Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger

Claire O'Callaghan (University of Loughborough)
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Sarah Waters’s fifth novel,

The Little Stranger

(2009), is a Gothic tale of haunting and demise of the gentry in post-war Britain. Published by Virago Press, the novel received widespread critical acclaim and gave the author her third nomination for the prestigious Man Booker Award. Hilary Mantel, who won the Man Booker in the year of

The Little Stranger

’s nomination, describes Waters’s novel as “gripping” because it combines “spookiness with sharp social observation” (“Haunted by Shame” 6). Similarly, Erica Wagner writing in

The Times

describes the novel as “an effective, gripping book” (“Terror At Every Turn” 11).

Set in 1947, The Little Stranger follows the narrative of Dr Faraday, a General Practitioner based in rural Warwickshire and his interaction with the

2646 words

Citation: O'Callaghan, Claire. "The Little Stranger". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=26520, accessed 19 March 2024.]

26520 The Little Stranger 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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