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cimoreneI read about half of R. Austin Freeman's early Golden Age detective series about Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke, so that's ten or so, and as reviewers indicated, they get slightly less interesting and original with time so I saved the rest for later (I posted previously about this here with some favorite quotes and details about the setup). However, I've been reading some of the British Library Crime Classics series [complete list at Goodreads] (as mentioned here in my review of #1-10), and it includes several anthologies of short stories grouped by theme, so I've encountered several further short stories about Dr Thorndyke in the past few days.
Just to briefly sketch the setup for readers uninterested in the detailed run-down above, Freeman's sleuth is a gas-age precursor to CSI in Edwardian London, a distinguished gentleman who is a medical doctor and lawyer and spends his time doing consultant investigations for the courts using all kinds of (for the time) advanced scientific methods and knowledge. This Edwardian-CSI angle renders the mechanics/plot points of the books fairly fascinating, and a couple of the best known novels are truly worthy classics of the genre (most highly recommended: #1 The Red Thumb Mark and #3 The Eye of Osiris. - Both are in the public domain and easily available from, for example, Project Gutenberg Australia).
He's a kind and handsome paragon of a detective who is smarter than everybody in the story, a nerdy workaholic who delights in puzzles and conundrums, and an eternal bachelor with no interest in women. Possibly he was intended to be cerebrally ace, but when one looks at his cozy cohabitation with his polymath genius artificer lab assistant-manservant Polton, the impression is rather of a happily married courtly old queen who shares his calling with his partner. Polton is like the uncredited wife of the scientist or writer of this era (although in this case class and lack of formal qualifications and not gender account for his lack of credit - although since the books are written contemporaneously, of course the writer sees nothing wrong in this situation and neither do the characters).
In the stories, Polton is typically more of a background character, with the narrator of each story acting as a temporary sidekick to Thorndyke and visiting the crime scene and meeting the suspects with him and so on, plus providing a sounding board for Thorndyke's smug mysterious hints about how he secretly knows what happened already but he won't tell them because they could figure it out themselves if they had been paying attention. Polton does most of his work in the lab and hence offscreen: he appears only when the narrator visits it or sees Thorndyke at home. As a result, in spite of the appearance of their relationship, it never looks particularly romantic or slashy on the page (too est rel, no UST, etc).
However, last night I dreamt I was reading several pieces of fanfic in this pairing, and my reaction was like, "Of course, obviously." Then later in the dream I decided to write some, and I clearly remember Thorndyke and Polton sitting down to eat together up in the lab and Thorndyke broaching the subject - which in the dream I thought made perfect sense! - by saying "Correct me if I'm wrong, Polton, but I deduce that you, too, are an invert." Absolutely stellar beginning there. Very sad that I woke up before I got to find out what else dream me was going to write.
Just to briefly sketch the setup for readers uninterested in the detailed run-down above, Freeman's sleuth is a gas-age precursor to CSI in Edwardian London, a distinguished gentleman who is a medical doctor and lawyer and spends his time doing consultant investigations for the courts using all kinds of (for the time) advanced scientific methods and knowledge. This Edwardian-CSI angle renders the mechanics/plot points of the books fairly fascinating, and a couple of the best known novels are truly worthy classics of the genre (most highly recommended: #1 The Red Thumb Mark and #3 The Eye of Osiris. - Both are in the public domain and easily available from, for example, Project Gutenberg Australia).
He's a kind and handsome paragon of a detective who is smarter than everybody in the story, a nerdy workaholic who delights in puzzles and conundrums, and an eternal bachelor with no interest in women. Possibly he was intended to be cerebrally ace, but when one looks at his cozy cohabitation with his polymath genius artificer lab assistant-manservant Polton, the impression is rather of a happily married courtly old queen who shares his calling with his partner. Polton is like the uncredited wife of the scientist or writer of this era (although in this case class and lack of formal qualifications and not gender account for his lack of credit - although since the books are written contemporaneously, of course the writer sees nothing wrong in this situation and neither do the characters).
In the stories, Polton is typically more of a background character, with the narrator of each story acting as a temporary sidekick to Thorndyke and visiting the crime scene and meeting the suspects with him and so on, plus providing a sounding board for Thorndyke's smug mysterious hints about how he secretly knows what happened already but he won't tell them because they could figure it out themselves if they had been paying attention. Polton does most of his work in the lab and hence offscreen: he appears only when the narrator visits it or sees Thorndyke at home. As a result, in spite of the appearance of their relationship, it never looks particularly romantic or slashy on the page (too est rel, no UST, etc).
However, last night I dreamt I was reading several pieces of fanfic in this pairing, and my reaction was like, "Of course, obviously." Then later in the dream I decided to write some, and I clearly remember Thorndyke and Polton sitting down to eat together up in the lab and Thorndyke broaching the subject - which in the dream I thought made perfect sense! - by saying "Correct me if I'm wrong, Polton, but I deduce that you, too, are an invert." Absolutely stellar beginning there. Very sad that I woke up before I got to find out what else dream me was going to write.
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Date: 25 Jul 2021 03:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 25 Jul 2021 05:16 pm (UTC)Also... shoutout to the Lewis chessmen!
(no subject)
Date: 25 Jul 2021 05:44 pm (UTC)Austin Freeman has some really bad opinions (his thoughts on modern art are particularly awful) but I do enjoy his books a great deal! Like you say, the CSI Edwardian London thing is extremely charming.