Double Indemnity (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: James M. Cain
- First Published: 1936
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Mystery and detective literature
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Love or romance, Crime or criminals, Murder or homicide, Depression, economic, 1930’s, American Dream, Adultery, Mysteries, Insurance
- Locales: Southern California
Double Indemnity was written by Cain in approximately two months; it appeared initially in Liberty magazine as an eight-part serial. It was, as Cain himself admitted, practically a rewriting of The Postman Always Rings Twice. In both novels, a man, obsessed with desire for a married woman and tempted by the prospect of easy money, contrives under the woman's encouragement a scheme to murder the husband and profit from the murder. In each novel the effect of the successful criminal enterprise is the self-destruction of the principals in tandem with their ultimate...
[The entire page is 715 words long]
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