Hamlet, Revenge!

Rating:
Summary: Age cannot wither these characters
Review: This classical suspense novel, first published in 1937 might be difficult to follow for readers who are not already familiar with Shakespeare's 'The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince Denmark.'

However, it is well worth reading, not only for the richly allusive mystery, but also for the characters who create and act out its tragedy. The author engraves his brittle, upper-class English in diamond-point prose. He etches their wit with acid. They are never dull. To misquote the Bard himself, 'Age cannot wither Innes's characters, nor murder stale their witty dialogue.'

For the length of the tragedy at least, the reader will inhabit the manor and precincts of Scamnum Court, principal seat of the Duke of Horton---'It is a big place: two counties away it has a sort of little brother in Blenheim Palace.'

After the second murder of the evening, C.I.D. Inspector John Appleby gives the reader his impression of the place, while searching through its corridors for the Duchess of Horton:

'Moving about Scamnum at night, it seemed to Appleby, was like moving in a dream through some monstrously overgrown issue of 'Country Life.' Great cubes of space, disconcertingly indeterminate in function--- were they rooms or passages? ---flowed past in the half-darkness with the intermittent coherence of distant music, now composed into order and proportion, now a vague and raw material for the architectonics of the imagination'He recalled the great palaces --- now for the most part tenantless --- which the eighteenth century had seen rise, all weirdly of a piece, about Europe. Scamnum, he knew, was to be a different pattern; would reveal itself in the morning as being --- however augustly --- the home of an English gentleman and a familiar being. But now it was less a human dwelling than a dream-symbol of centuries of rule, a fantasy created from the tribute of ten thousand cottages long perished from the land.'

Everything in 'Hamlet, Revenge!' is done on a grand scale. The Duchess of Horton persuades her old friend, the Lord Chancellor of England to act the part of Polonius in her amateur production of 'Hamlet.' Her husband is cast as Claudius, King of Denmark and she herself plays his Queen. Their daughter, Elizabeth is Ophelia. The greatest Shakespearean actor of the day plays the Melancholy Dane.

All of the play's characters are put on edge by a series of mysterious messages, culminating in a quotation from 'Macbeth', ''there shall be done a deed of dreadful note'' Then the Lord Chancellor is shot to death at the very instant in the play when his character is supposed to die by Hamlet's sword.

Appleby is called in to solve a murder that 'was planned, deliberately and at obvious risk, to take place bang in the middle of a private performance of Hamlet.'

The young C.I.D. Inspector is also charged with recovering vital State documents that the second-most important figure in British government had with him when he motored down to Scamnum Court to strut and fret upon the ducal stage. Until the very end of 'Hamlet, Revenge!' the reader can never be sure if he or she is reading a murder mystery or a spy story.

'Hamlet, Revenge!' in my opinion is one of the top ten mysteries of the last century, reaching the same rarified heights as Sayers's 'The Nine Taylors.'

It is much less known to American readers, possibly because of its author's richly allusive style. Innes was a Student of Christ Church, Oxford, from 1949 until his retirement in 1973. He was a Lecturer in English, and he did not talk down to readers of his detective fiction. Either they were familiar with the Bard, or they would miss out on half the enjoyment of 'Hamlet, Revenge!'

Rating:
Summary: Age cannot wither these characters
Review: This classical suspense novel, first published in 1937 might be difficult to follow for readers who are not already familiar with Shakespeare�s �The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince Denmark.�

However, it is well worth reading, not only for the richly allusive mystery, but also for the characters who create and act out its tragedy. The author engraves his brittle, upper-class English in diamond-point prose. He etches their wit with acid. They are never dull. To misquote the Bard himself, �Age cannot wither Innes�s characters, nor murder stale their witty dialogue.�

For the length of the tragedy at least, the reader will inhabit the manor and precincts of Scamnum Court, principal seat of the Duke of Horton---�It is a big place: two counties away it has a sort of little brother in Blenheim Palace.�

After the second murder of the evening, C.I.D. Inspector John Appleby gives the reader his impression of the place, while searching through its corridors for the Duchess of Horton:

�Moving about Scamnum at night, it seemed to Appleby, was like moving in a dream through some monstrously overgrown issue of �Country Life.� Great cubes of space, disconcertingly indeterminate in function--- were they rooms or passages? ---flowed past in the half-darkness with the intermittent coherence of distant music, now composed into order and proportion, now a vague and raw material for the architectonics of the imagination�He recalled the great palaces --- now for the most part tenantless --- which the eighteenth century had seen rise, all weirdly of a piece, about Europe. Scamnum, he knew, was to be a different pattern; would reveal itself in the morning as being --- however augustly --- the home of an English gentleman and a familiar being. But now it was less a human dwelling than a dream-symbol of centuries of rule, a fantasy created from the tribute of ten thousand cottages long perished from the land.�

Everything in �Hamlet, Revenge!� is done on a grand scale. The Duchess of Horton persuades her old friend, the Lord Chancellor of England to act the part of Polonius in her amateur production of �Hamlet.� Her husband is cast as Claudius, King of Denmark and she herself plays his Queen. Their daughter, Elizabeth is Ophelia. The greatest Shakespearean actor of the day plays the Melancholy Dane.

All of the play�s characters are put on edge by a series of mysterious messages, culminating in a quotation from �Macbeth�, ��there shall be done a deed of dreadful note�� Then the Lord Chancellor is shot to death at the very instant in the play when his character is supposed to die by Hamlet�s sword.

Appleby is called in to solve a murder that �was planned, deliberately and at obvious risk, to take place bang in the middle of a private performance of Hamlet.�

The young C.I.D. Inspector is also charged with recovering vital State documents that the second-most important figure in British government had with him when he motored down to Scamnum Court to strut and fret upon the ducal stage. Until the very end of �Hamlet, Revenge!� the reader can never be sure if he or she is reading a murder mystery or a spy story.

�Hamlet, Revenge!� in my opinion is one of the top ten mysteries of the last century, reaching the same rarified heights as Sayers�s �The Nine Taylors.�

It is much less known to American readers, possibly because of its author�s richly allusive style. Innes was a Student of Christ Church, Oxford, from 1949 until his retirement in 1973. He was a Lecturer in English, and he did not talk down to readers of his detective fiction. Either they were familiar with the Bard, or they would miss out on half the enjoyment of �Hamlet, Revenge!�