The Bad Seed

Author	William March
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Rinehart & Company, Inc. (USA) & Hamish Hamilton Limited (UK)
Publication date	April 8th, 1954 (USA) & October 1st, 1954 (UK)
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	247 pp
ISBN	ISBN 978-0060795481
Preceded by	October Island
Followed by	99 Fables

This page is about the novel. For the 1956 film of the same title, go to The Bad Seed (film).
"Bad Seed" is also the name of the Nick Cave biography by Ian Johnston and the Metallica song on their Reload album.

The Bad Seed is a 1954 novel by William March, nominated for the 1955 National Book Award. It was the last major work written by March and although published in his lifetime, its enormous critical and commercial success was largely realized after March's death, one month after publication. The novel was adapted into a successful and long-running Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson and an Academy Award nominated film directed by Mervyn Leroy.

Plot summary

The central character of the story is Christine Penmark, a young mother who finds out that her ten-year-old daughter, Rhoda, is a murderer. Influenced by a neighbor's dalliance in psychiatric theories and a chance visit from her father, Christine begins to recall her own childhood, which brings back memories of times before the people she remembers as her parents adopted her. She eventually figures out that she was actually the sole surviving daughter of "The Incomparable Bessie Denker," a well-known (fictional) serial killer. Bessie Denker's career is based very roughly on the real-life careers of Jane Toppan and other such "black widow" serial killers. The description of her execution in the electric chair is based on that of Ruth Snyder.

Rhoda is portrayed as a psychopath, although the term was not in use at the time of the book. Like her grandmother, she has no conscience and will kill if necessary to get whatever she wants, whether that be a penmanship medal she felt she should have won, the silence of a janitor who knows more than she wants him to or the desire to possess an opal pendant. By the time Christine manages to put the truth together, Rhoda has already killed two people. An adept con artist, she can easily charm adults while eliciting fear and repulsion from other children who can sense something wrong with her.

Once her mother has come to the correct conclusions, she has to wrestle with a terrible dilemma. As young as Rhoda is, there are no guarantees that any arrangements made to confine her will prove permanent, and there would be a huge glare of publicity. At the same time, Christine knows full well that Rhoda will certainly kill again, and again; her grandmother is thought to have begun her career very young by "accidentally" putting arsenic on bread she knew her brother would eat, and went on to kill over 20 people before she was executed.

Film versions

The play was adapted by John Lee Mahin for the screenplay of a 1956 movie directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Paul Wendkos directed the 1985 television adaptation of The Bad Seed. In the 1956 movie, Rhoda is struck and killed by lightning when she goes back to the scene of her crime to retrieve the medal, while Christine survives her suicide attempt. The 1985 television-movie kept the novel's original ending.

There is a reported second remake in the works for 2007. Eli Roth has been announced to direct. [1] According to Variety, Cabin Fever horror film director Eli Roth is set to remake The Bad Seed with Warner Bros. Pictures. Roth stated:

Footnotes

External link

• The Bad Seed (1956) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Bad Seed (1985) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Bad Seed (2007) at the Internet Movie Database
• The National Book Foundation's List of awards by year.