Inescapably reminiscent of that fantastic painting of the judgment of Phryne

[cimorene]

I found this hilarious statement in one of the prefaces to R. Austin Freeman's Thorndyke mysteries:

In appearance he is handsome and of an imposing presence, with a symmetrical face of the classical type and a Grecian nose. And here I may remark that his distinguished appearance is not merely a concession to my personal taste but is also a protest against the monsters of ugliness whom some detective writers have evolved.

These are quite opposed to natural truth. In real life a first-class man of any kind usually tends to be a good-looking man.

Amazing. This is the guy responsible for the CSI subgenre of detective fiction: all his stories revolve around science, logic, trace analysis, etc. He's even got other forewords where he humbly explains that he made sure everything that happens is physically possible and all the clues are laid before the reader in the spirit of fairness!

He just thinks it's a scientific truth that the Ancient Greeks were right and people who are truly great at anything at all will just naturally happen to be beautiful. I guess there you have the state of Popular Science, late Victorian edition (his writing is Edwardian and ends around 1940, but this means, of course, that Freeman's worldview was mostly shaped by a late Victorian upbringing).

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

YIKES.

I would have hated to be his kid.

[cimorene]

I hope he didn't have any!

[twistedchick]

Does he also think that a first-class man went to the right schools and had the right parents? I would also wonder about his definition of good-looking; tastes change over time.

[cimorene]

Yeah, his ideal is pretty late Victorian! This is a pretty good short summary of it, but he's pretty detailed on the subject in most of the books.

[flemmings]

Well, he taught me that quicklime preserves bodies rather than eating them, which I suppose is a useful thing to know.

[cimorene]

Lol. I'm sure in the Edwardian era he taught a lot of people a variety of useful facts like that. Who knows how many bodies have been successfully preserved in the last century thanks to this guy?

[jennaria]

Oh, Victorian British men. You gotta love that mash-up of Science and Stereotype, and the frantic attempts to explain why Stereotype is so Scientific, because otherwise that might imply that they're not the height of human culture and reason and all the things they've been smugly telling themselves they are to excuse certain behavior.

[cimorene]

What's extra funny about this guy is that he's got passages in his fiction ranting about how Unscientific some stereotypes are, like phlebotomy, for example. It's just HIS OWN stereotypes that are good and scientific 😂😂

[vass]

Good to know. :(

[cimorene]

It's not likely the worst of his opinions, given his period and class background, but I can only hold him accountable for the ones he states. Or, you know, complain about him, since he's dead. But still. He also thinks that philanthropy and forgiveness are sadly misguided impulses from well-meaning but fuzzy-headed bumblers, I gather. I think that's the worst I've noticed. He's still positive towards generosity and kindness, though, and he THINKS he's against stereotypes, even though he also thinks there's a special type of beauty that you only get in the upper class. This presents no logical difficulty to him, of course.