Author: Ira Levin Title: A kiss before dying Title-explanation: A kiss is a symbol of love. Bud pretends to love the victims before he kills them => dying. So he kisses them and then he kills them, so they will never expect it. Publisher: Wolters-Noordhoff BV => the Blackbirds of 1994 Date of publication: 1994 Date of first publication: 1952 Summary: The book is divided into three parts, called: Dorothy, Ellen and Marion. Because Bud's dad was a loser, his mother placed all her hopes on her son. He wants her to be proud at her so he marries a rich girl. But when she gets pregnant he wants to get rid of her and he made a perfect plan. Now it looks like Dorothy killed herself. Everyone believes it, except Ellen and Gordon. At first Ellen thinks Gordon killed Dorothy, but she finds out he is innocent and they become good friends. She tells everything she finds out to Gordon and her new boyfriend Bud, but when she comes to near, he decides to kill her too. But this time he did not make it look like a suicide, he just covered up his tracks. Then he decides he wanted to marry Marion, because she was very rich too. He studied everything Marion liked by heart and she felled for him. She was very happy because someone paid attention to her, but Gordon got suspicious. He found some notes of Bud and he finally understood all the murders and Bud's plan. He told Marion's dad and Marion and they made a plan to make him confess: they invited him to the huge factories of Marion's dad, and there they asked him things about the murder. They only wanted him to confess, but Bud jumped away and found his death.
Characters: The main character is Bud Corliss. He is a criminal who deceives and kills without any scruples in order to get what he wants: money. He is good at pretending and seems to win most people's trust. He is also handsome and gently, that's why he wins all the women's hearts. He knows he is a genius and a good improviser, capable of the perfect crime. Only at the end he felt fear, and that killed him. Setting: It takes place in America, at the same time the book was written. The first two parts are at the Stoddard University, the last part is in New York. Point of view: It's an omniscient narrator. He is not involved in the story, but tells us al the events and thoughts of the main characters. Theme: The fight between good and bad: Bud is very bad because he abuses the women who are willing to love him just to achieve his goal: to get rich. He kills three people to get to his goal, but then there's Gordon who finds out about the real Bud and makes him stop (by 'killing' him). Gordon is good and he wins. Genre: Thriller Writer's biography: Ira Levin was born in New York in 1929. He went to Drake University in Iowa and New York University. Other books: Rosemary's Baby (1967), This Perfect Day (1970), The Stepford Wives (1972), Boys From Brazil (1976), He has received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for 'A Kiss before Dying'. His work is full of suspense caused by Satanism, secrets, violence and death. He constructs the plots in such a way that both good and bad characters must, at times, change their plans because of a crisis. This is particularly the case in 'A Kiss before Dying'.