Everyone should read this short short play. One of the best of all time, quite unsung, and a now hugely relevant part of our era. Also, from the perspective of anyone who has gone through prolonged abuse, absolutely satisfying and literally like therapy (albeit, also triggering, though because of the intent of the play, not nearly as triggering as unintentionally traumatic content).

Como a literatura é maravilhosa, e como ela nos faz sentirmos  tão insignificante . Nunca conseguiremos ler nem um décimo das maravilhas que estão ao nosso dispor, nossa vida é curta, não temos tempo para isso. Só Agora descobri esse maravilhoso livro, uma peça na verdade, escrita por   Patrick Hamilton há mais de oitenta anos atrás. Um enredo maravilhoso, um suspense magnífico, a cada página você é afogado por uma atmosfera de opressão, te dá falta de ar, a cada página seu coração quase sai pela boca. Magnífico, extraordinário.

Bella Manningham, é manipulada psicologicamente por seu marido Mr. Manningham, que faz de tudo , para fazer com que ela pense estar ficando louca. Com que intenção será?

Mas entra em cena o detetive Rough, que vai fazer de tudo para acabar ainda mais com nossos nervos. Quem achar que estou exagerando em tudo o que disse acima, leia o livro e comprove

really enjoyed that! perhaps because i have not read in a while (oops) but i love plays & patrick hamilton writes wonderful dialogue and detailed plans & these characters are all just so fun, even if almost all immoral by most standards. it's camp ok? mr. mannington is an evil movie villain & bella's final monologue is a #girlboss moment & nancy is exactly the archetype you're lead to believe she is at the beginning.

as this is the play that gives us gaslight from the trio "gaslight gatekeep girlboss," i must say that this is not exactly what i had previously thought gaslight referred to — but actually in a good way! like i quite enjoy the subplot with the rubies & murder (more drama. more camp) even though i had no idea this was part of it in the beginning. and also i think pop culture lead me to believe the gaslight part of the name was evil husband mannington flickering lights to make his wife go crazy when instead that was an unintentional side effect of the blood money rubies quest. which maybe that in fact goes against the definition of gaslight since that was the least intentional part of mr. mannington's evil plot to put mrs. mannington in an insane asylum.

(also i read this as angel street, not gas light, and reading a bit about patrick hamilton on the wikipedia page for this play, feel really sorry for the guy because he was clearly Going Through It, as can be partially gleaned from the angel street alternate title and also just the content of the play itself, but dunno, if pain makes art this fucking cool, maybe it's worth it? do not extend that to any other context. honestly don't even extend it to this one)

While I was watching that 2020 movie with Elisabeth Moss, The Invisible Man, it made me think of this 1941 thriller by Patrick Hamilton, so I read the play that gave us the word “gaslighting,” for messing with the mind of a spouse. The new movie was inspired by the H.G. Wells novel, so they said, but this play seems to be somewhere in its background, too.

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