The Body Snatchers (1955 Novel)

The Body Snatchers

First edition cover illustrated by JohnMcDermott

Author Jack FinneyCountry United StatesLanguage EnglishGenre Science ction novelPublisher Dell BooksPublicationdate

1955

Media type Print (Hardback)Pages 191 ppOCLC 7148659

(//www.worldcat.org/oclc/7148659)

The Body SnatchersFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe Body Snatchers is a 1955 sciencection novel by Jack Finney, originallyserialized in Colliers Magazine in 1954,which describes the ctional town ofSanta Mira, California, being invaded byseeds that have drifted to Earth fromspace. The seeds replace sleeping peoplewith perfect physical duplicates grownfrom plantlike pods, while their humanvictims turn to dust.The duplicates live only ve years, andthey cannot sexually reproduce;consequently, if unstopped, they willquickly turn Earth into a dead planet andmove on to the next world. One of theduplicate invaders suggests that this iswhat all humans do; use up resources,wipe out indigenous populations, anddestroy ecosystems in the name ofsurvival.The novel has been adapted for the screenfour times; the rst lm in 1956, thesecond in 1978, the third in 1993, and themost recent in 2007. Unlike two of thelm adaptations, the novel contains anoptimistic ending, with the aliensvoluntarily vacating after deciding thatthey cannot tolerate the type of resistancethey see in the main characters.

Contents1 Critical reception2 Editions

2.1 First edition2.2 Revised edition

3 Film adaptations4 See also

The Body Snatchers - Wikipedia, the free encyclo... http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bo...

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5 References6 External links

Critical receptionIn 1967, Damon Knight criticized the novel's scientic incoherence...[1]

The seed pods, says Finney, drifted across interstellar space to Earth,propelled by light pressure. This echoes a familiar notion, the sporetheory of Arrhenius. But the spores referred to are among the smallestliving things - small enough to be knocked around by hydrogenmolecules...In confusing these minute particles with three-foot seedpods, Finney invalidates his whole argument - and makes ludicrousnonsense of the nal scene in which the pods, defeated, oat up into thesky to hunt another planet.

...and its crude plot development:Almost from the beginning, the characters follow the author's logicrather than their own. Bennell and his friends, intelligent and capablepeople, exhibit an invincible stupidity whenever normal intelligencewould allow them to get ahead with the mystery too fast. When theyhave four undeveloped seed pods on their hands, for instance, they donone of the obvious things -- make no tests, take no photographs,display the objects to no witnesses. Bennell, a practicing physician,never thinks of X-raying the pods.

Under Jack Finney's entry in The Science Fiction Encyclopedia, John Cluteremarks concerning the novel:[2]

Horrifyingly depicts the invasion of a small town by interstellar sporesthat duplicate human beings, reducing them to dust in the process; themenacing spore-people who remain symbolize, it has been argued, theloss of freedom in contemporary society. Jack Finney's further books areslickly told but less involving.

Galaxy reviewer Gro Conklin faulted the original edition, declaring that "Toomany s-f novels lack outstanding originality, but this one lacks it to an outstandingdegree."[3] Anthony Boucher found it to be "intensely readable and unpredictablyingenious" despite noticeable inconsistencies and its sometimes lack of scienticaccuracy.[4] P. Schuyler Miller reported that, once Finney sets out his premise, thenovel becomes "a straight chase yarn, with several nice gimmicks and a notentirely convincing denouement."[5]


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EditionsFirst edition

Finney, Jack (c. 1955). The Body Snatchers. Dell.Revised edition

Finney, Jack (c1954, 1955, 1978). Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Revisedand updated ed.). New York: Dell.

Film adaptationsInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)Body Snatchers (1993)The Invasion (2007)

See also"The Body Snatcher" (1884), a short story by the Scottish author RobertLouis StevensonThe Puppet Masters (1951), a science ction novel by Robert A. Heinlein inwhich a trio of American government agents attempts to thwart a covertinvasion of Earth by mind-controlling alien parasitesIt Came From Outer Space (1953), based on a Ray Bradbury story, involvesan alien invasion wherein humans are duplicated by the aliensContamination (1980) a lm that revisits parts of the novel.The Father-thing (December 1954), a short story by Philip K. Dick, appearingin the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, uses the ideas of podsduplicating humans and re being the means of destroying the podsInvasion of the Pod People (2007), a mockbuster lm from The Asylumintended to coincide with the premiere of the 2007 lm The InvasionThe Host (2008), a novel by Stephenie Meyer that depicts a world whereinthe human population has already been taken over by parasitic aliensThe Puppet Masters (1994), a science ction lm based on the Robert A.Heinlein novel

References^ Knight, Damon (March 1967). "Half-Bad Writers". In Search of Wonder (2nd ed.).Chicago: Advent. pp. 7275. ISBN 0-911682-15-5.

1.


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^ Clute, John (1979). The Science Fiction Encyclopedia. New York: Doubleday & Co,Inc. ISBN 0-385-13000-7.

2.^ "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, July 1955, p.923.^ "Recommended Reading," F&SF, May 1955, pp.71.4.^ Miller, P. Schuyler. "The Reference Library," Astounding Science-Fiction, September1955, pp.151-52.

5.

External linksThe Body Snatchers (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?437) title listing atthe Internet Speculative Fiction DatabaseCinefantastique book review (http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2007/08/18/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-book-review)Critique of book to lmed versions (http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/8781/versions_invasion_of_the_body_snatchers.html)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Body_Snatchers&oldid=602460045"Categories: 1955 novels Novels by Jack FinneyAmerican novels adapted into lms Novels rst published in serial formWorks originally published in Collier's Weekly Novels set in California1950s science ction novels

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The Body Snatchers (1955 Novel)