Essay from the year 2021 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, LMU Munich (Anglistik), course: Novels from the 1980s, language: English, abstract: This analysis of The Comfort of Strangers depicts a British couple in Venice, experiencing the disaster of their life. Starting off at a slow pace, Ian McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers quickly turns into a gripping novel that will stick in its readers’ minds. Written in 1981, the events narrated could have taken place any time, making it into a timeless story and a diverting read. The rather overt, heterodiegetic narrator provides the frame for the course of action in a fascinating and latently dangerous Venice in the height of summer. The story is embedded in the setting of Venice very well, and those who have visited the city already - or like to indulge in Venetian crime literature - will recognize numerous places. Not surprisingly, McEwan included quite a few of them, along with many other writers. Henry James pointed out more than a century ago: “It would be a sad day indeed when there should be something new to say” (James 1882), and Tony Tanner, who analysed the particular attraction Venice had for writers like James, states: “Venice is always the already written as well as the already seen, the already read” (Tanner 1993). Therefore, one can assume that coming up with a successful new crime novel about Venice is a challenging task, which McEwan does not fail at. Having set the mood, the author’s descriptions of the scenery consistently suggest an underlying gloominess that becomes almost palpable for the reader, with a lingering, ever-intensifying sense of menace. McEwan incorporates various elements of Venetian Gothic, like tourists getting lost in dark alleyways and falling prey to sinister creatures, or cemeteries in the lagoon.