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"Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921-1990) was best known as the author of clever, morally inquisitive plays such as 'The Visit' and 'The Physicists.' In the early 1950s he also wrote three short, spellbinding mystery novels, which the University of Chicago Press has reissued in paperback with new translations from the German by Joel Agee: "The Pledge" and "The Inspector Barlach Mysteries: """The Judge and His Hangman" &"""Suspicion"". The latter includes a thoughtful foreword by Sven Birkerts, who praises Durrenmatt's talent as a captivating entertainer who could also 'play through complex moral issues with a speed-chess decisiveness and inexorability.' . . . These are slender tales. But they have the weight and texture of classics. Mystery readers should be grateful to the University of Chicago Press for bringing these gems back to life."--Richard Lipez, "Washington Post"--Richard Lipez"Washington Post" (02/04/2007)
Product Description
Set in a small town in Switzerland, "The Pledge "centers around the murder of a young girl and the detective who promises the victim's mother he will find the perpetrator. After deciding the wrong man has been arrested for the crime, the detective lays a trap for the real killer--with all the patience of a master fisherman. But cruel turns of plot conspire to make him pay dearly for his pledge. Here Friedrich Durrenmatt conveys his brilliant ear for dialogue and a devastating sense of timing and suspense. Joel Agee's skilled translation effectively captures the various voices in the original, as well as its chilling conclusion.
One of Durrenmatt's most diabolically imagined and constructed novels, "The Pledge" was adapted for the screen in 2000 in a film directed by Sean Penn and starring Jack Nicholson.
One of Durrenmatt's most diabolically imagined and constructed novels, "The Pledge" was adapted for the screen in 2000 in a film directed by Sean Penn and starring Jack Nicholson.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The original 1958 edition of this novella was subtitled "A Requiem for the Detective Novel" -- a nugget of context unfortunately missing from this attractive new edition. This absent subtitle is rather important, because it very clearly identifies the taut little tale as one that challenges the traditional arc (crime, investigation, solution) of detective fiction. While the story does follow this arc, the "solution" subverts the qualities of reason, logic, heroism, and determination that are so often extolled in crime fiction -- and by doing so it acts as a critique of the modern era.
The plot is very simple, a little girl is found murdered in some woods on the outskirts of a small Swiss town. A master police detective on his last week of work before leaving on a plumb foreign contract takes the case, and, per the title, promises the mother of the slain girl that her daughter's killer will be brought to justice. A suspect is brought in and confesses, but the detective isn't satisfied, and pursues his pledge to the edge of madness.
The framework for the story is a little clunky, as it's related by the detective's former boss to an anonymous mystery writer. Some of the details also aren't crystal clear, for example, the murder is referred to as a "sex" crime, but it's also clearly established that there was no sexual element. However, these are minor points that should not obscure the power of the novella's grip, which, as others have pointed out, has echoes of Camus.
Note: The book has been adapted for film and television no less than six times! In reverse order, The Pledge (2001, USA) , Es Geschah am Hellichten Tag (1997, Germany), The Cold Light of Day (1996, UK/Netherlands) , Posledneye delo komissara Berlakha (1988, USSR) , La Promessa (1979, Italy) , Es Geschah am Hellichten Tag (1958, Germany).
The plot is very simple, a little girl is found murdered in some woods on the outskirts of a small Swiss town. A master police detective on his last week of work before leaving on a plumb foreign contract takes the case, and, per the title, promises the mother of the slain girl that her daughter's killer will be brought to justice. A suspect is brought in and confesses, but the detective isn't satisfied, and pursues his pledge to the edge of madness.
The framework for the story is a little clunky, as it's related by the detective's former boss to an anonymous mystery writer. Some of the details also aren't crystal clear, for example, the murder is referred to as a "sex" crime, but it's also clearly established that there was no sexual element. However, these are minor points that should not obscure the power of the novella's grip, which, as others have pointed out, has echoes of Camus.
Note: The book has been adapted for film and television no less than six times! In reverse order, The Pledge (2001, USA) , Es Geschah am Hellichten Tag (1997, Germany), The Cold Light of Day (1996, UK/Netherlands) , Posledneye delo komissara Berlakha (1988, USSR) , La Promessa (1979, Italy) , Es Geschah am Hellichten Tag (1958, Germany).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A child is horrifically murdered in the Swiss Canton of Zurich and the investigating officer promises his 'soul' to the grieving mother that he will catch the killer; he gives her his 'pledge'.
The officer is Matthai regarded as a genius by his boss the Chief of Police who is now the narrator of this tale from his position in retirement. The Chief recounts the devastating impact on Matthai's life as the struggle to fulfill this pledge overwhelms him. That is the simple story and it is told in a simple style. The book is shortish, reportage and often chapters are little more than a few paragraphs long.
In fact, Durrenmatt is really making a literary point about crime writing rather than this being a great crime novel in its own right. The Chief believes that crime writers rely totally on 'plot' and 'logic alone' whereas real police work relies on 'professional luck and pure chance'. His (Chief/Durrenmatt) story of the pledge is designed to undermine certain writers, Poe inter alia, who seem to argue 'mathematical formulae' can solve real criminal events.
This latter point is given piquancy by the fact that the Chief is narrating this story to the reader via a crime novelist he has bumped into at a conference. The writer having just given a lecture to the public on the art of crime writing. Very clever,eh? An unusual, dark read.
The officer is Matthai regarded as a genius by his boss the Chief of Police who is now the narrator of this tale from his position in retirement. The Chief recounts the devastating impact on Matthai's life as the struggle to fulfill this pledge overwhelms him. That is the simple story and it is told in a simple style. The book is shortish, reportage and often chapters are little more than a few paragraphs long.
In fact, Durrenmatt is really making a literary point about crime writing rather than this being a great crime novel in its own right. The Chief believes that crime writers rely totally on 'plot' and 'logic alone' whereas real police work relies on 'professional luck and pure chance'. His (Chief/Durrenmatt) story of the pledge is designed to undermine certain writers, Poe inter alia, who seem to argue 'mathematical formulae' can solve real criminal events.
This latter point is given piquancy by the fact that the Chief is narrating this story to the reader via a crime novelist he has bumped into at a conference. The writer having just given a lecture to the public on the art of crime writing. Very clever,eh? An unusual, dark read.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This novel has his origin in a play for a Spanish - Swiss film made by the author in the late 1950's entitled "El cebo" (The Lure) and was much better and terrific than the recent USA version. I saw that movie when I was a child and I don't understand today how it could pass the censorship of Franco. This is a precedent of today fashion about psychopatic killers. A little girl is found slaughtered in a forest in a Canton of Switerland. This murder is similar to others two or three unsolved, committed several years before and in the same Canton. Inspector Mattei is in charge of the investigation but he has get the age of retirement and in fact he has obtained another job as advisor of the police of Jordania. He must fly there in 24 hours. But the chief of Mattei forces him to inform the parents of the death of his little girl. The scene is terrible and the parents oblige Mattei to promise he has to arrest the murderer. Mattei accepts this promise. He rejects his work abroad and yet officially retired, begins to work in a gas service station located in a strategic point of the Canton as he thinks the criminal must live near here.
Until here this can seem another more police novel, but Durrenmatt is by nothing a vulgar or best seller writer and Mattei I think finally has to accomplish his pledge, but at a high and painful cost.
Until here this can seem another more police novel, but Durrenmatt is by nothing a vulgar or best seller writer and Mattei I think finally has to accomplish his pledge, but at a high and painful cost.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dark and Agonising Tale of a Detective's Destruction
Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Pledge is a tale of the fall of a brilliant Swiss detective. The denouement is somewhat pat, but the analysis of the detective's psyche is very... Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2010 by Feanor
A Modest Masterpiece
The film The Pledge is based on a, in the UK, virtually unknown last novel in a trilogy about the life and policework of an Austrian police detective. Read more
Published on 21 July 2002
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