Paper Title
Sensible Deductions? Fallacy of Reason in Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger

Abstract
The Little Stranger (2009), the British writer Sarah Waters’ fifth novel as well as a third novel shortlisted for Man Booker Prize, incessantly receives both popular interest and academic enthusiasm. The novel describes the old gentry Ayres family in Hundreds Hall, an eighteenth-century magnificent estate that has lived far beyond its former glory in the late 1940s Warwickshire. Through deliberate contacts with the Ayreses, the country physician Faraday gradually makes acquaintance with the Ayres family. Yet his frequent visits and progressive involvement with household affairs are later followed by a few of unnatural things. Since the house is laden with confidences and tricks as if there is a sinister presence, the Ayreses fall into an underlying fear and anxiety so that their lives slowly unravel. This paper endeavors to assert the underlying significance of Faraday’s deductions and their effects, exploring how Waters reveals the complicate yet fragile construction of the narrative structure in The Little Stranger. Index Terms - Deduction, reason, Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger