Tag: clouds of witness

Episode 4: CLOUDS OF WITNESS, part 2

~ Sharon

In which Charis and Sharon catch up after several life disruptions to discuss the second half of CLOUDS OF WITNESS. We cover the idea of mysteries as “convalescent literature,” the novel’s treatment of national stereotypes, power imbalances in romantic relationships, and the detective’s family life. We also talk about why you should never go out onto the moors without your hat.

This episode reveals the whodunnit of CLOUDS OF WITNESS.

(An alert for our listeners: this episode contains the sound effect of a rifle firing. If you wish to avoid hearing it, skip past minute :50.)

Download the episode 4 transcript.

Shownotes:

  • In our conversation about cozy mysteries as “convalescent literature,” Charis references SHEDUNNIT, a podcast on Golden Age mysteries by Caroline Crampton, and this episode from THE ALLUSIONIST podcast about novels of convalescence.
  • “I guess MANON LESCAUT was a very popular opera during this period.” If you, like Sharon, were baffled by this reference, you also can find out everything there is to know about it in this article.
  • “There’s a bit of George Wickham in [Cathcart]”; Sharon is referring, of course, to that great Jane Austen villain from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.
  • We talk at great length in this episode about THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Arthur Conan Doyle) as both a precursor text and an inspiration for several plot points in CLOUDS OF WITNESS. And yes, Charis and Sharon remembered correctly that a character does in fact die on the moors in that novel.
  • For more on the song “On Ilkla Moor Baht’at,” see this Wikipedia article and give this recording a listen.
  • At minute 49, Charis paraphrases this quote from the Sayers short story “The Haunted Policeman”: “True to his class and training, he [Lord Peter] turned naturally in moments of emotion to the company of the common man. Indeed, when the recent domestic crisis had threatened to destroy his nerve, he had headed for the butler’s pantry with the swift instinct of the homing pigeon. There, they had treated him with great humanity, and allowed him to clean the silver.”
  • Sharon owes a great deal of the postcolonial theory she uses in the analysis about the description of Mrs. Grimethorpe to Edward Said’s masterful ORIENTALISM. In referring to the Victorian tradition of a love triangle that involves an Englishman choosing between an Englishwoman and a Jewish woman, Sharon is thinking specifically of IVANHOE. Walter Pater’s description of the Mona Lisa comes from his STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE RENAISSANCE.
  • Hugh Kenner describes the phenomenon of the narrative voice shifting to mimic a specific character’s vocabulary and diction in JOYCE’S VOICES.
  • Sharon brings up THE NOVEL AND THE POLICE (D.A. Miller) in our discussion about how much we learn about Peter’s family in this book. THE NOVEL AND THE POLICE analyzes Victorian novels through a Foucauldian lens and theorizes that the professional detective always enters the novel as a public intrusion on private domestic space.
  • When we recorded this podcast episode, Charis was also reading THE MOONSTONE (Wilkie Collins), as assigned to her by Sharon in our first CLOUDS OF WITNESS episode. (Sharon has not yet completed her homework from that episode.) We also mention THE WOMAN IN WHITE (also by Collins) and Charles Dickens’ BLEAK HOUSE and A CHRISTMAS CAROL in our tangent about why Charis doesn’t like Dickens.
  • Sharon had recently read THICK: AND OTHER ESSAYS (Tressie McMillan Cottom) when we recorded this episode. She’s delighted that THICK has since been named a National Book Award finalist for 2019 and thinks everyone should read it.

Episode 3: CLOUDS OF WITNESS, part 1

~ Sharon

In which Charis and Sharon discuss the first half of CLOUDS OF WITNESS, wherein Peter must defend his brother, the Duke of Denver, after the latter is accused of murdering their sister’s fiancé.

We cover British vs. American detective fiction traditions and what CLOUDS OF WITNESS owes to the Victorian country house mystery. We also talk about Sharon’s theory of epigraphs, depictions of marriage in the novel, options (or lack thereof) for independent women in the 1920s, and what a mystery with Charles Parker as the protagonist might look like.

This episode covers up through chapter 8 of the book and does not spoil the whodunnit.

(An alert for our listeners: this episode contains the sound effect of a rifle firing. If you wish to avoid hearing it, skip past minute 1:10.)

Download the episode 3 transcript.

Shownotes:

  • “The Simple Art of Murder”; Raymond Chandler’s essay on British detective fiction (in which we think he was quite unfair to Sayers). Spoiler alert, the essay does give away the murder method for BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON, so don’t read it if you’d like to be surprised!
  • We reference Edgar Allan Poe as the progenitor of the detective story with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter” (full texts in the links).
  • “Love a good diagram!”; The floorplan of Riddlesdale Lodge from the book:
Picture of the floorplan of Riddlesdale Lodge
  • “She’s really like the Maris Crane of the Denver family”; Sharon is referring to the American sitcom FRASIER, in which there’s a running joke that the character of Maris Crane (also immensely unpleasant and whom none of her in-laws like) is never shown onscreen because the descriptions of her are so ridiculous.
  • We reference THE MOONSTONE and THE WOMAN IN WHITE, two novels by 19th-century writer Wilkie Collins, in our discussion of influences for CLOUDS OF WITNESS. Charis’ homework from this episode is to read THE MOONSTONE and see if she thinks Rachel Verinder is a model for Mary Wimsey.
  • We also briefly touch on THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Arthur Conan Doyle) as another literary reference for the novel.
  • New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh is considered one of the Golden Age “Queens of Crime” (along with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers). Sharon’s homework from this episode is to read some of Marsh’s Inspector Alleyn novels and see if he reminds her of Parker.
  • We touch on how the title of CLOUDS OF WITNESS is a reference to the Biblical book of Hebrews, chapters 11 and 12.