misfortunes that befall the Ayres family at the Hundreds mansion, but it is definitely evil, and definitely scary.
    • 2/5
      I liked parts of this book, and some of them were slightly creepy, but it just went on for so much longer than I felt that it needed to. I found the character of Dr. Faraday unlikable the majority of the time and didn't enjoy seeing the events of the story from his point of view.
    • 3/5
      The Little Stranger is set post-World War II in the English countryside. Hundreds, the house where most of the action takes place, has a gothic atmosphere that seems to fascinate the narrator of the story, Dr. Faraday. His mother was once a housemaid there and he becomes the family doctor. The family is much reduced; the son was injured in the war and the estate is in dire straits. Strange things begin to occur to the family, and the doctor is drawn in despite his belief that the problems are more psychological than paranormal. It took me a long time to read this book, though I did put it down for quite a long while. While the writing is lovely, the plot is very slow. Ultimately, I found the ending unsatisfying; I didn't really expect the spirit of the daughter or a poltergeist to be identified, but things are somewhat left hanging with the doctor not really resolving his feeling toward the family or the house.
    • 4/5
      Utterly creepy, and not as expected - which I *should* have expected, given that it's by Sarah Waters, whose brilliance with the plot twist is well established.

      Also, compelling enough that I read the whole thing today, and was quite pleased to finish it before it got dark out, I have to say.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up on a whim after my mom mentioned the slow pace, because I wanted a calm and quiet read. The setting is extremely well-researched and well-written, especially the fate of grand estates in post-war Britain, but I wasn't much interested in the plot or characters.