View source for The Silence of the Lambs (novel)



{{Infobox book <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name              = The Silence of The Lambs
| title_orig        = 
| translator        = 
| image             = Silence3.png
| caption           = First edition US cover
| author            = [[Thomas Harris]]
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| series            = [[Hannibal Lecter (franchise)|Hannibal Lecter]]
| genre             = [[Psychological horror]], [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]], [[Mystery fiction|mystery]]
| publisher         = [[St. Martin's Press]]
| release_date      = {{start date|1988|8|29}}
| media_type        = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])
| pages             = 338 pp (hardcover)
| isbn              = 0-312-02282-4
| dewey             = 813/.54 19
| congress          = PS3558.A6558 S5 1988
| oclc              = 18049053
| preceded_by       = [[Red Dragon (novel)|Red Dragon]]
| followed_by       = [[Hannibal (Harris novel)|Hannibal]]
}}

'''''The Silence of the Lambs''''' is a 1988 [[psychological horror]] [[crime thriller]] novel by [[Thomas Harris]]. Published August 29, it is the sequel to Harris's 1981 novel ''[[Red Dragon (novel)|Red Dragon]]'', and both novels feature the [[Human cannibalism|cannibalistic]] [[serial killer]] and brilliant psychiatrist [[Hannibal Lecter|Dr. Hannibal Lecter]]. This time, however, he is pitted against [[FBI]] trainee [[Clarice Starling]] as she works to solve the case of the "Buffalo Bill" serial killer. St. Martin’s Press also issued uncorrected proof copies in 1988, which are considered scarce by collectors.<ref>{{cite web |title=Catalog 155 |url=https://lopezbooks.com/media/pdf/c155.pdf |publisher=Lopez Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Silence of the Lambs – Uncorrected Proof (1988) |url=https://therarestworks.com/products/the-silence-of-the-lambs-thomas-harris-uncorrected-proof-1988 |publisher=The Rarest Works}}</ref> It is the most well-known installment of Harris's Hannibal Lecter series, selling over 10 million copies.

The [[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|film adaptation]] directed by [[Jonathan Demme]] was released in 1991 to widespread critical acclaim and box office success. At the [[64th Academy Awards|64th Academy Awards ceremony]], it won all five of the [[List of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees|"Big Five" Oscars]], becoming the third and most recent film to do so, and the first film since ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)|One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'' in 1975. To date, it is the only horror film to win the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]].

== Synopsis ==
{{long plot|date=February 2026}}<!-- Per MOS:NOVELPLOT, plot summary should be between 400 to 700 words. -->
In 1984, five years after the events of ''[[Red Dragon (novel)|Red Dragon]]'', [[Clarice Starling]], a young [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] trainee, is asked to carry out an errand by [[Jack Crawford (character)|Jack Crawford]], the head of the FBI division that creates [[offender profiling|psychological profiles]] of [[serial killer]]s. 

Starling is to present a questionnaire to the brilliant [[Forensic psychiatry|forensic psychiatrist]] and cannibalistic serial killer, [[Hannibal Lecter]]. Lecter is serving nine consecutive life sentences in a [[Maryland]] mental institution for a series of murders. Crawford's real intention, however, is to solicit Lecter's assistance in the hunt for a serial killer dubbed "[[Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs)|Buffalo Bill]]." The killer's [[modus operandi|M.O.]] involves kidnapping large women, starving them for up to two weeks, killing and skinning them, and dumping the remains in nearby rivers. The nickname originated from Kansas City Homicide as a sick joke that "he likes to skin his humps." 

Although initially dismissive of Starling's questions, Lecter is offended when another inmate flings semen at her. As an apology, Lecter predicts that Buffalo Bill's next victim will be [[scalped]] and tells her to locate a car owned by Benjamin Raspail, a former patient whom Lecter eventually murdered. When Starling locates the car in a storage unit, she discovers a severed head preserved in a jar, which Lecter later identifies as Raspail's lover, Klaus.

Throughout the investigation, Starling periodically returns to Lecter in search of information, and the two form a strange relationship in which he offers her cryptic clues in exchange for details about her troubled and bleak childhood as an orphan. Starling must also contend with Dr. [[Frederick Chilton]], the asylum's administrator and Lecter's self-styled nemesis, who makes sexual advances toward Starling and attempts to insert himself into the investigation for his own gain.

When Bill's sixth victim is found in [[West Virginia]], Starling assists Crawford in performing the [[autopsy]]. The victim has a [[pupa]] stuffed in throat and, just as Lecter predicted, has been scalped. Triangular patches of skin have also been removed from her shoulders. Furthermore, autopsy reports indicate that Bill killed her within four days of her capture, much faster than his earlier victims. Starling takes the pupa to the [[Smithsonian]], where it is initially identified as the [[Ascalapha odorata|black witch]] moth, a species that does not naturally occur where the victim was found.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Silence of the Lambs | url=https://archive.org/details/silenceoflambs00harr_0 | url-access=registration | publisher=St. Martin's | author=Harris, Thomas | year=1988 | location=New York | pages=[https://archive.org/details/silenceoflambs00harr_0/page/95 95]| isbn=9780312022822 }}</ref> Later, it is identified as the [[Death's-head hawkmoth|Death's-head Moth]], an even more exotic species that would have to be reared in captivity from imported eggs. A similar pupa is found in Klaus' head, and based on this connection, Starling believes that Lecter knows Buffalo Bill's identity. She asks Crawford, who is caring for his terminally ill wife, Bella, why she was sent to fish for information on Buffalo Bill without being informed of her true purpose. Crawford claims that if she had had an agenda, Lecter would have sensed it and never spoken up.

In Tennessee, Catherine Baker Martin, the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin, is kidnapped. Her blouse is found on the roadside, slit up the back - Buffalo Bill's calling card. He traps her in an [[oubliette]] and begins to starve her. Crawford is advised that the President of the United States has expressed "intense interest" in the case and that a successful rescue is preferable. Crawford estimates they have three days before Catherine is killed. 

Starling is sent to Lecter with a deal: if he assists in Catherine's rescue and Buffalo Bill's capture, he will be transferred out of the asylum to a facility that offers a view, with privileges to visit a secluded beach and enjoy the outdoors one week a year. Although skeptical about the genuineness of the offer, Lecter does not believe that Starling would intentionally lie to him. He tells her that Buffalo Bill has come to believe he is transsexual, despite this self-diagnosis being consistently deemed false by doctors, leading to his rejection for [[sexual reassignment surgery]] by multiple hospitals.

After Starling leaves, Lecter reminisces about the past, recalling the therapy session during which he murdered Benjamin Raspail. Raspail told Lecter about a former lover, Jame Gumb: after Raspail left Gumb and began dating a sailor named Klaus, Gumb became jealous and murdered Klaus, using his skin to make an apron. Raspail also revealed that Gumb had an epiphany upon watching a butterfly hatch.

Lecter's ruminations are interrupted when Chilton steps in. Having heard Starling's offer via a listening device, Chilton has discovered that Crawford's deal is a lie. He offers his own: if Lecter reveals Buffalo Bill's identity, he will indeed get a transfer to another asylum, but only if credit goes to Chilton. Lecter agrees but insists that he be allowed to give the information to Senator Martin in person, in Tennessee. Unbeknownst to Chilton, Lecter has secretly collected the ingredients for an improvised handcuff [[Lock picking|lockpick]].

In Tennessee, Lecter toys with Senator Martin briefly, enjoying her anguish, but eventually provides some information about Buffalo Bill: his name is Billy Rubin, and he has suffered from "elephant ivory anthrax", a knifemaker's disease. He also provides an accurate physical description. The name, however, is a [[red herring]]: [[bilirubin]] is a pigment in human [[bile]] and a chief coloring agent in human feces, which the forensic lab compares to the color of Chilton's hair.

Starling makes one final attempt to get information from Lecter as he is held in police custody. He offers a final clue—"we covet what we see every day"—and demands to hear her worst memory. Starling reveals that, after her father's death, she was sent to live with a cousin on a sheep and horse ranch. One night, she discovered the rancher slaughtering the spring [[domestic sheep|lamb]]s and fled in terror with a horse also destined for the slaughterhouse. The local sheriff caught her, and the rancher sent her to an orphanage, where she spent the rest of her childhood. Lecter, seeing the parallels between the helpless lambs and the equally helpless Catherine, thanks her for her candor, and the two share a brief moment of connection before Chilton forces her to leave. Shortly after, Lecter escapes custody by killing and eviscerating his guards, using one of their faces as a mask to fool paramedics.

Crawford and Starling are blamed by the Attorney General's office for Lecter's escape, and Starling is threatened with expulsion from Quantico. The same day, Bella Crawford passes away. Despite the risk to her career, Starling continues her search for Buffalo Bill, deducing that he knew his first victim, Fredrica Bimmel, from everyday life. She visits Fredrica's family home, discovers that she was an accomplished [[tailor]], and realizes that the pieces of skin Buffalo Bill takes from his victims are in the shape of a tailor's pattern: he is killing the women to make a 'suit' for himself to become a woman. By canvassing Bimmel's known associates, she ends up at the house of one Jame Gumb, a dressmaker and leatherworker. She spies a Death's-head moth in his home and draws her gun on Gumb; however, he escapes into his basement. Starling, armed only with a revolver but aware that calling for backup will result in Catherine's death, follows him down and kills him after a protracted chase. Catherine is returned to her family physically unharmed.

Lecter, hiding in a St. Louis hotel room and preparing to escape to South America, writes several letters: one to Barney, an orderly at the asylum, thanking and tipping him for his courteous treatment, and one to Chilton, promising retaliation and torture. He also pens a congratulatory letter to Starling, in which he hopes that "the lambs have stopped screaming" and indicates that he has no plans to pursue her. He correctly predicts that saving Catherine Martin may have granted Clarice some relief but that the silence will never become eternal, foreshadowing her motives for [[Hannibal (Harris novel)|a continued career at the FBI]]. The novel ends with Clarice sleeping peacefully "in the silence of the lambs".

== Characters ==
{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Clarice Starling]]
* [[Hannibal Lecter|Dr. Hannibal Lecter]]
* [[Jack Crawford (character)|Jack Crawford]]
* [[Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs)|Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb]]
* [[Frederick Chilton|Dr. Frederick Chilton]]
* Catherine Baker Martin
* Senator Ruth Martin
* Ardelia Mapp
* Barney Matthews
* John Brigham
* Albert Roden
* Noble Pilcher
* Paul Krendler
* I. J. Miggs
* Alonzo
* Sammie
* Jeff
{{Div col end}}

== Literary significance ==
The novel was a great success. [[David Foster Wallace]] used the book as part of his curriculum while teaching at [[Pomona College]] and later included the book, as well as Harris's '' [[Red Dragon (novel)|Red Dragon]]'', on his list of ten favorite novels.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/02/02/david_foster_wallace_s_favorite_books_the_sum_of_all_fears_the_stand_and_red_dragon_.html |title=David Foster Wallace's favorite books (archived) |access-date=2014-12-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130305045138/http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/02/02/david_foster_wallace_s_favorite_books_the_sum_of_all_fears_the_stand_and_red_dragon_.html |archive-date=March 5, 2013 }}</ref> [[John Dunning (detective fiction author)|John Dunning]] says of ''Silence of the Lambs'': [it is] "simply the best thriller I've read in five years".<ref>Dunning, John. ''Booked to Die''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992. p. 159.</ref>

Some critics and transgender activists have criticized the novel as transphobic and homophobic because of its portrayal of Buffalo Bill.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://slate.com/culture/2019/05/cari-mora-thomas-harris-review.html |last=Miller |first=Laura |title=Can Thomas Harris Escape the Shadow of Hannibal Lecter?|work=Slate |date=17 May 2019 |access-date=2019-07-21}}</ref> Because of this there were protests against the film version when it was released.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-loss-of-jonathan-demme |last=Lane |first=Anthony |title=Postscript: Jonathan Demme (1944-2017)|magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=2019-07-21}}</ref> The book was criticized by feminist author [[Julia Serano]] for presenting transsexualism as psychosis, despite Harris' insistence in the text that Jame Gumb was not a true transsexual.<ref>{{cite book|last=Serano|first=Julia|date=2007|title=[[Whipping Girl]]|publisher=Seal Press|page=256}}</ref>

== Accolades ==
* The novel won the 1988 [[Bram Stoker Award]] for [[Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel|Best Novel]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.horror.org/awards/stokerwinnom.htm#1988 |title=Past Stoker Award Nominees & Winners |work=Horror Writers Association |access-date=4 July 2009 |archive-date=15 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115083150/http://horror.org/awards/stokerwinnom.htm#1988 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* The novel also won the [[1989 Anthony Award]] for Best Novel.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bouchercon.info/nominees.html |title=Bouchercon World Mystery Convention : Anthony Awards Nominees |work=BoucherCon.info |date=2003-10-02 |access-date=2012-03-14 |archive-date=2012-02-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207060829/http://www.bouchercon.info/nominees.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* It was nominated for the 1989 [[World Fantasy Award for Best Novel|World Fantasy Award]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/1989.html |title=1989 World Fantasy Award Winners and Nominees |publisher=SSF.net |access-date=4 July 2009 |archive-date=16 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716235128/http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/1989.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Film adaptation ==
{{Main|The Silence of the Lambs (film)}}
Following the 1986 adaptation of ''[[Red Dragon (novel)|Red Dragon]]'' (filmed as ''[[Manhunter (film)|Manhunter]]''), ''The Silence of the Lambs'' was adapted by [[Jonathan Demme]] in 1991. ''The Silence of the Lambs'' became the third film in Oscar history to win the following five  [[Academy Awards]]: [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]], [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Screenplay]], [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] and [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]]. It stars [[Jodie Foster]] as [[Clarice Starling]] and [[Anthony Hopkins]] as [[Hannibal Lecter]]. The film is largely faithful to the novel, but omits a few details, such as the death of Crawford's wife and Clarice's relationship with Dr. Pilcher.

== Musical adaptation ==
In 2005, comedian-musicians [[Jon and Al Kaplan]] parodied the story, especially the film, in ''[[Silence! The Musical]]''. It premiered [[Off-Off-Broadway]] and has since had productions in London and Los Angeles. In 2012, the Los Angeles production won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards for Score, Lead Performance, and Choreography.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ladramacriticscircle.com/winners-announced-44th/ |title=Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle announces winners for 44th Annual Awards |publisher=Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle |publication-date=March 19, 2013 |access-date=January 14, 2017 |archive-date=June 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630042349/https://ladramacriticscircle.com/winners-announced-44th/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Series adaptation ==
A series called [[Clarice (TV series)|''Clarice'']], which was created by [[Jenny Lumet]] and [[Alex Kurtzman]], aired on CBS in 2021. The series takes place three years after the events of the 1991 film adaptation of the novel, and it stars [[Rebecca Breeds]] as [[Clarice Starling]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2020/02/clarice-rebecca-breeds-cast-title-role-cbs-the-silence-of-the-lambs-sequel-pilot-1202868413/ |title='Clarice': Rebecca Breeds Cast In the Title Role Of CBS' 'Silence Of The Lambs' Sequel Pilot |website=[[Deadline Hollywood]] |first=Nellie |last=Andreeva |date=February 26, 2020 |access-date=February 26, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/clarice-show-silence-lambs-timeline-setting-year-mistake/|title=Clarice's Setting Breaks The Silence of the Lambs Timeline|work=Screen Rant|last=Orquiola|first=John|date=February 14, 2021}}</ref> It was canceled after one season.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Hannibal}}
{{Bram Stoker Award Best Novel}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silence of the Lambs, The}}
[[Category:1988 controversies]]
[[Category:1988 American novels]]
[[Category:1980s horror novels]]
[[Category:American horror novels]]
[[Category:American psychological novels]]
[[Category:American thriller novels]]
[[Category:American mystery novels]]
[[Category:English-language novels]]
[[Category:Sequel novels]]
[[Category:LGBTQ-related horror literature]]
[[Category:Psychological horror]]
[[Category:Novels set in Baltimore]]
[[Category:Novels set in Maryland]]
[[Category:Novels set in Memphis, Tennessee]]
[[Category:Novels set in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Novels set in West Virginia]]
[[Category:Novels set in 1984]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1980s]]
[[Category:Novels about cannibalism]]
[[Category:Novels about serial killers]]
[[Category:Novels about transgender topics]]
[[Category:Novels about the Federal Bureau of Investigation]]
[[Category:Fiction about women in law enforcement]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Horror novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into plays]]
[[Category:LGBTQ-related controversies in literature]]
[[Category:Bram Stoker Award for Novel winners]]
[[Category:Anthony Award–winning works]]
[[Category:Grand Prix de Littérature Policière winners]]
[[Category:Hannibal Lecter novels]]
[[Category:St. Martin's Press books]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=The Silence of the Lambs (novel)|access_date=2026-02-23}}