Three Act Tragedy: “Mr. Satterthwaite sat on the terrace of ‘Crow’s Nest’ and watched his host, Sir Charles Cartwright, climbing up the path from the sea.”
Also Published As: Murder in Three Acts
Detective: Hercule Poirot
Amateur Detectives: Mr. Satterwaite, Sir Charles Cartwright, Hermoine “Egg” Lytton
Published: 1934
Length: 224 pages
Setting: Cornwall, Monte Carlo,
Parker Pyne Investigates: “…. the mere sight of Mr. Parker Pyne brought a feeling of reassurance. He was large, not to say fat; he had a bald head of noble proportions, strong glasses, and little twinkling eyes.”
Detective: Mr. Parker Pyne
Published: November 1934
Length: 251 pages
Setting: London, Geneva, Paris, Venice, Trieste, Constantinople, Damascus, Iraq, Tehran, Shiraz, Delphi, Palma, Dartmouth and other places
“Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.”
I first read Middlemarch during the summer of 2014 and was mesmerized. The lives of the inhabitants were painted in detail and somehow came alive until I was part of the community and involved in all their celebrations and struggles. I finished it in three weeks and then longed to go back. Well, it’s been over ten years since my last read of it and with some more maturity and the input of others, I was curious as to how I would respond upon my second reading.
“When I reached ‘C’ Company lines, which were at the top of the hill, I paused and looked back at the camp, just coming into full view below me through the grey mist of early morning.”
I went into this read with some trepidation. I had some experience with books set in this time period of the early to mid-1900s and I haven’t found them very edifying: The Good Soldier, Testament of Youth, The Great Gatsby, etc. There is some sort of depressing pall that seems to have affected the world after the First World War and authors appear to have contracted an especially virulent dose of it. Nevertheless, I thought I would give Waugh and try and see if he could surprise me.
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?: “Bobby Jones teed up his ball, gave a short preliminary waggle, took the club back slowly, then brought it down and through with the rapidity of lightning.”
Alternate Title: The Boomerang Clue
Detective: Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent & Bobby Jones, childhood friends
Published: September 1934
Length: 351 pages
Setting: Wales & Hampshire
“When the course of civilization takes an unexpected turn — when, instead of the continuous progress which we have come to expect, we find ourselves threatened by evils associated by us with past ages of barbarism — we naturally blame anything but ourselves.”
I suspect that you would call The Road to Serfdom F.A. Hayek’s magnum opus. It was written in 1944 towards the end of the Second World War, when countries had been exposed to various socialist political experiments and the effect they had on the countries that adopted them were very, very evident. But Hayek did not take for granted that people’s common sense would see the dangers. He was well aware of the hazards socialism still posed with its pernicious ideology and promises of a better future where everyone would be equal, the rich would pay their fair share, and all would be secure within the society.
The Listerdale Mystery: “Mrs. St. Vincent was adding up figures.”
Detective: None, as these are various tales of murder & suspense
Published: June 1934
Length: 192 pages
Setting: various
Great Expectations: “My fathers’ family name being Pirrup, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip.”
In the mid-19th century, in a marshy area of Kent, Philip Pirrup, or Pip as he was called, lived with his crotchety, abusive sister and her husband, a loveable, yet rather simple blacksmith named Joe. While Pip attempts to avoid his sister’s wrath, a wrath that she appears to happily cultivate, he also forms a deep attachment and friendship with Joe, who equally enjoys Pip’s company.
“Do you know the feeling you have when you know something quite well and yet for the life of you can’t recollect it?”
Oh, wow! After my first Westmacott novel, Giant’s Bread, I was really dreading Unfinished Portrait, but what a masterpiece of human psychology, human frailty and the unexpected journey that life has in store for all of us!
The novel begins on an island where a successful portrait painter meets a young woman who is ready to take her own life. Through speaking with her, he learns of her childhood and marriage and both the humorous and tragic circumstances that slowly led her to where she is that day.
Murder on the Orient Express: “It was five o’clock on a winter’s morning in Syria.”
Also Published as: Murder in the Calais Coach
Detective: Hercule Poirot
Published: January 1934
Length: 265 pages
Setting: Aleppo, Syria; Stamboul (Istanbul), Turkey; somewhere in Yugoslavia
In Murder on the Orient Express, after travelling from Aleppo to Istanbul, Hercule Poirot receives a telegram to return home and he books passage on The Orient Express, a well-known passenger train. Also onboard are: