Bedelia (novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | Vera Caspary |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Blakiston |
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Publication date
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1945 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 187 pp. |
| OCLC | 8744835 |
Bedelia is a novel by Vera Caspary first published in 1945 about a blissfully happy newlywed couple in which the husband learns that his wife may have a criminal past. His growing suspicion and discovery of corroborating evidence lead him to think that she might be a serial killer, and that he could be her next victim.
Set in small-town Connecticut in the winter of 1913-14, Bedelia, whose eponymous heroine was called "the wickedest woman who ever loved" on the cover of an early edition of the book, is usually subsumed under the genre of pulp fiction. However, a 2005 annotated edition published by The Feminist Press at the City University of New York shows that Caspary's novel can be seen as a contribution to feminist thought in that it raised the level of awareness amongst its readers of the unequal, if not desperate, position of freedom-loving women in pre-World War I Western society.
Bedelia is dedicated to film producer Isadore "Igee" Goldsmith, then Caspary's husband.
Thirty-three-year-old Charlie Horst comes from an old Puritan family which for centuries has been one of the pillars of society in an unnamed small town in Connecticut. Educated at Yale and now working as an architect, he has lived in a grand old house—his parental home—all his life. At the beginning of the novel his domineering mother has been dead for less than a year, and since her death Charlie has gone on a summer holiday to Colorado Springs, has met Bedelia Cochran there, a young childless widow of great beauty, has immediately fallen in love with her, brought her back home and married her.
Married life becomes Charlie Horst, so much so that on Christmas Day, 1913, he considers himself "the luckiest man in the world." Bedelia has turned out to be the perfect wife: exceedingly capable of running the household, a brilliant hostess, an obedient and submissive companion in need of protection by a strong man, imaginative, attractive, always well-dressed and well made-up, sexy, and good in bed. At their little Christmas party some of the town dignitaries are present, and everyone enjoys her ladylike ways. On top of it all, Bedelia is several months pregnant, turning Charlie into a proud father-to-be.
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