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Jealous Woman

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Wikipedia article




'Jealous Woman' is a mystery novel by James M. Cain published in 1950 by Avon publishers.Madden, 1970 p. 65: Jealous Woman, another insurance story, and Cains only mystery novel (the reader doesnt witness the crime)Skenazy, 1989 p. 16: ...about [a love triangle] of passion enacted in Reno, Nevada.

Cain returns to a plot concerning insurance fraud he had employed in his 1936 serial Double Indemnity, but here the story ends in marital bliss rather than in the ignominious deaths of the lovers.Skenazy, 1989 p. 103Madden, 1970 p. 65: ...ends happily for the lovers...

Cain submitted the manuscript with the title Nevada Moon, but Avon renamed the work in hopes of improving paperback sales.Hoopes, 1982 p. 447, p. 671: Jealous Woman originally titled Nevada Moon. And p. 447-448: Cain hated Avons new title.

Plot



The story unfolds in Reno, Nevada in the Post-war period. Ed Horner is an award winning insurance agent; his ambition is to win more trophy cups for outstanding productivity. He meets East Coast socialite and film actress Jane Develan through an insurance case: she is seeking a divorce from her husband in Reno. When the husband dies mysteriously, she and Horner form an alliance to discover the cause of his death. The working class Horner equivocates between suspicion and attraction towards the beautiful and sophisticated Develan. They become romantically involved, but are at odds over their class orientations. When the insurance investigation is solved by the appearance of an eyewitness to the homicide, the couples romance is consummate in marriage.Skenazy, 1989 p. 101-103: Sketch of plot.Madden, 1970 p. 65; Thumbnail sketch of plot.

Publication history



Jealous Woman originated at the behest of actor Edward G. Robinson, whose performance as the shrewd insurance investigator Keyes won him acclaim in film director Billy Wilders Double Indemnity (1944).Skenazy, 1989 p. 101: ...the film role of Keyes [Robinson] had played so successfully Cain complied, but rather than reproduce Robinsons character Keyes as the wise, paternalistic and relentless insurance investigator, Cain reduces the role in 'Jealous Woman' to that of an incompetent dupe and elevates his junior investigator Ed Horner (Walter Huff in Cains novel ' Double Indemnity') as the superior figure in the insurance company operations.Skenazy, 1989 p. 101-102: ...a dupe throughoutMadden, 1970 p. 65: Jealous Woman, another insurance story, and Cains only mystery novel (the reader doesnt witness the crime), end happily for the lovers.Hoopes, 1982 p. 447: Developed from an unpublished serial Nevada Moon, now with Cain having tightened the opening pages and eliminated all references to Edward G. Robinson and Double Indemnity.

Cains willingness to sell what he considered mediocre material to Avon was in part pecuniary, in part that he considered 'Jealous Woman' outside the realm of his opus and therefore exempt from serious literary critique. He acquiesced to Avons change in title from Nevada Moon to 'Jealous Woman' because the publisher assured Cain that this would enhance sales. He collected a $1000 advance for the novel.Hoopes, 1982 p. 447-448: Cain received a $1000 advance from Avon for his old, unpublished serial Nevada Moon And: Cain hated Avons new title.

Avon released Jealous Woman in paperback in 1950.Skenazy, 1989 p. 187

Critical assessment



'Jealous Woman' is one of several novels written in the late 1940s and early 1950s that Cain would later dismiss from his oeuvre, in addition to Sinful Woman (1948), 'the Root of His Evil' (1951), and Galatea.Skenazy, 1989 p. 99Madden, 1970 p. 128: In Jealous Woman, Cains literary voltage is low.

Novelist and literary critic David Madden observes that the little-known, low quality 'Jealous Woman', along with its predecessor 'Sinful Woman' (1948), were the closest Cain came to writing detective novels in the Hammett-Chandler vein.Madden, 1970 p. 20-22Skenazy,1989 p. 155-156

Cains happy ending books of this period contrast sharply with his depression era novels. Literary critic Paul Skenazy writes:

Footnotes



Sources



*Hoopes, Roy. 1982. 'Cain.' Holt, Reinhart and Winston. New York.

*Madden, David. 1970. 'James M. Cain'. Twayne Publishers, Inc. Library Catalog Card Number: 78-120011.

*Skenazy, Paul. 1989. James M. Cain. Continuum Publishing Company. New York.

Category:1950 novels

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