Download Boekverslag Engels I am legend door Richard Matheson Richard

Boekverslag Engels I am legend door Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson - I am legend
Biografie
Matheson was born in Allendale, New Jersey , the son Fanny and Bertolf Matheson,
both of Norwegian immigrants. He grew up in Brooklyn, where he studied at the
Brooklyn Technical High School. During World War II he served as an infantry soldier
in the U.S. Army. In 1949 he received his bachelor's degree in journalism from
the University of Missouri. On 1st July 1952 he married Ruth Ann Woodson, with
whom he had four children. Mathesons first publication was the short story "Born of
Man and Woman ", which was published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science
Fiction in 1950. Later that year, he wrote stories for the magazine Galaxy Science
Fiction. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson published numerous short stories, which he
often mixed elements of science fiction, horror and fantasy. It was during the 50s and
60s, a member of the Southern California School of Writers, where Charles Beaumont,
William F. Nolan, Ray Bradbury, Jerry Sohl, George Clayton Johnson and part of it.
Some of his stories, such as "Third from the Sun " (1950 ), "Deadline" (1959 ) and "
Button, Button " (1970 ), are actually sketches with an unexpected twist at the end.
Others, like " Trespass " (1953 ), " Being" (1954 ) and " Mute" (1962 ), pay close
attention to the development dilemmas of the main characters. Besides books Matheson
wrote the script for 14 episodes of The Twilight Zone, often based on his own stories.
Among the best known hear "Steel", "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and " Little Girl Lost
". He also wrote many of the opening and closing dialogues host Rod Serling. Between
1958 and 1962 he edited the stories of Edgar Allan Poe to scripts for Roger Corman
's Poe series, including House of Usher (1960 ), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 )
and The Raven (1963 ). For Star Trek, he wrote the script for the episode " The Enemy
Within ". Mathesons first novel, Someone Is Bleeding, in 1953 was published by Lion
Books. Other novels from his early years as a writer include The Shrinking Man (1956,
filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man) and I Am Legend ( 1954, filmed several
times). His novels What Dreams May Come, A Stir of Echoes, Bid Time Return, and
Hell House were filmed. Matheson himself gave specific sources of inspiration for his
stories. Thus Duel would be based on an incident in which he and his friend Jerry Sohl
were nearly rammed by a truck on the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Matheson died at his home at the age of 87 .
Main characters
Robert Neville
Summary
In this novel, the protagonist, Robert Neville, is seemingly the only survivor of a
plague that has converted the rest of humanity to vampires. Robert's mission
is to destroy "the others" before they can infect him. At the beginning of the novel,
we learn of Robert's daily struggles to repel the vampires and repair the
damage they do, to kill his attackers and dispose of their bodies, and to endure
their nocturnal taunts, howling and rock throwing. He has boarded his house and
hooked up a generator, and escapes through music, art, gallows humor, and
occasional binge drinking. He has lost his wife and daughter to the dread disease
that has converted the population to vampires, and his former friend and
co-worker, Ben Cortman, taunts him daily. We learn that he had fought in a war
in Panama, a war which the U.S. won, but which brought in its wake dust storms,
swarms of insects, and a plague which converted the entire population to vampires.
Robert is immune to the disease as a result of the bite of a vampire bat which
sickened him but did not kill him. One day, after a particularly vicious assault by
swarms of vampires, Robert resolves to figure out how to defeat them, "or ditch
the whole mess, life included." After his early experiments yield confusing results,
Robert theorizes that some of the disease's effects are psychological, induced
by a sort of mass hysteria gleaned from vampire legends. Robert learns how to use
the microscope and is able to isolate the bacteria that causes the disease. The
discovery is significant as it confirms that the belief in vampires is not based on
superstition, but is a scientific fact. One day, Robert befriends a stray dog who
seems to have escaped the infection, and after finally gaining his trust and
affection, the dog is infected by the vampires and dies. Two years later, Robert has
once again settled into a pattern of day-to-day survival. He has killed off most of
the vampires, but the survivors continue to harass him at night. Then he meets
Ruth, a pretty young woman who has lost two children to the disease and her
husband to a vampire killer. Robert is not sure he can trust her as she is repulsed
by garlic, but says it is because she is weak from hunger and shock. She agrees to
let Robert test her blood the next morning. Robert shares with her all he has
learned about vampires, and they make love. Ruth allows Robert to draw her
blood, but begs him not to look at it under the microscope. When he does, he sees
that the germ has mutated. Ruth pounds his head with a mallet until he is
unconscious and leaves him a note confessing that the mutant vampires have
figured out a way to survive and sent her to spy on him and that it was Robert who
killed her husband. She professes to love him, and urges him to flee while he still
can. Seven months later, Robert witnesses trained killers from the new vampire
society brutally execute six vampires and then riddle Ben Cortman with bullets as
he tries to crawl to safety. Next, they smash into Robert's house. He was
prepared to surrender peacefully, but now he believes they are out to kill him, so
he shoots them. Robert is seriously wounded in the crossfire, and is transported to
a jail hospital. Ruth visits him and announces that the new society is taking back
the world with violence. She says that the people hate and fear him for killing so
many of them and want him dead. She tells him that he can't fight them,
there are too many of them, and gives him a packet of pills to make the end easier.
Robert Neville, the last of his kind, prepares to pass into the realm of legend, thus
completing the cycle.
My opinion
The book is realy different of the movie I have seen that’s because the film is a
remake of an remake but it’s an realy good book. I realy don’t like to read, but I
liked to read this book.