Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

 

(hb; 1967)

From the inside flap

“Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse were delighted at the chance to move into the Bramford, one of Manhattan’s oldest and most celebrated apartment houses. Their friend Hutch urged them not to; he knew of too many shadows in the Bramford’s past—unsavory tenants like Adrian Marcato, who had practiced witchcraft, and the monstrous Trench sisters. But Rosemary and Guy were clear-thinking and not at all superstitious. They dismissed Hutch’s warnings and moved in.

“At first they were completely happy. Rosemary hung curtains and planned a nursery for the baby she hoped to have some day. Guy pursued his career as a stage and television actor. They met their neighbors, who were friendly and unintrusive. But then, one day when Rosemary was down in the basement laundry room, a girl her own age came in. . .”

 

Review

Set in Manhattan, New York between 1965 and 1966, Ira Levin’s clever, satiric and tightly written devilish thriller is excellent, cinematic in its representation of Rosemary’s victimization and sometimes-disturbing resilience (or breakdown, depending on how you look at it) while maintaining a this-is-a-major-novel feel with its hyper-focused eye for detail, sly real-world references, occurrences and details (which reinforce the personalities of ex-Catholic Rosemary and those around her) and foreshadow the horrors that the expectant mother has yet to fully realize and battle, if she is to survive her ordeal. 

Great, non-gory and one of the all-time best horror novels I’ve read, this—I particularly appreciate how deftly Levin’s prose slips in and out of Rosemary’s stream-of-consciousness observations and fears within a third-person point of view, something a lot of authors seem unable to seamlessly pull off. This is how you construct slow-build paranoia and horror within the fabric of a written and cinematic framework—something more folk horror authors and filmmakers (though Rosemary isn’t folk horror) ought to study and utilize!

Followed by Son of Rosemary.

#

The resulting film was released stateside on June 12, 1968. Roman Polanski directed and wrote the screenplay for it. Further details about the film and its noteworthy, excellent players can be found on IMDb and other places.