The Embezzler (novella)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Embezzler is a 1938 short novel by James M. Cain. The work first appeared as a serial in Liberty magazine in 1940 under the title Money and the Woman. In 1943, Alfred A. Knopf published the work as The Embezzler in a collection of novellas by Cain entitled Three of a Kind.[1]
Dave Bennett, a senior bank executive, makes a routine visit to one of its branch offices to observe operations; the branch's savings to commercial deposit ratio seems too good to be true. He discovers that the head teller, the elderly Charles Brent, is suffering from a stomach ulcer; the workaholic strenuously objects to taking leave for the needed surgery. His wife, Sheila, a very attractive young woman, asks Bennett to allow her to assume her husband's duties while he is in hospital, and both men consent.
While temporarily presiding over the branch, Bennett, as well as Sheila, discover that Charles is embezzling funds and has cunningly concealed the imbalance in the accounts. Charles is using the stolen funds to provide his mistress, an employee at the branch, with gifts. Rather than report the matter to his superiors, Bennett—who is falling in love with the beautiful Sheila—enters into a pact with the married woman to correct the accounts and conceal her husband's criminality. Sheila is motivated by her desire to protect her two children from the “disgrace” of having a convicted criminal for a father. Bennett is motivated by his infatuation with Sheila, though their relationship remains chaste. Released from the hospital, Charles Brent dies in an armed confrontation with the police. Bennett and Sheila are now free to marry.[2][3]
Publication history
Cain conceived the story after reading a study—"1001 Embezzlers"—submitted to him by Clarke Fitzpatrick, a former Baltimore Sun editor who was working at United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, a firm Cain's father had once served.[1][4] Written in early 1938, The Embezzler appeared in 1940 as a serial under the title Money and the Woman in Liberty magazine. Cain received $4,000 for the piece.[5][6]
Struggling financially in his efforts to complete his story Mildred Pierce, Cain offered to sell the Liberty serial to Alfred A. Knopf as a novel. The publisher considered the novella too short to qualify as a stand alone work, but included it in a collection of serials, retitled The Embezzler, and with Double Indemnity and Career in C Major, issued it in Three of a Kind in 1943. Cain obtained a $1,250 advance for his short novel.[7][8]