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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo |  | Author: Stieg Larsson
Creator: Reg Keeland
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $6.44
as of 8/1/2010 04:09 CDT details
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New (133) Used (77) Collectible (2) from $6.24
Seller: once-upon-a-september
Rating:  1512 reviews
Sales Rank: 1
Media: Paperback
Pages: 608
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0307454541
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.738
EAN: 9780307454546
ASIN: 0307454541
Publication Date: June 23, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780307454546 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
A sensation across Europe-millions of copies sold
A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue.
It's about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.
It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age-and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it-who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism-and an unexpected connection between themselves.
It's a contagiously exciting, stunningly intelligent novel about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2008: Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back. This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson--is a serious page-turner rivaling the best of Charlie Huston and Michael Connelly. Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo. --Dave Callanan
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1512
 Life is too short .... August 1, 2010
V. Levy (France)
... to waste on reading this turgid book. I was bored by the poorly drawn characters - in fact I was so bored I only read half of it. The author made no attempt to draw the reader into his book - although that might have been the fault of the wooden translation - I felt no desire to find out more about the plot or characters. But then so many of my friends have almost raved over it. I just don't understand this at all. Oh well, meat and poison, as the saying goes but as far as I'm concerned this is the worse book I've (tried to) read for months.
 Best of the three! August 1, 2010
Clrbrook
Maybe it's just because it's the first, but this one stands alone. The other two seem more interdependent. Addictive.
Lives up to the hype! August 1, 2010
JHH
I really did not know what this book was about - I just knew enough people in Europe and America thought it was good enough to be made into a movie (in BOTH places!). It's a bit slow in the beginning, but I always expect that in books (they do need to give us some necessary background). But please keep reading, I swear, you will not be able to put it down!
I'm Not Getting It July 31, 2010
STEPHANIE EDWARDS (Barrington, RI United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If there is such a thing as a woman's novel, then this must be the antithesis-- a men's novel. The main character Mikael Blomkvist, has no emotional life, no self-reflection, no growth as a character, and doesn't have deep feelings or cares. The mystery at the center of the book is the only thing preventing him from being a cardboard figure (like all of the Vangers, characters in the novel who are not developed fully). All of his needs are gratified. His sexual conquests include every woman character except the one that is missing, Harriet (just give him time, I suppose, and she will be on the list). Oh, and by the way, they all pursued him! His ex-wife and daughter never intrude on his life. Like a true male fantasy, the central theme of the novel allows him to prove himself and get full revenge against his enemies and have two women competing to be his partner. The book has episodes of cheap violence that are not essential to the theme. Testosterone, anyone?
It was interesting for me to learn that the title of the book in the original Swedish was "Män som hatar kvinnor" or "Men who hate women," renamed for some reason in the English translation to The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. The original title actually describes the focus of the book pretty well.
While reading, I would often put the book down and wonder to myself, Why are we supposed to care? What character were we supposed to connect with? Even the scenery is flat. The author apparently doesn't like descriptive language (for example, whenever Blomkvist is going into town or running by the harbor, the author is downright abstemious about the visual details or mood, or, perhaps, just too lazy to conjure a scene.) The only exceptions are the sections with the sadistic sex scenes, in which Larsson clearly revels.
Those scenes were repellant for me and not just because of the violent acts they depict. These are the rare occasions in which the author invites the reader in to see and feel what a character is experiencing. The author is deliberately working the scenes to make the reader uncomfortable. It is as if the author has become the impassive figure at the edge of the bed, and the reader his squirming victim. No thanks!
The way the book has been marketed is ironic. "Mesmerizing, " one critic from USA Today said (on the back of the book). Don't you wish? For me it was one flat and boring scene after another, with no emotional life, no reflection, no depth, no description, and finally, no humanity.
Finally, besides being pedestrian the book was not well crafted. I found it very hard to get into this book. I started it over and over and had to re-read the first part more than once. I looked for an emotional "hook" and never found one. Unbelievably, the central plot wasn't even introduced until after page 100, and there wasn't much in the lead off chapters to hold our attention. The mystery of what happened to Harriet was the only thing that kept me reading, but I wouldn't describe the outcome as particularly compelling. Even the villains are cardboard and lack motive and depth. The religious angle --supposedly the clue that cracks the case-- is never explained. The deliberate edginess of the character Lisbeth Salander put me off and I never felt sympathetic toward her. The chapter headings, mimicking a financial report of a business deal, were somewhat amusing.
When I bought this book, the woman who waited on me told me that others had highly recommended this book but that she didn't particularly like it. I wish I could have had a longer conversation with her. It's a mystery to me that the book got so many positive reviews. I decided I'm going to tell other book lovers I know exactly why I wouldn't recommend reading this one.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo July 31, 2010
Joyce
This book was compelling. I was eager to get back to reading it. Interesting to see the irony in Sweden's liberal sex attitude when many women are abused.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1512
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