Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler
While stories that could be considered “mysteries” in some sense have existed as long as writing, and perhaps a bit before, the short story mystery came into its own during the lifetime of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). This volume collects forty-nine notable stories from this period, some by famous authors, others mostly forgotten. The book is divided into four sections, Detective Stories, Crime Stories, International (European) Stories and American Stories. Each story is prefaced with a biography of the author and perhaps a bit about the importance of the story to the genre.
“One Night in a Gaming-House” by “Waters” starts off the volume with what purports to be the real-life memoir of an early police detective. A young man, formerly of some social standing until ruined by gambling debts, finds that one of the few vaguely respectable jobs open to him is of police officer. He’s assigned to go undercover to assist a wealthy fellow break free of the card shark gang he’s gotten involved with. This is made much easier as Waters knew one of the gang during his own profligate days, and pretends he doesn’t know that the man was cheating him. Waters is able to save the target’s fortune and bring the entire gang under arrest, earning praise and promotion.
“The Suicide of Kiaros” by L. Frank Baum has an embezzling cashier (gambling debts again) needing a large sum of money to correct the books before he marries the boss’ daughter and becomes a partner in the firm. As it happens, the Greek moneylender Kiaros has such a sum of money. By moneylender standards, Kiaros is a pretty decent fellow, but he’s not generous enough to fix the cashier’s problem. This is a very dark story from the creator of the Oz series.
Other standouts include:
“The Biter Bit” by Wilkie Collins. A parody of the sort of story penned by “Waters” and his imitators, a young man who had to leave his previous job in a hurry is foisted off on the police department. He thinks he’s a master detective, but no one else in the story buys it, especially the Chief Inspector who assigns him to a burglary. This one’s told in letters and reports, and is hilarious in a dry way.
“The Vanishing Diamonds” by M. McDonnell Bodkin. A man places a diamond necklace in a jewelry case, sees it wrapped, takes it home, and his bride to be opens it–the case is empty! The great detective Mr. Beck arrives to investigate, and then as soon as he’s gone out, Mr. Beck arrives to investigate for the first time! Confusing, no? I’ve read this before in an issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine reviewed on this blog, still an ingenious story.
“Hagar of the Pawn-Shop” by Fergus Hume concerns a Roma (called “gypsy” in the text) woman who comes to her uncle’s pawn shop to escape an unwanted marriage. Hagar takes over the shop after her uncle’s death only to hold it for his estranged son. Then she assists a young man in finding a lost treasure in a volume of Dante he wants to pawn. There’s a twist, and perhaps the real treasure is spiting those who covet your wealth.
There’s an undercurrent of antisemitism in many of these stories, I should mention. In this case, it’s mentioned that despite fitting the negative stereotype of pawnbrokers in other ways, Hagar’s uncle Jacob is not in fact Jewish. On the other hand, this is a pretty good treatment of a Roma woman for literature of the time.
“Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess” by J. Sheridan le Fanu is a lurid tale of a young woman lured to an isolated castle by her wicked uncle and his lustful son. There’s no stalwart hero to get her out of this murderous mess, and she must save herself on her own. The ending is a bit of a letdown as it uses the “villains escape but then are killed horribly offstage leaving the heroine’s hands clean” cliche. (The one Sherlock Holmes story included, “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter”, ends similarly.)
“Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime” by Oscar Wilde posits that palmistry actually works, though the fortuneteller in question also obviously pads out his predictions with cold reading and ambiguous statements to fill his pockets. The title character learns that he is soon to commit murder, and decides to steal a march by killing someone who won’t cause too great a burden on his conscience. But things just keep going wrong, or is that right?
“The Ides of March” by E.W. Hornug is the first tale of respectable cricketer and master burglar Raffles. His old school chum Bunny reveals that the checks he wrote for gambling debts are worthless, and since Raffles also needs money, he invites Bunny along to rob a jeweler.
“The Invisible Eye” by Erckmann-Chatrian is a chiller set in Munich. Every guest that takes a certain room in the inn hangs himself. Or is it murder? The solution doesn’t quite commit to being supernatural, but raises a lot of questions as to how the villain learned the trick.
“Sleepy” by Anton Chekhov is a shock-short about a servant girl suffering from sleep deprivation. It was partially designed to call attention to the abuse of servants in Russian society.
“The Corpus Delicti” by Melville Davisson Post is the first story about evil lawyer Randolph Mason. He’s consulted by a man who is being blackmailed by his old lover for a previous murder. Mason wants to call attention to a particularly stupid clause in New York law, so comes up with a plan to have the man commit a new murder and get away with it scot-free in court. The technicality was real, and this story helped change that.
Plus stories by luminaries like Edgar Allan Poe, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, and Leo Tolstoy. Some stories are lesser than others, but there’s no real clunkers.
Content notes: Murder, death of children, death of animals, suicide, period sexism, racism and ethnic prejudice.
These stories are all in the public domain, and many have been collected in other volumes. But it’s fun to have them all in one place. Recommended for mystery buffs who enjoy the Victorian Era–especially good as a gift for long winter nights.
