Old Hall, New Hall

Rating:
Summary: Alternate title: "A Question of Queens"
Review: The setting of "Old Hall, New Hall" (1956) is undoubtedly a product of the many years that Michael Innes (whose real name was John Innes Mackintosh Stewart) spent laboring in the halls of academia. Among the seats of learning where he taught are Queen's University in Belfast, and the universities of Oxford, Adelaide, and Leeds.

"Old Hall, New Hall" is not a mystery so much as it is a farcical treasure hunt and an even more farcical love story. I have to admit that I sneaked a peek at the book's end to make certain that neither of my two favorite characters ended up with the wrong woman. Innes's young men who graduate from Oxford, aspire to write 'the' Kafkaesque novel, and end up tutoring undergraduates on Higher Literary Forms are bound to be naïve about beautiful, amoral treasure-hunters.

The narrator, Colin Clout, BA, B Litt., newly appointed to the Faculty of Arts in the Old Hall is assigned an attic office, still crammed with the lumber of previous generations of Jorys, whose descendents now live in the New Hall. He is a decent young man (in spite of his unfinished novel in the style of Kafka) and is definitely not the brains of this story. Those belong to his friend, the librarian, Sadie Sackett, and to a fellow named George Lumb (also a would-be novelist) who is engaged in cataloguing a very neglected library up at New Hall.

Libraries are an important part of this story because of the goings-on of two Victorian Jorys, one of whom collected beautiful mistresses, and the other who collected tombs. They were brothers, and it was the elder and heir who happened to have the slight necrophilous bent. According to a series of letters from their sister to her old governess (Innes is a dead-on mimic of spinsterish Victorian correspondents), the two brother-collectors embarked upon a wager as to who could bring home the greatest treasure from abroad.

The elder Jory looted a tomb and brought back a treasure of gold and jewelry (and incidentally, the Circassian corpse that was wearing the jewelry). Then the plot darkens. The necrophilous Jory seems to have swapped his treasure for whatever it was that his younger brother brought home to win the wager. Or did he? The modern Jorys, especially one beautiful treasure-hunter named Olivia from the cadet branch of the family, would really like to know whether the swap was made, and incidentally the current hiding place of the looted gold and jewels.

The author could not help but involve a legion of eccentric, pompous, and even fake professors in the treasure hunt and their spats and bumblings are a good part of what makes this book sparkle. Innes is wickedly funny when it comes to poking fun at the habits of his donnish colleagues.

In fact, Innes is one of the finest, most unjustly neglected authors from the British Golden Age of Mystery. If you haven't already discovered him, "Old Hall, New Hall" is a good place to start among his non-Appleby comedies-of-manners. If you'd like to read one of his mysteries, a very literate introduction to Inspector John Appleby, Innes's most famous character, can be found in "Hamlet, Revenge!"

Rating:
Summary: Alternate title: "A Question of Queens"
Review: The setting of "Old Hall, New Hall" (1956) is undoubtedly a product of the many years that Michael Innes (whose real name was John Innes Mackintosh Stewart) spent laboring in the halls of academia. Among the seats of learning where he taught are Queen's University in Belfast, and the universities of Oxford, Adelaide, and Leeds.

"Old Hall, New Hall" is not a mystery so much as it is a farcical treasure hunt and an even more farcical love story. I have to admit that I sneaked a peek at the book's end to make certain that neither of my two favorite characters ended up with the wrong woman. Innes's young men who graduate from Oxford, aspire to write 'the' Kafkaesque novel, and end up tutoring undergraduates on Higher Literary Forms are bound to be naïve about beautiful, amoral treasure-hunters.

The narrator, Colin Clout, BA, B Litt., newly appointed to the Faculty of Arts in the Old Hall is assigned an attic office, still crammed with the lumber of previous generations of Jorys, whose descendents now live in the New Hall. He is a decent young man (in spite of his unfinished novel in the style of Kafka) and is definitely not the brains of this story. Those belong to his friend, the librarian, Sadie Sackett, and to a fellow named George Lumb (also a would-be novelist) who is engaged in cataloguing a very neglected library up at New Hall.

Libraries are an important part of this story because of the goings-on of two Victorian Jorys, one of whom collected beautiful mistresses, and the other who collected tombs. They were brothers, and it was the elder and heir who happened to have the slight necrophilous bent. According to a series of letters from their sister to her old governess (Innes is a dead-on mimic of spinsterish Victorian correspondents), the two brother-collectors embarked upon a wager as to who could bring home the greatest treasure from abroad.

The elder Jory looted a tomb and brought back a treasure of gold and jewelry (and incidentally, the Circassian corpse that was wearing the jewelry). Then the plot darkens. The necrophilous Jory seems to have swapped his treasure for whatever it was that his younger brother brought home to win the wager. Or did he? The modern Jorys, especially one beautiful treasure-hunter named Olivia from the cadet branch of the family, would really like to know whether the swap was made, and incidentally the current hiding place of the looted gold and jewels.

The author could not help but involve a legion of eccentric, pompous, and even fake professors in the treasure hunt and their spats and bumblings are a good part of what makes this book sparkle. Innes is wickedly funny when it comes to poking fun at the habits of his donnish colleagues.

In fact, Innes is one of the finest, most unjustly neglected authors from the British Golden Age of Mystery. If you haven't already discovered him, "Old Hall, New Hall" is a good place to start among his non-Appleby comedies-of-manners. If you'd like to read one of his mysteries, a very literate introduction to Inspector John Appleby, Innes's most famous character, can be found in "Hamlet, Revenge!"