The Lady Vanishes

If life is a dream, it must surely be a nightmare from which one cannot awaken This would seem to be the major theme of this book, originally published in 1936 as The Wheel Spins, and from which Alfred Hitchcock made his great movie, The Lady Vanishes. It's a good exercise to occasionally read a book from the past. Styles change, even in writing, and it can be educational as well as entertaining to take that step backwards. Certainly Ms. White knows how to plot. That is, by far, the strongest element in this book. It's somewhat strange to read a book with so little dialogue and so much introspection. And, so many viewpoints. Nearly every character in the book has a chance for internal conversation with his or herself. Unfortunately, in a mystery novel, there must be at least one sympathetic character for the reader to root for, and in this book, the most sympathetic of all is the dog, Sock. A sort of Old English Sheepdog, Sock waits patiently for the return of the daughter of the house, Winifred Froy, who delights in being away from home for months on end. Not just from home, but from country as well, and in the middle to Eastern Europe of the thirties, this can sometimes be a dangerous pastime. Winifred is the `lady' of the title, but the main female protagonist is Iris Carr, a youngish Englishwoman about to return home after a holiday in an un-named country, perhaps in the Balkans, but filled with mountains and resorts. Her friends have all left a day or two before she does, leaving her to the company of a rector and his wife, a honeymooning couple, and a pair of elderly spinster sisters. They all end up on the same train, heading for Trieste, and further embarkation. Iris is injured, thus putting her in the company of Winifred, and a strange assortment of natives, none of whom can speak any other language. When Winifred vanishes mid-trip, Iris is suddenly informed that not only has the lady not vanished, she never even existed at all! Thus the nightmare begins. The suspense is somewhat weakened by the repetitiousness of Iris's meanderings--physically and emotionally. Finally, in spite of the well-meaning interfering young Hare, his friend the professor, and the villainous doctor, all ends as it should. I think it might be fun to find a video of the movie just to compare notes.