124 pages 4 hours read

Thomas Harris

The Silence Of The Lambs

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1988

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Chapters 26-31Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 26 Summary

Barney and other attendants restrain Lecter while they clean out his cell. Unable to move, Lecter amuses himself with his memories. He recalls his last therapy session with Raspail, when Raspail spoke about Jame Gumb. As a 12-year-old, Gumb killed his grandparents and went to a youth mental hospital. Raspail knew Gumb in San Francisco. Gumb’s boss fired him for stealing a package of butterfly cocoons from the curio shop. Gumb watched the insects emerge from their cocoons and fly away as butterflies, and he felt an instant connection to the creatures.

Gumb later beheaded Raspail’s lover, Klaus, and made an apron from his skin. Raspail mocks Gumb’s lack of personality, and thinks the murder was Gumb’s way of seeking acceptance. Lecter killed Raspail after he told this story. Lecter devises to concoct new clues about Gumb’s identity for Clarice from the casefile she left behind.

Chapter 27 Summary

Barney rolls Lecter, still restrained, into his cell opposite of Chilton, who sits on Lecter’s bed. Chilton had secretly put a listening device under Clarice’s desk, thinking she might be investigating Miggs’s death. Chilton resents that Lecter spoke to Clarice after years of silence. He reveals Clarice and Crawford’s manipulation: They know Klaus and Buffalo Bill are connected, and their deal with the Senator is a ploy to get information before the police take over.

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