The Postman Always Rings Twice

The Postman Always Rings Twice
by James M. Cain

The Postman Always Rings Twice
List Price: $13.00
Our Price: $5.98
You Save: $7.02 (54%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.41 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: James M. Cain
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1989-05-14
ISBN: 0679723250
Number of pages: 128
Publisher: Vintage

Summary of The Postman Always Rings Twice

An amoral young tramp.  A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband.  A problem that has only one grisly solution--a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve.

First published in 1934 and banned in Boston for its explosive mixture of violence and eroticism, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic of the roman noir. It established James M. Cain as a major novelist with an unsparing vision of America's bleak underside, and was acknowledged by Albert Camus as the model for The Stranger.
Penzler Pick, April 2000: It is sometimes easy to trace a literary genre to its source, and James M. Cain's first novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, is the noir novel that paved the way for all the noir fiction that followed. The famous film starring Lana Turner and John Garfield is notoriously dark, but the novel is even more full of despair and devoid of hope. It is a short book--little more than a novella--but its searing characterization and depiction of tawdry greed and lust is branded into every reader's memory.

Frank Chambers, a drifter, is dropped from the back of a truck at a rundown rural diner. When he spots Cora, the owner's wife, he instantly decides to stay. The sexy young woman, married to Nick, a violent and thuggish boor, is equally attracted to the younger man and sees him as her way out of her hopeless, boring life. They begin a clandestine affair and plot to kill Nick, beginning their own journey toward destruction.

Horace McCoy, David Goodis, Jim Thompson, and the other notable noir writers never achieved Cain's spare brilliance. Virtually all of his major works have been filmed, though several Hollywood studios refused to make the films, directors refused to be involved, and actors turned down roles because of their repugnance at the lack of morality inherent in all Cain's characters. Reading him may not be fit for a Sunday school class, but once you begin you will be unable to resist continuing, like picking at a painful scab or watching a tarantula inside a glass dome. --Otto Penzler

20th Century Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in 20th Century Books
Tortilla Flat (Penguin Classics) ImageTortilla Flat (Penguin Classics)
by John Steinbeck
Penguin Audio; Published: 2011-04-13; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $18.07
Price in other shops: $29.95
Passing (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) ImagePassing (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
by Nella Larsen
Penguin Classics; Published: 1997-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.88
Virginia (Penguin Classics) ImageVirginia (Penguin Classics)
by Ellen Glasgow
Penguin Classics; Published: 1989-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.90
Price in other shops: $12.95
YOU KNOW ME AL (Hudson River Editions) ImageYOU KNOW ME AL (Hudson River Editions)
by Ring Lardner
Scribner; Published: 1987-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops: $30.00
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald) ImageF. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald)
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Cambridge University Press; Published: 1991-08-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $73.99
Price in other shops: $99.00
A Daughter of the Land (Library of Indiana Classics) ImageA Daughter of the Land (Library of Indiana Classics)
by Gene Stratton-Porter
Indiana University Press; Published: 1997-10-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.50
Price in other shops: $16.95
Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell ImageSouthern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell
by Darden Asbury Pyron
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1991-10-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.91
Price in other shops: $30.00
Joy in the Morning: A Novel (P.S.) ImageJoy in the Morning: A Novel (P.S.)
by Betty Smith
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2010-06-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.56
Price in other shops: $14.99
The Bad Seed (P.S.) ImageThe Bad Seed (P.S.)
by William March
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-06-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.33
Price in other shops: $12.99
The Great Gatsby (A Scribner Classic) ImageThe Great Gatsby (A Scribner Classic)
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Collier Books; Published: 1992-06-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.91
Price in other shops: $9.00
Similar Books and other products
Hellhound On His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt In American History ImageHellhound On His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt In American History
by Hampton Sides
Anchor; Published: 2011-03-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.49
Price in other shops: $15.95
Red Harvest ImageRed Harvest
by Dashiell Hammett
Vintage; Published: 1989-07-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.34
Price in other shops: $13.00
Winter's Bone: A Novel ImageWinter's Bone: A Novel
by Daniel Woodrell
Back Bay Books; Published: 2007-07-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.54
Price in other shops: $13.99
A Rage in Harlem ImageA Rage in Harlem
by Chester Himes
Vintage; Published: 1989-12-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.79
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Killer Inside Me ImageThe Killer Inside Me
by Jim Thompson
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard; Published: 1991-03-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.73
Price in other shops: $13.95
Farewell, My Lovely ImageFarewell, My Lovely
by Raymond Chandler
Vintage; Published: 1992-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Talented Mr. Ripley ImageThe Talented Mr. Ripley
by Patricia Highsmith
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2008-06-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Big Sleep ImageThe Big Sleep
by Raymond Chandler
Vintage; Published: 1988-07-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Maltese Falcon ImageThe Maltese Falcon
by Dashiell Hammett
Vintage; Published: 1992-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops: $14.00
Double Indemnity ImageDouble Indemnity
by James M. Cain
Vintage; Published: 1989-05-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.83
Price in other shops: $13.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories