''She Who Was No More'' is a psychological suspense novel by the writing team of
Boileau-Narcejac
Boileau-Narcejac is the pen name used by the prolific French crime-writing duo of Pierre Boileau (28 April 1906 – 16 January 1989) and Pierre Ayraud, aka Thomas Narcejac (3 July 1908 – 7 June 1998). Their successful collaboration produced 43 n ...
, originally published in French as ''Celle qui n'était plus'' in 1952. The duo's first book, it is a thriller about a man who, along with his mistress, murders his wife. It served as the basis for Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1955 film '' Les Diaboliques''.
The first French edition was published in 1952 by
Éditions Denoël
Éditions Denoël is a French culture, French publishing house founded in 1930. Acquired by Éditions Gallimard in 1951, it publishes collections spanning fiction, non-fiction and comic books. It published some of the most important French authors ...
. It was originally published in English in 1954 under the title ''The Woman Who Was No More'' by Rinehart and as ''The Fiends'' by
Arrow Books
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
in 1957. The English version by
Pushkin Press
Pushkin Press is a British-based publishing house dedicated to publishing novels, essays, memoirs and children's books. The London-based company was founded in 1997 and is notable for publishing authors such as Stefan Zweig, Marcel Aymé, Anta ...
, under the title ''She Who Was No More'', used the old translation by Geoffrey Sainsbury.
Plot
Fernand Ravinel is a traveling salesman who leads a mundane existence with his wife, Mireille. His mistress, physician Lucienne, desires to open a practice in
Antibes
Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice.
The town of ...
, so she and Fernand conspire to murder his spouse to collect on her life insurance policy of two million francs. They drown her in a bathtub, then make the death look like an accident, but things spiral out of control when her body disappears.
Adaptations
Film
*The most notable adaptation is the 1955 French thriller '' Les Diaboliques''. The film's director and co-screenwriter
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot (; 20 November 1907 – 12 January 1977) was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his work in the thriller film genre, having directed ''The Wages of Fear'' and '' Les Diaboliques'', ...
made several substantial changes to the plot. He switched the gender of the murderers and invented the private school setting. He also followed the convention that the culprits should be exposed by the detective in the end (another departure from the novel, where the authors let them get away). According to legend, Clouzot beat
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
to the film rights by mere hours. ''Les Diaboliques'' was a worldwide critical and box office success. (Hitchcock later directed ''
Vertigo
Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...
'', which was based on another Boileau-Narcejac novel.)
*''Krug obrechyonnykh'' (The Circle of the Doomed), (U.S.S.R., 1991), directed by Yuri Belenky, and starring Igor Bochkin, Anna Kamenkova, and
Vsevolod Larionov
Vsevolod Dmitriyevich Larionov (russian: Всеволод Дмитриевич Ларионов; September 11, 1928 in Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union – October 8, 2000Diabolique'' (U.S., 1996), directed by
Jeremiah S. Chechik
Jeremiah S. Chechik (born 1955 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is the film director, director of such films as ''National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'', ''Benny & Joon'', ''Diabolique (1996 film), Diabolique'' and ''The Avengers (1998 film), The Av ...
and starring
Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Yasmina Adjani ; born 27 June 1955) is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent. She is the only performer in history to win five César Awards for acting; she won the Best Actress award for ''Possession'' (1981), ''O ...
,
Sharon Stone
Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...
, and
Chazz Palminteri
Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri (born May 15, 1952) Chazzpalminteri.net. Retrieved on November 19, 2013. is an American ...
TV
*''
Reflections of Murder
''Reflections of Murder'' is a 1974 made-for-TV movie that was produced by ABC. A suspense-thriller film, it is a remake of the classic 1955 French film '' Les Diaboliques''. John Badham directed, from Carol Sobieski's script. The cast was led ...
'' (U.S., 1974), directed by
John Badham
John MacDonald Badham (born August 25, 1939) is an English television and film director, best known for his films ''Saturday Night Fever'' (1977), ''Dracula'' (1979), ''Blue Thunder'' (1983), ''WarGames'' (1983), ''Short Circuit'' (1986), and ...
, and starring
Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld (born Susan Ker Weld; August 27, 1943) is an American actress and model. She began acting as a child and progressed to mature roles in the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960. Over t ...
,
Joan Hackett
Joan Ann Hackett (March 1, 1934 – October 8, 1983) was an American actress of film, stage, and television. She starred in the 1967 western ''Will Penny''. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golde ...
and
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor. Waterston is known for his work in theater, television and, film. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, and has receive ...
*''Celle qui n'était plus'' (Switzerland, 1991), directed by Pierre Koralnik
*''House of Secrets'' (U.S., 1993), directed by
Mimi Leder
Miriam Leder (; born January 26, 1952) is an American film and television director and producer noted for her action films and use of special effects.Hurd, Mary G. Women Directors and Their Films. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. She was the first f ...
, and starring
Melissa Gilbert
Melissa Ellen Gilbert (born May 8, 1963) is an American actress, television director, producer, politician, and former president of the Screen Actors Guild.
Gilbert began her career as a child actress in the late 1960s, appearing in numerous co ...
,
Bruce Boxleitner
Bruce William Boxleitner (born May 12, 1950) is an American actor and science fiction and suspense writer. He is known for his leading roles in the television series '' How the West Was Won'', '' Bring 'Em Back Alive'', ''Scarecrow and Mrs. King ...
,
Kate Vernon
Katherine Elizabeth Vernon (born April 21, 1961) is a Canadian-born American actress. She is known for her roles as Lorraine Prescott on the CBS primetime soap opera ''Falcon Crest'' (from 1984–1985), the stuck-up and popular Benny Hanson in t ...
, and
Michael Boatman
Michael Patrick Boatman (born October 25, 1964) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his roles as New York City mayoral aide Carter Heywood in the ABC sitcom ''Spin City'', as U.S. Army Specialist Samuel Beckett in the ABC drama s ...
Stage
*''Monique'' (U.S., 1957), a drama in two acts, adapted by Dorothy and Michael Blankfort
Reception
Rose Feld wrote in the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' that the finale constitutes "an astounding turn that holds validity both for plot and characterization." Martin Levin in ''Saturday Review'' called it "en entirely new variation on the double-indemnity theme." ''Kirkus Reviews'' commented: "This nasty business is rather neat—over and above the negligible interest of those engaged in it." The editors of ''World Authors, 1950-1970'' wrote: "The reader is so thoroughly drawn into the tale, so teased with faint subliminal hints and doubts, that the shatteringly unexpected conclusion is immediately and terrifyingly believable, in terms of both plot and character. One finishes the book with a sense of escaping from the horrible logic of a nightmare."
When the book was republished by Pushkin Vertigo in 2015, Barry Forshaw of ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' wrote: "Although ''She Who Was No More'' has been plundered so often it has lost some of its novelty, the book remains a supreme example of polished crime plotting."