Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel)

Evil comes on silent feet ( in the original English: Something Wicked This Way Comes ) is a novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. The novel was published in 1962 in the publishing house Simon & Schuster. The German edition appeared in 1969 in Marion von Schröder Publisher. Published in 1981 the book of Diogenes Verlag in German translation by Norbert Cub.

Content

The novel is about friendship, the relationship of father to son, the longings of young people to be older and to be young again of old.

The two thirteen- year-old neighbor kids and friends, Jim and Will observe how deep in the night a carnival in the meadows near their city strikes its tents. The ringmaster Cooger and Dark as well as the many eerie acrobats pull the boy under her spell. Dark is an illustrated man called and carries on his whole body tattoos that can develop a life of their own. With them evil keeps slowly moving into the city.

The boys find out that the carousel can change the age of the people. Per revolution forward or backward, increases or decreases the age by one year. However, this only affects the physical age, spiritual, nothing changes. Jim is getting older by the way, is as fascinating as Will's 54 -year-old father, Charles, who wants to be younger because he mourns his younger years.

Many people succumb to the temptation of the carousel. But you pay a high price, since the carnival holds them captive with altered personality as acrobats and carry with him.

Also, Jim and Will 's father Charles struggling with their yearnings for a different age and with the temptation by ringmaster Dark to board the carousel. It turns out that the many lively tattoos on the skin, the poor, manipulated souls of acrobats match.

Dark and his acrobats grab Jim and Will, and both want to make followers. Wills father makes Dark but a spanner in the works by first fights more with themselves than with Dark. His weapons are cheerfulness and laughter. It also comes in the confrontation with the temptation by the carousel with himself and his age to terms.

Charles eventually kills Dark. Pull the acrobats redeemed them in all directions. The Fair dissolves. Jim and Will have become a good deal more confident and mature.

Find out more

The novel title is a quote from Macbeth by William Shakespeare:

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. "

The action takes place in the 1920s or 1930s. This makes Charles clear when he estimates in Chapter 38, when and how often the Faire among men is on the loose.

Filming

Under the eponymous English title Something Wicked This Way Comes, the novel in 1983 was made into a Walt Disney production. The screenplay was written by Ray Bradbury The government itself had Jack Clayton. In the leading roles are played by Jason Robards (Charles Halloway ), Jonathan Pryce ( Mr. Dark ), Vidal Peterson (Will Halloway ), Shawn Carson (Jim Nightshade ). The German film version was also released under the novel title Evil comes on silent feet.