In this Our Life, the novel by Ellen Glasgow is richer, deeper, and less bound by convention than the film. Film Life follows the inherited story for its first forty-five minutes but then sharply diverges.
In the film version, bad daughter Stanley is less conflicted and complicated a character and eventually devolves into a stereotypical noir "bad girl." Novel Stanley doesn't drive Peter to suicide, nor does she she bring the film to convenient closure by driving her car down a cliff. Novel Craig is far less worthy and more passive than film Craig and doesn't redeem himself by transforming into a sleuth who exonerates Parry.
Needless to say, the novel offers no Hollywood ending; in strong contrast, novel Roy rejects Craig's offer of marriage because she knows that Craig is still carrying the torch for Stanley. Instead, she tries desperately to leave town and start life anew -- but it's not clear whether or not she will make a clean getaway. We hope that she will.
The most extensive revision is to the character of the sisters' father, Asa Timberlake. In the film, he's a uxorious martyred browbeaten milquetoast who is the long-suffering caretaker of his hypochondriacal bedridden wife. In Ellen Glasgow's novel, much of which is seen through his eyes, Asa loathes his wife, knows that he's wasted his life, craves affection, and even admits to himself that he wants her dead so that he can be free. It's Asa, not Craig, who unravels the mystery of the automobile accident. Moreover, glory be to the proper gods, Asa has a secret lady friend, a widow/farmer a dozen years his junior, whom he visits on his occasional day off. And he nurtures an escapist fantasy that keeps him sane -- he wants to end his life as a simple farm laborer. He doesn't quite get there at the novel's end, but there's hope. Kaye, his very healthy, very appropriate mistress (we think sexual partner, though Glasgow hedges) assures him that she will always have an opening for a hired hand.
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