Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into an apartment in the Bramford, an old New York building with a storied past. Their neighbors, Minnie and Roman Castevet, are elderly, charming and intrusive, and they seem generous enough. Then Guy's fortunes take a sudden upward turn, and Rosemary becomes pregnant.

From that point the Castevets and their circle press closer. Rosemary's trusted doctor is replaced by the Castevets' friend, Dr. Sapirstein. A folk charm containing tannis root appears around her neck. Months of unexplained pain are brushed aside as normal.

Her old friend Hutch warns her about the Bramford's history of witchcraft, then falls fatally ill. Cut off from the people she relies on, Rosemary starts to assemble a picture of a conspiracy that reaches into her own marriage.

The book is horror told with deadpan realism. Everyday household detail slowly sours into paranoia, and the reader stays as unsure as Rosemary whether the threat is supernatural or only in her head. The pace is a slow, steady tightening rather than a series of shocks, and the final scene settles the question.

The novel first appeared in 1967 and was filmed by Roman Polanski a year later. It became a model for the domestic and occult horror that followed.