1. Title and information:
Rosemary’s Baby is the title of this book.

Year of first publication: 1967
Country of first publication: Great Britain
This book was completed in August,1966, in Wilton, Connecticut.

Explanation of the title:
Rosemary’s pregnancy is the most important issue in this book.
There are three parts in the book: part one describes the relationship between Rosemary and Guy and Rosemary’s wish to have a baby. At the end of this part Rosemary is pregnant. Part two is all about her pregnancy. And in part three she delivers the baby.

2. About the author:
Ira Levin was born in 1919 in New York City and was a graduate of New York University. He began his career in American television’s ‘golden age’, writing plays for Lights out and The US Steel Hour. The novels he wrote are: A Kiss Before Dying, This Perfect Day, Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, The Boys From Brazil and Sliver. All these novels are published or forthcoming in Signet. He lives in the Cornegie Hill district of Manhattan in which Sliver is set. Rosemary’s baby was made into a film, starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes.

3. Main Characters:
Rosemary Woodhouse Reilly
Rosemary is a catholic country girl from Omaha and the youngest of six children. She has three brothers and two sisters with whom she does not have any contact, except with her brother Brian. Rosemary is still at school. She is learning how to make sculptures but she doesn’t go to school very often. Rosemary is married to her nine years older husband Guy Woodhouse. Rosemary is a normal, sweet and insecure woman, about 24 years old, and she is the most important person in this book. It is all about her and her pregnancy.

Guy Woodhouse
Guy is a tall and handsome actor from Baltimore.
His real name is Sherman Peden, but he changed it because he thought it wasn’t a name for an actor. At first he is a good caring husband but later on it turns out that he cooperates with worshippers of Satan to gain successful as an actor. He lies to Rosemary and does not take good care of her anymore. He is about 33 years old.

Minnie and Roman Castevet
- Minnie is an old woman, married to Roman, who brings Rosemary a drink of evil herbs and fungus every day during Rosemary’s pregnancy to give her ‘vitamins’. She also gives her a good luck charm with devil’s fungus. Minnie calls it ‘tannis root’ and it smells enormously. At first she seems to be a nice old lady but she turns out to be a witch.

-Roman Castevet’s real name was Steven Marcato. His father had something to do with witchery too, that’s way he changed his name. (with the same letters) Roman is 79 years old and is also part of the club.

Edward Hutchins, called Hutch
Hutch is a fifty-four years old man and a close friend of Rosemary. He is a writer who wrote three different series of boys’ adventure books. Hutch is very suspicious about all kinds of things which deal with witchery. He advises Rosemary and Guy not to move into the Bramford because many strange things happened there. But Rosemary and Guy already bought the apartment so they do move in. One evening Hutch meets Roman and asks him suspicious questions about tannis root and the Bramford. Roman sees him as a treat immediately. When Hutch wants to meet Rosemary the next day to tell her something very important, Hutch never shows up. Roman has taken his precautions and he and the club have put Hutch into a coma. Hutch awakes after a couple of months but he realizes that he will die very soon. He asks the doctors a couple of times to talk to Grace Cardiff (a friend), who has to give a book of him, called All Of Them Witches, to Rosemary as soon as possible. He dies short after the moment the doctors promised to talk to Grace. Hutch was Rosemary’s best friend.

4.Summary
Rosemary and Guy are a young married couple when they move into the Bramford, a very nice apartment block in New York City. Rosemary wants to start a family there, but Guy wants to wait a little while. It doesn’t take them long to meet their new neighbours. Minnie and Roman Castevet are very kind old people, but Rosemary thinks they are too nosy. Guy really likes them and visits them a lot. Rosemary worries about the neighbourhood they now live in, because Hutch, her best friend, warned them that there seemed to be many suicides in the building. And more strange things have happened there. In the apartment where Rosemary and Guy now live, the Trench sisters used to live and they used to eat children. Guy tells her not to worry and promises her that nothing will happen. One day Minnie gives Rosemary a good luck charm with a bit of tannis root inside it which turns out to be Devil’s fungus, but Rosemary is not aware of this evil herb. Guy who’s doing loads of screenings for various shows isn’t chosen to play the lead in a very important play, which could have made him a very famous actor. Donald Baumgart, his opponent, gets this part. Guy is beyond hope and joins the witch club, Minnie and Roman lead, and they promise him a brilliant future. In return he has to make Rosemary pregnant of Satan’s child. Guy agrees and Donald Baumgart becomes blind. (The club did it) So Guy now gets the lead and he tells Rosemary he wants to have children now. Rosemary is thrilled and prepares a lovely meal and hopes to have a nice romantic evening. Minnie turns up towards the end of the evening with a strange tasting chocolate mousse as a desert. Rosemary eats the desert and passes out sometime later. In a condition between awake and asleep Rosemary dreams she is at a Satan service where she is marked with blood by Roman and finally raped by a man who’s is not Guy. When she wakes up the next morning she has scratches everywhere and Guy tells her he made love to her while she was asleep. She is really angry at first but when she finds out that she is pregnant, she is happy about it! Minnie and Roman are very interested in Rosemary’s pregnancy and they supply an obstetrician for her. Dr Sapirstein is a very good friend of the Castevets and he shows an extraordinary interest in Rosemary’s baby. He sees her almost every week and gives her all kinds of weird advice, such as not to read in books or listen to other pregnant women. When Rosemary suffers enormous pains in the first six months of her pregnancy he only tells her it is normal. When Hutch comes to visit her, he tries to convince her there’s something wrong. Rosemary shows him her charm with tannis root and Hutch is suspicious. He never heard of tannis root and promises her to look it up. He calls her that evening and tells her he want to meet her the next day because he has something to tell her, which is very important. But he never shows up. Roman and the club had put him into a coma and a couple of months later he dies. Rosemary received Hutch’s book, called All Of Them Witches, and finds out the truth. She finds out that Roman is in fact Steven Marcato, the father of a famous witch. She tells Guy this, not knowing he is one of them too, but when she finds out he is part of the coven too, she runs away. The Castevets go after her with Guy and Dr. Sapirstein, who is a witch too, and they get her back home. When she had delivered the baby, she has been told that her baby is dead. But she doesn’t believe that. She is going to look for it. When she finds him in the Castevets’ apartment she sees that he has yellow/black eyes, claws as hands and a tail too. The entire witch club is there and they convince her not to tell anyone of Adrian’s birth and they ask her to be a mother to the child if she wants too. It is weird but Rosemary decides to go ahead with this and is allowed to take care of Adrian, now being called Andrew John if he can serve Satan later.

Theme:
The themes are: Satanism and deceit.