A Judgement in Stone

A Judgement In Stone
First edition (UK)
Author	Ruth Rendell
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Crime, Mystery novel
Publisher	Hutchinson (UK) Doubleday (US)
Publication date	2 May 1977
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	191 pp
ISBN	0-09-129070-8
OCLC	3606842
Dewey Decimal	823/.9/14
LC Class	PZ4.R4132 Ju PR6068.E63

A Judgement In Stone is a 1977 novel by British writer Ruth Rendell, widely considered to be one of her greatest works. The novel is famous in the world of crime fiction for its opening line: "Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write". The novel has been acclaimed as a keen social examination of the differences between British classes in the 1970s.

Plot summary

Eunice is taken on as a housekeeper by a family of four. She has kept her illiteracy a secret and is obsessed by continuing to keep it so. Unknown to her new employers, she has already murdered the father for whom she had been caring, and has falsified her references. Her inability to adapt to her place in society is masked by the cunning with which she conceals the truth about herself. Misinterpreting every act of kindness she is offered by her employers, she eventually turns on them, stealing the guns that are normally kept locked away. With the aid of a fellow social misfit, she murders the entire family. But Eunice's illiteracy prevents her from recognizing and disposing of a written clue that was left behind. Eventually a tape recording of the shooting made by one of the victims is discovered. Eunice is charged with the crime, and is mortified when her illiteracy is revealed to the world during the court proceedings.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel was filmed twice: The Housekeeper (1986) starred Rita Tushingham as the illiterate maid, and La Cérémonie (1995), directed by Claude Chabrol, where Sandrine Bonnaire played the role. The author has said that Chabrol's version is one of the few film adaptations of her work that she is happy with.

External links

Release details

1997, UK, Hutchinson (ISBN 0-09-129070-8), Pub date 2 May 1977, hardback (First edition)

Ruth Rendell

Inspector Wexford novels	From Doon with Death A New Lease of Death Wolf to the Slaughter The Best Man to Die A Guilty Thing Surprised No More Dying Then Murder Being Once Done Some Lie and Some Die Shake Hands Forever A Sleeping Life Put on By Cunning The Speaker of Mandarin An Unkindness of Ravens The Veiled One Kissing the Gunner's Daughter Simisola Road Rage Harm Done The Babes in the Wood End in Tears Not in the Flesh The Monster in the Box The Vault No Man's Nightingale

Stand-alone novels	To Fear a Painted Devil Vanity Dies Hard The Secret House of Death One Across, Two Down The Face of Trespass A Demon in My View A Judgement in Stone Make Death Love Me The Lake of Darkness Master of the Moor The Killing Doll The Tree of Hands Live Flesh Heartstones Talking to Strange Men The Bridesmaid Going Wrong The Crocodile Bird The Keys to the Street A Sight for Sore Eyes Adam and Eve and Pinch Me The Rottweiler Thirteen Steps Down The Thief The Water's Lovely Portobello Tigerlily's Orchids The St Zita Society The Girl Next Door Dark Corners

As Barbara Vine	A Dark-Adapted Eye A Fatal Inversion The House of Stairs Gallowglass King Solomon's Carpet Asta's Book No Night is Too Long The Brimstone Wedding The Chimney-sweeper's Boy Grasshopper The Blood Doctor The Minotaur The Birthday Present The Child's Child

Short story collections	The Fallen Curtain Means of Evil The Fever Tree The New Girlfriend The Copper Peacock Blood Lines Piranha to Scurfy

TV series	The Ruth Rendell Mysteries

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