Bruno

Bruno is the young brother of Sylvie in Lewis Carroll’s 1889 novel, Sylvie and Bruno, succeeded by Sylvie and Bruno Concluded in 1893 and a much lesser cousin to Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Bruno and his sister transit between their morally stifling Victorian household and the fantastical land of the fairies, being alternately human and elfin. Bruno is a darling child (at least as illustrated by Harry Furniss), but perhaps just a little too precious by our 21st century standards. Still, he is all boy, albeit Victorian boy, who is a pesky, if adored, little brother to the responsible big sister Sylvie, always trying to get out of his lessons and managing to get into scrapes galore. Still, a child who cries “Hurted mine self welly much!” is just a wee bit on the too-too side for our tastes.

Bruno Anthony (Charles Anthony Bruno) is the deliciously evil protagonist of Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 thriller, Strangers on a Train, which was adapted into a film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. In the book, he is Charles Anthony Bruno; in the film he is Bruno Anthony. Poor little rich boy Bruno – a coddled Mama’s boy who covets his strict father’s wealth, he tries to arrange a “criss-cross” murder with Guy Haines, a stranger whom he meets on a train – his father for Guy’s wife, who won’t grant Guy a divorce. Bruno is an insecure young man who has no direction in his life, who has coasted thus far on his family’s wealth. Convincing himself that Guy has agreed to the pact, Bruno goes ahead with his part of the scheme. Naturally, things go awry, with disastrous results. Eventually, Bruno gets his come-uppance, and darned if we aren’t rather sorry about that! As portrayed by Robert Walker in the movie, he is much more interesting and watchable than the rather insipid Guy (Farley Granger). And isn’t that always the way with the “bad” guys!