History Literature / NightmareAlley

* OutGambitted: Lilith does this to Stan, firstly by seducing and controlling him and then, once Stan has began conning the wealthy Ezra Grindle at her suggestion, by keeping the cash results of their con in her safe where she secretly replaces the five hundred dollar bills with singles. When Stan takes the money back, discovers what she's done and attempts to confront her, she tells him he is deluded and is projecting [[OedipusComplex his sexual feelings for his mother]] onto her and then tries to have him committed to an institution. He narrowly manages to escape and has to go on the run as a result of her duplicity, sinking into alcoholism and depression.

* OedipusComplex: Lilith states that Stan is suffering from this, and it's even implied that she may not be far from the truth. When he was a child he witnessed his mother having sex with another man who wasn't his father, an event he often flashes back to, and it's stated that his mother used to spray perfume on her pillow. When he first meets Lilith, he gets a whiff of her perfume and instantly feels shame but is also immediately sexually attracted to her. This is the first of many subtextual inferences that Lilith, a woman that Stan becomes sexually infatuated with, reminds him in some ways of his mother who abandoned him as a child.

* BreakTheCutie: Stan subjects this upon the sweet-hearted and naive Molly, after they leave the carnival he begins neglecting and mistreating her, and things only get worse when he starts cheating on her with Lilith.

* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Dr Ritter is very much of the Freudian school of psychology, which fits with the 1940s setting. She makes Stan lie on a FreudianCouch where he can't see her or make eye contact with her and she constantly implies that his present psychological issues are due to his childhood trauma and troubled relationship with his parents, even indicating to him at the end that he clearly wanted to [[OedipusComplex have sexual intercourse with his mother and kill his father]]!

In 2019 it was announced that Oscar winning director Creator/GuillermoDelToro would direct [[Film/NightmareAlley2021 a new adaptation of the novel]] starring Creator/BradleyCooper as Stan, Creator/CateBlanchett as Lilith, Creator/RooneyMara as Molly and Creator/ToniCollette as Zeena. The film aims to stick much closer to its source material and include the darker and more surreal, violent and sexual content of the novel that the original adaptation could not due to the [[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode restrictions of the time]].

The novel was first adapted into a cult [[FilmNoir noir film]] of [[Film/NightmareAlley the same name]] in 1947 starring Creator/TyronePower, Creator/JoanBlondell, Coleen Gray and Creator/HelenWalker.

In 2019 it was announced that Oscar winning director Creator/GuillermoDelToro would direct a new adaptation of the novel starring Creator/BradleyCooper as Stan, Creator/CateBlanchett as Lilith, Creator/RooneyMara as Molly and Creator/ToniCollette as Zeena. The film aims to stick much closer to its source material and include the darker and more surreal, violent and sexual content of the novel that the original adaptation could not due to the [[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode restrictions of the time]].

Stanton 'Stan' Carlisle is a mysterious and [[AmbitionIsEvil ruthlessly ambitious]] young man with a [[DarkAndTroubledPast troubled past]] who works as a [[StageMagician sleight of hand magician]] in a travelling [[CrappyCarnival carnival]]. Desperate to make more of himself and willing to do anything to make it happen, Stan seduces the carnival's resident [[PhonyPsychic mentalist]] and FortuneTeller, Madame Zeena, who subsequently takes him under her wing. Stan's efforts to spend time with the talented Zeena and learn her complex "code act" eventually leads to the accidental death of her [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]] husband and Stan, now adept in the art of [[ColdReading cold reading]] quickly grows bored and switches his focus to the [[TheIngenue sweet and innocent]] Molly, the carnival's 'Electric Girl'.

Leaving the carnival together, Stan and Molly later wed and make a success of their new team code act with Stan working as the mentalist and Molly as his beautiful assistant. But again growing bored and desiring more well heeled and influential [[TheMark marks]], Stan reinvents himself as the Reverend Carlisle, an upstanding spiritualist preacher that offers to perform [[SpookySeance séances]] for his occult interested wealthy clientele in order for them to contact the spirits of their deceased loved ones.

* TheCon: The biggest con in the book is concocted by Stan at the suggestion of Lilith. Between them they plan to scam an extremely wealthy auto tycoon named [[TheMark Ezra Grindle]] who is desperate to contact the spirit of his lost love Dorrie who died during a botched back-alley abortion that he convinced her to get. A very reluctant Molly poses as Dorrie during a series of [[ScoobyDooHoax phony]] [[SpookySeance séances]] aimed to convince Grindle that they are contacting the girl's spirit so he will part with increasing amounts of money for Stan to continue.

* EccentricMillionaire: Stan and Lilith's ultimate [[TheMark mark]] is an eccentric and extremely wealthy tycoon named Ezra Grindle who has a skeptical interest in the occult.

* BettyAndVeronica: Stan's two love interests in the second half of the novel are the sweet and innocent Molly who fulfills the Betty role and the sexy and manipulative Lilith who fulfills the Veronica role. He is much more intrigued by his mistress Lilith and begins to neglect his wife Molly who he sees as a burden due to her [[IncorruptiblePurePureness incorruptible nature]] not being compatible with his increasingly criminal schemes.

* BreakTheCutie: Stan subjects this upon the sweet-hearted and naive Molly, after they wed he begins neglecting and mistreating her, and things only get worse when he starts cheating on her with Lilith.

* MeaningfulName: The most truly despicable and ruthless character in the whole book is a female seductress named '''Lilith''' Ritter, Lilith clearly being a reference to the legendary demonic seductress from Jewish and Christian folklore with [[Myth/{{Lilith}} the same name]].

* PsychoPsychologist: Dr. Lilith Ritter is this, she's a [[TheVamp ruthless seductress]] who cares nothing about her code of ethics and sleeps with her patients as well as using the confidential information she gains in their sessions against them to coerce and blackmail. In the introduction to the 2010 reprint by New York Review Books, the journalist Nick Tosches even called her "the most viciously evil psychologist in the history of literature".

* DestructiveRomance: Two heavily one-sided destructive romances appear in the book, firstly between the innocent Molly and the manipulative Stan who constantly mistreats her and manipulates her into criminal acts she doesn't want to take part in. Secondly between Stan and the evil [[PsychoPsychologist psychologist]] Lilith who mentally and emotionally manipulates him to the point where he becomes completely obsessed with her and his mental state deteriorates significantly as a result.

* BookEnds: The novel opens with Stan asking the travelling carnival's 'talker' Clem Hoately where geeks come from and Clem explains that they are made by the carnival owner finding an alcoholic bum and offering him temporary work with a steady supply of booze. The owner tells the bum that they only need to fake biting a chicken's head off by slashing its throat with a hidden razor and then pretending to drink the chicken's blood. After a week or so of this the owner threatens to replace the bum with a 'real geek' and the thought of losing their supply of liquor and sobering up terrifies the bum into biting the chickens for real. The novel later ends with a drunken Stan, who has been driven to alcoholism and homelessness through the events of the story, shambling into a carnival owner's tent to offer his services as a mentalist. The owner turns him down but as Stan is about to stumble back out, the owner calls him back and offers him a temporary position in the carnival sideshow, "-– just until we get a real geek"...

** Lilith similarly outwardly presents herself as a professional and well respected psychologist with a wealthy clientele whilst underneath she's a scheming and cold-hearted [[TheSociopath sociopath]] who has no respect for her code of ethics and uses the secrets she's obtained through her position to ruthlessly manipulate people. It's also heavily implied that Stan is not the only client of hers that she is sleeping with.
* BookEnds: The novel opens with Stan asking the travelling carnival's 'talker' Clem Hoately where geeks come from and Clem explains that they are made by the carnival owner finding an alcoholic bum and offering him temporary work with a steady supply of booze. The owner tells the bum that they only need to fake biting a chicken's head off by slashing it's throat with a hidden razor and then pretending to drink the chicken's blood. After a week or so of this the owner threatens to replace the bum with a 'real geek' and the thought of losing their supply of liquor and sobering up terrifies the bum into biting the chickens for real. The novel later ends with a drunken Stan, who has been driven to alcoholism and homelessness through the events of the story, shambling into a carnival owner's tent to offer his services as a mentalist. The owner turns him down but as Stan is about to stumble back out, the owner calls him back and offers him a temporary position in the carnival sideshow, "– just until we get a real geek"...

** Stan himself becomes increasingly dependant on alcohol throughout the book and the end falls into complete alcoholism and depression when he is on the run from Ezra Grindle's hired goons.

** Lilith similarly outwardly presents herself as a professional and well respected psychologist with a wealthy clientele whilst underneath she's a scheming and cold hearted [[TheSociopath sociopath]] who has no respect for her code of ethics and uses the secrets she's obtained through her position to ruthlessly manipulate people. It's also heavily implied that Stan is not the only client of hers that she is sleeping with.

* BreakTheCutie: Stan subjects this upon the sweet hearted and naive Molly, after they wed he begins neglecting and mistreating her, and things only get worse when he starts cheating on her with Lilith.

* ConMan: Stan is a consumate one with many tricks up his sleeve. His most despicable con has to be his stint as the 'Reverend Carlisle', a so-called spiritualist preacher who stages phony [[SpookySeance séances]] for wealthy clients with an interest in the occult who wish to try and contact dead loved ones.

* YourCheatingHeart: Stan is constantly cheating on women throughout the book. He seduces Molly when he's still 'with' Zeena, he then sleeps with a prostitute while he's married to Molly and later begins a sexual relationship with Lilith while still married to Molly. In fact, the only woman he doesn't cheat on is Lilith, but it's heavily implied that ''she'' is sleeping with other clients.

* BadDreams: Stan suffers from these, especially towards the end when he sinks into depression and alcoholism. His most recurring dream is of him running down an endless alley being chased by unseen forces, hence the title of the novel.

* PsychoPsychologist: Dr. Lilith Ritter is this, she's a [[TheVamp ruthless seductress]] who cares nothing about her code of ethics and sleeps with her patients as well as using the confidential information she gains in their sessions against them to coerce and blackmail. In the introduction to the 2010 reprint by New York Review Books, the journalist Nick Tosches even called her, "the most viciously evil psychologist in the history of literature".

* MeaningfulName: The most truly despicable and ruthless character in the whole book is a female seductress named '''Lilith''' Ritter, Lilith clearly being a reference to the legendary demonic seductress from Jewish and Christian folklore with [[UsefulNotes/{{Lilith}} the same name]].

The novel was first adapted into a cult [[FilmNoir noir film]] of [[Film/NightmareAlley the same name]] in 1947 starring Creator/TyronePower, Creator/JoanBlondell, Coleen Gray and Helen Walker.

* InnocentFanserviceGirl: The sweet and innocent Molly, as part of her stage routine as an 'Electric Girl', wears what is effectively a metal bikini (a nonsense explanation is given to the crowd that the garment has to be metal to help her conduct electricity). She hates wearing it and seems completely oblivious to the reactions it gets from male patrons. At one point she is almost arrested for public indecency, but Stan manages to distract the sheriff by giving him an accurate cold reading.

* TheFreakshow: The main characters in the first half of the book all work for a travelling sideshow. Stan is the StageMagician, Bruno is TheStrongman, Kenneth is [[LittlePeopleAreSurreal the tiny person]], Zeena is the FortuneTeller (aided her by her husband Pete) and Molly is the 'Electric Girl', a glorified show girl in a skimpy outfit who can seemingly take large electical currents through her body in a replica of the Sing-Sing electric chair.

* YourCheatingHeart: Stan is constantly cheating on women throughout the book. He seduces Molly when he's still 'with' Zeena, he then sleeps with a prostitute while he's married to Molly and later begins a sexual relationship with Lilith. In fact, the only woman he doesn't cheat on is Lilith, but he's heavily implied that she is sleeping with other clients.