MovieChat Forums > Leave Her to Heaven Discussion > Book is worth reading (SPOILER)

Book is worth reading (SPOILER)

posted 18 years ago by taylorje
6 replies | jump to latest

It may be hard to find; I found it at our local college library. The movie follows it pretty well but in the book, the character of Ellen is even nastier and more vindictive. After Ellen "accidentally" lets Danny drown, (in the book) she actually cleans and washes his body after it is brought back to the house. All the while she's thinking how she's going to get out of the mess she's in because she realizes her husband knows Danny's drowning wasn't an accident. Ellen's main fear is that her husband will turn her in to the police. So she decides to tell him she's pregnant, knowing he will protect her. In the book, she's thinking to herself that although she's not pregnant, she must make it happen as soon as possible.

The most bone chilling part of both the movie and the book is when Ellen decides to commit suicide by swallowing arsenic and staging it so that her sister and husband will be blamed. But her death in the movie was far more sanitized than in the book. Arsenic poisoning makes a person deathly nauseous and causes terrible pain, both of which were detailed in the book. In the movie, she died quietly, still beautiful, in full makeup!

[–] dicooley 18 years ago

I'm supposed to be retired . I don't want to get mixed up in this darn thing.
---Vertigo

It's not confined to the library. The book can be found at various used book stores, or charity book fairs. If you're desperate, you might look at Abebooks on the web.

[–] kerprice 17 years ago

I have the book (found it an an antique store years ago). It's a good read, and it details Harlan and the Ruth's life after Ellen died. There are other details that were changed. Ellen instructed that the letter be sent to the D.A. only if Ruth and Harlan marry.

[–] kingmiller-1 17 years ago

In an effort to get rid of some of my clutter after moving, I've been reading my old books, prior to donating them. I just finished Leave Her to Heaven, and it made me want to see the movie again, so I just requested it from Netflix. Having been written during the war, the pages were very thin, and I had to be careful not to tear them when I turned a page. I agree that the book is worth reading before or after you see the movie; or both. What I remember most from seeing it before, was the gorgeous scenery. Not to mention the handsome Cornel Wilde.

[–] JenniferA585 16 years ago

I have a 1944 first edition that I found on Amazon.com and then became enraged when they re-printed this book in paperback a few years later and can be found at Barnes and Noble.

"Oh, I love living vicariously through the pain and suffering of others."~Waitress

[–] gosh717 16 years ago

It's a very well-written book by Ben Ames Williams--a good read. There was a copy in our bookcase when I was a child; my mother had gotten it from the Book-of-the-Month club several years before I was born (1950). I always read everything I could get my hands on, and read this for the first time when I was about 10. I'm sure I didn't get a lot of it! But what I did get, I liked. Re-reading it as an adult, I marvel at Williams' plotting and descriptive prose, Pick up a copy--you won't regret it.

[–] always_keep_fighting 16 years ago

I just found it on Amazon.com for $10.17! I'm getting it, and another book by the same author, "A House Divided". If I like either book as much as I like this movie, I'll have gotten my money's worth.

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