The Bad Seed
First edition
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| Author | William March |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Psychological horror |
| Publisher | Rinehart & Company |
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Publication date
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April 8, 1954 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 247 pp (reprint edition) |
| ISBN | (reprint edition) |
| OCLC | 61157841 |
| Preceded by | October Island (1952) |
| Followed by | A William March Omnibus (1956) |
The Bad Seed is a 1954 novel by American writer William March, the last of his major works published before his death.
Nominated for the 1955 National Book Award for Fiction, The Bad Seed tells the story of a mother's realization that her young daughter has committed a murder, or two. Its enormous critical and commercial success was largely realized after March's death only one month after publication.
In 1954 the novel was adapted into a successful and long-running Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson, and in 1956 into an Academy Award-nominated film directed by Mervyn LeRoy.
Eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark appears to be what every little girl brought up in a loving home should be. Outwardly, she is charming, polite and intelligent beyond her years. To most adults, she's every parent's dream: obedient, well groomed, unassuming and compliant. She does her homework on time, gets good grades and attends Sunday school each and every week. However, most children who know Rhoda keep their distance from her, sensing that there is something not quite right about her.
Rhoda is the only child of Kenneth and Christine Penmark. Kenneth, a military officer, goes away on business, leaving his wife Christine, a beautiful homemaker, at their apartment home with Rhoda. Christine begins to notice that Rhoda is acting strangely toward one of her classmates, Claude Daigle, who mysteriously drowns at a school picnic not much later. When news of the boy's death reaches Christine and Rhoda, Christine notices Rhoda is indifferent about the loss. Claude's death is presumed accidental, but one detail was unexplained: his face was imprinted and dappled with strange crescent shaped marks. Christine learns that Rhoda quarreled with Claude over a perfect penmanship medal award that the boy won, but which Rhoda believed she deserved more, and has lied about the last time she saw her now deceased classmate.
Faced with Rhoda's deception, Christine begins to reevaluate a few troubling incidents from the past. After Rhoda had begged her parents for a pet dog, she quickly became bored with it, and the animal died in what Rhoda described as an "accidental fall" from the apartment window. An elderly neighbor in Baltimore had promised Rhoda a special necklace upon her death, and soon after died from a fall down the stairs while babysitting Rhoda, who now proudly owns the necklace. Additionally, Rhoda was once expelled from a school for repeatedly being caught lying to teachers and staff who described Rhoda as a "cold, self-sufficient child who plays by her own rules".
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Wikipedia