Marie Belloc LowndesBesprekingen

When young Englishwoman, Lily Fairfield, visits her aristocratic ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’, the Comte and Contessa Polda, in their home in Monaco, she is surprised to find them living in near penury. Indeed, it soon becomes evident that the rent that had been agreed for Lily’s stay seems to be the only income that they have. Conversations with the Contessa invariably end up revolving around either money or the boundless qualities of her son, Count Beppo, who lives in Italy.

On her journey to Monaco Lily had encountered and befriended the enigmatic elderly Frenchman, Hercules Popeau, and his taciturn younger Scottish companion Angus Stuart. As her life in the Polda household becomes increasingly restricted, Popeau and Stuart prove to be a valuable resource for Lily, providing a valued source of company.

When the fêted Beppo arrives, Lily soon realises that he is an opportunist, with a flexible understanding of the truth, especially when dealing with his parents. It is also evident that, having established the healthy extent of Lily’s personal fortune, the Contessa has clearly-laid plans for a wedding. But everything changes when, on her way to visit Popeau and Stuart in Monte Carlo, Lily discovers a body, which turns out to be that of a recent villa to the Poldas’ home.

When news of the body reaches Popeau, he reveals himself as the chief of one of the French secret service organisations, and he gradually unravels the mystery. Popeau has often been cited as an inspiration for, or influence on, Agatha Christie’s development of her famous character Hercule Poirot.

Marie Belloc Lowndes, sister of Hilaire Belloc, was a prolific and successful novelist in her own right, and wrote several popular thrillers and mysteries, including The Lodger of which several film versions were made (including one by Alfred Hitchcock). I found this very enjoyable, and the prose was readily accessible – no suggestion that it was more than a century old. My one cavil about the book is that the story developed rather slowly, and the book could easily have been fifty pages shorter, with no deleterious effect on the storyline.

I remember being amazed a few years ago when, in a random discussion about books with my best friend, I made a remark about Hilaire Belloc (basically saying that while he may be best known for his Cautionary Tales poems, he had been a prolific writer including spy novels, history books and some accounts of his sea travels). She replied with the stunning throwaway remark, ‘You don’t need to tell me anything about him – he was my great great-grandfather.’

Having been put in my place for such an egregious attempt at mansplaining, I had to confess that my knowledge of the literary Bellocs was fairly limited, and mostly stemmed from Jonathan Raban’s discussions of Hilaire’ s The Cruise of The Nona within his own book Coasting. Such was my ignorance that I hadn’t realised that Belloc’s sister marie had also been a prolific and celebrated novelist. In fact, she wrote several immensely popular crime novels in the first two decades of the twentieth century, including a few that featured her own sleuth, Hercules-Popeau who first appeared at around the same time as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.

The Lodger follows the travails of the Buntings, a couple who had previously been employed as butler and maid in a succession of established households. Now fallen on hard times, they are poverty-stricken and wondering how they will be able to afford their next monthly rent. They had previously sublet a large part of the property near Marylebone that they are leasing, but currently have no tenant, and little prospect of finding one before their own rent falls due.

However, they are suddenly visited by a retiring and mysterious stranger (with the odd name of Mr Sleuth) who seems to be looking for exactly what they have to offer. He also seems to have decent financial resources, because he pays several weeks in advance, allowing the Buntings to start to dream of a measure of financial security, in the short term at least. In the meantime, newspaper reports about a series of brutal murders of young women abound.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I began reading this, and was prepared to be fairly ruthless if the book proved to be at all tedious. There was, however, no worry there at all – the story grabbed me right from the opening paragraphs, and I really couldn’t put it down.

Marie Belloc Lowndes doesn’t indulge in minute developments of her characters, although all of the figures are completely believable. Mr Bunting is a laconic character, slightly obsessed with the lurid accounts of crime in general, and the current series of murders in particular, while his wife is more reserved. Mrs Lowndes’s account of the murders is clearly inspired by the Whitechapel killings attributed to Jack the Ripper, but she carefully avoids any hint of glorifying such awful crimes. Although the newspapers in her novel revel in the sense of terror, the reader is not offered any details at all. I thought the depiction of the response of different elements of London society to the killings was captured very acutely.

The novel was a huge success when first published in 1913, and various film adaptations have been made, include an early silent movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I will certainly be delving further into the works of Marie Belloc Lowndes.

Mr. and Mrs. Bunting, after years of working in service, put their savings into running a lodging house. But things haven’t worked out as profitably as they’d like, and they find themselves very near to starvation when one day the perfect lodger knocks on their door. He wants to rent out all the rooms – he claims he needs peace and quiet for his work – and pays a large sum up front. At first the Buntings are ecstatic, but their eccentric lodger’s arrival in their lives coincides with the beginning of a string of murders near their London neighborhood, and Mrs. Bunting begins to suspect that it may not be a coincidence at all.

Inspired by the theory that Jack the Ripper was himself a lodger of this kind, the story does a great job of exploring the gamut of emotions and thoughts and fears that someone in Mrs. Bunting’s position might experience. Lowndes strikes a nice balance of good story and eerie atmosphere as well.

Tremendously creepy and suspenseful (though not graphic). However, in the end, I wanted resolution and I felt that it wasn't there. Early on, I thought that it might be left up to the reader to decide whether or not the lodger was guilty, but no, that gets spelled out pretty clearly. Then I thought there would be some kind of comeuppance, but nope, it's left hanging. I know this story is based on the Jack the Ripper murders, so I guess that's why the resolution is so unsatisfying, since they were never solved in real life? I also thought that the landlord and his wife might express more regret, but...I'm still not sure how they really felt about their actions or lack thereof.

Another (amongst one of the latest) in the British Library Crime Classics series, which I am enjoying and will continue to collect and read.

An unusual structure utilised. Laura Dousland, the young wife of a much older and odd husband, is from page 1 literally on trial for the murder by poisoning of that husband, Fordish Dousland. There is contradictory evidence from the house's butler as to whether the chianti flask (of the book's title) and which is accepted by all as the likely source of that poison, was placed by the butler on the tray on which the butler habitually delivered Fordish's usual evening meal on the evening before Fordish is found dead by Laura. Alas the flask itself cannot be found anywhere, meaning its evidence cannot be inspected.

Laura, who has willingly stepped into the witness box, states she believes that the butler honestly, but mistakenly is of that view, but instead has confused himself with a previous occasion on which Fordish had hidden the equivalent flask, believing that he butler has improperly imbibed from the house's wine sources. An obvious alternative explanation was that Fordish committed suicide.

Much is made of the fact that Laura had not thrown the butler under the bus but even more is made of the uncontroverted facts that:

- Fordish, had some five years before, having been rebuffed by Laura on three occasions as to Fordish's marriage proposals, had threatened to a mutual friend, to kill himself if Laura continued to decline his entreaties;
- Fordish's own grandfather had committed suicide, when an elderly widower having suffered a love disappointment;
- Laura's marriage to Fordish was not one of much if any joy;
- having made enquiries as to solutions as to an infestation of rodents, Fordish had displayed much interest in the comments of Dr Mark Scrutton as to the fact that the particular poison being suggested inflicted no apparent pain to the vermin in question and in response to a question from Fordish, confirmed that such would also be the case in the case of people ingesting the poison, save that in the case of both vermin and people, death would ensue.

By by page 37, Laura is pronounced by the jury and the Court as being innocent.

The balance of the 251 pages focuses on, as Martin Edwards in his interesting Introduction says is usual for this author, the "whydunit" rather than the "whodunit".

Notwithstanding that, I do not think that there is any real doubt as to "whodunit", but there is very real doubt as to the so called chianti flask mystery i.e. what happened to it if indeed it was involved as well as, if indeed any of Fordish, Laura or the butler were responsible for Fordish's death, how it was undertaken.

The exposition of that over the next 200+pages is a little over-wrought and involves an unexpected growing romantic occurrence involving Laura, but it is not outlandish.

I cannot say much more without providing spoilers so will leave it there, save to comment as to the cover art for this edition.

The British Library Crime Classics series has beautiful covers, but this one like a few others I have commented on already, are somewhat misleading if they are to depict the text itself. In this particular case, the cover certainly depicts the feel of the relevant time and era, so in that case it is perfectly fine, if not good. But it does not depict any actual scene depicted in the text. Does that matter at the end of the day? probably not, given it does not provide a red herring.

Big Ship

22 May 2022

I really enjoyed reading this book.

This is a free Kindle ebook, written around 1913.
It's not a horror novel, by today's standards, but it is a fascinating observation about morals and class differences in that time period. It made me think more carefully about what people are willing to do or not do to be comfortable in life. It's a bit slow paced but I thought it was worth the time.

Overly long suspense tale with only one thread. Not very complex. Would have been better as a short story about the mysterious religious eccentric who lived upstairs.

The ending is quite anti-climatic and disappointing. Readers are probably expecting some huge confrontation with the killer. However, the killer merely runs from his lodgers once he realizes that they are onto him. He does not return to collect his things, nor does he attempt to silence them like other killers might. Additionally, there was a lack of action.
I was so frustrated at how oblivious that the main characters were. Even with avid details from the newspapers and their detective friend, they remain oblivious for majority of the book. When they finally do accept who the killer is, they chose not to inform their detective friend or the police. Their reasoning was that they did not want to be swarmed by the police. It irritates me so much! This guy is a serial killer for crying out-loud! Who has been killing women for years! We also do not learn why he only targets blonde women.

The wife is also so stubborn in her old-fashioned mannerism and beliefs that I just wanted to scream! This was the most frustrated and annoyed that I've been with characters this year. I'm relieved that I've finally finished it.

magistrale! nella Londra terrorizzata dai delitti di Jack the Ripper un ex maggiordomo e un'ex governante che, sposandosi, pensavano di riuscire a condurre un'esistenza dignitosa e rispettabile, si trovano invece costretti, per far quadrare il bilancio, ad affittare una camera in casa loro a...un misterioso e riservato signore che paga puntuale, in contanti, in anticipo ma...non si sa cosa faccia e dove vada, esce di sera con una misteriosa borsa e, guarda caso, il giorno dopo le sue uscite gli strilloni per le strade annunciano atroci delitti...sarà mica...??

The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes was first published in 1914 but is still relevant and intriguing today. A first-class, highly acclaimed thriller that is based on the grisly Jack the Ripper murders that occurred in Whitechapel, London twenty years before. It is a real page turner. Definitely worth a tour and available for free as an ebook at Amazon.

Review posted on BookLikes:

http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/714428/the-lodger

"You must bear with me, Mrs Bunting, if I seem a little - just a little - unlike the lodgers you have been accustomed to",, February 20, 2015

This review is from: The Lodger (Paperback)
This review is from: The Lodger (Paperback)
Last read this aged 13, when I loved it. Re-reading it forty years later, I still find it a jolly good read.
Set in foggy Victorian London, the novel opens with a married couple - the Buntings, previously servants and now reduced to a state of penury as they fail to find lodgers for their spare rooms. And then comes a knock at the door and their problems seem answered, with the arrival of prospective tenant Mr Sleuth - a gentleman, no less, who pays in advance and likes to read the Bible.
But in the first few pages we realise Mr Sleuth is somewhat peculiar: a man who does experiments in his rooms and demands to be left alone. And why does he go out late at night into the foggy streets?
Meanwhile London is suffering a series of Jack-the-Ripper type attacks on young women of alcoholic persuasion...
Very compelling read indeed, written in 1913.

A poor couple takes a lodger into their house, at the time the town is hounted by a serial killer. The couple slowly start to wonder if their lodger is that serial killer. Are they right or not?
The tension is slowly built up and although we, readers, also suspect the lodger being the killer, we only get an answer at the end of this well-written book.

91. The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes (read in late 1941) I was in 8th grade and read The Album, by Mary Roberts Rinehart and thought it was so good that when my sister Colette, then just out of high school and in Omaha going to business school, asked me what I would like for my birthday I said a Mary Roberts Rinehart book. Instead she gave me this book and I read it and was enthusiastically enamored of it. The book was first published in 1913.

An Edwardian Thriller. The Buntings, a married couple retired from service, are down on their luck. While trying to preserve their "respectability" they have sold or pawned many of their clothes and furnishings. Just in the nick of time an eccentric gentleman chooses to rent 2 rooms from them at a generous rate. At about the same time a series of gruesome murders start happening, all the work of "The Avenger" (Jack the Ripper). The story continues as Mr and Mrs Bunting begin to suspect just who they might have let in their house as a lodger.
The story is well written, and atmospheric. Belloc Lowndes, the sister of Hillaire Belloc, is able to keep the suspense building until the very end. This story was recommended to Ernest Hemingway by Gertrude Stein, as he recounts in A Moveable Feast. I greatly enjoyed it.

I vaguely recall a movie based on this novel, but didn’t remember much of it at all. Basically it’s a riff on Jack the Ripper - what if he was your lodger? A couple living on their last shillings receive a reprieve from starvation and poverty when a gentleman lets the rooms on their upper floors. He has little baggage, strange hours, and most important of all, ready money. The pounds he pays for his room and board put them back on the road to financial security and all seems right in the world. Except the coincidence of his late-night excursions and reports of killings in the paper. At first the wife suspects that he may be the killer and tiptoes around him and her family, hoping that no one else notices what she has. How can they though? Friend and policeman Joe Chandler has never laid eyes on the man since his are reserved for Daisy alone. Bunting hardly interacts with the lodger at all and Mrs. Bunting has all the duties of caring for him sewn up. Until the night Bunting accidentally meets the lodger in the night fog of the neighborhood. Did he really have blood on his sleeve? Did he really throw away his rubber-soled boots after a footprint was printed in the paper? Did he really utter threats against the Buntings and the police? Is he the Avenger? It’s not as tense or gory as it sounds, but is pretty entertaining.

Read more: http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-08-10T14:47:00-07:00#i...½

Excellent, understated, psychological thriller. A middle aged couple is looking for lodgers to fill their rented accommodation, which they are finding difficult to maintain. They used to be servants for upper class families and are used to live in expensive houses and to take care of the wishes of their masters. They have used up all their savigns and are at an stage in which they are beginning to be hungry. Then, a peculiar gentleman decides to become their lodger and make their financial situation stable. His arrival coincides with the appearance, in the streets of London, of a serial killer who escapes detection. A young friend of the couple, a policeman, keeps the couple informed of the developments of the investigation and makes the landlady suspect that the lodger might not be the trustworthy gentleman that he appears to be. This is an excellent novel that keeps the reader wondering until the end. The characters are well drawn and the setting is quite atmospheric.

Anyone who has seen the old silent movie of "The Lodger" directed by Hitchcock will recognise the plot of this book. Young mysterious lodger boarding at home of elderly couple, "is he or isn't he the serial killer" (based on Jack the Ripper and set in Victorian London). Definitely worth a read, the novel focuses on the elderly couple and how much people are prepared to ignore dangerous clues when they have a rich lodger and need the money!

An intersting psychological twist on Jack the Ripper and his affect on two people who believe they are housing the serial killer known in the book as "The Avenger." The wife builds herself up into a mental frenzy almost from the beginning and the husband, slowly but with much more certainly towards the end of the book. Despite their strong suspicions and ongoing muders neither one reveals their fears to each other or anyone else. At the conclusion the wife and the lodger have an incident where he provides definite proof to her fears. I enjoyed it throughout and truly liked the dialogue the author brought of the mix of londoners during that time.

This is a charming, lightweight memoir by a prolific novelist of the early 20th century who now has been nearly forgotten. Her one remaining claim to fame is that she wrote "The Lodger", which was made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock early in his career, starring Ivor Novello.

Mrs. Belloc Lowndes was the sister of Hilaire Belloc, and her memoir is about setting up housekeeping in the Westminster section of London in the late 1890s when she married Frederick Lowndes, and descriptions of their neighbors, both prominent and little-known.

“… Miss Stein loaned me The Lodger, that marvelous story of Jack the Ripper and another book about murder a place outside Paris that could only be Enghien les Bains. They were both splendid after-work books, the people credible and the action and the terror never false. They were perfect for reading after you had worked and I read all the Mrs. Belloc Lowndes that there was. But there was only so much and none as good as the first two and I never found anything as good for that empty time of day or night until the first fine Simenon books came out.”
A Moveable Feast, pg. 27

England, London, ca 1910
Mr og Mrs Bunting har det hårdt økonomisk, så en logerende Mr Sleuth er velkommen, selv om han er lidt mærkelig. En af deres bekendte er ved politiet og holder dem detaljeret orienteret om en række mord begået af Hævneren. Ægteparret bliver mere og mere overbevist om at deres logerende er Hævneren, men hvad skal de gøre? Huslejepengene er jo gode nok. Faktisk er mr Sleuth den sindssyge morder, men han forsvinder ud af deres liv efter med held at have undgået at blive genkendt af politidirektøren i vokskabinettet.

Udmærket bog om et moralsk dilemma

2057 "I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia" by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes (read 26 Feb 1987) I first heard of this book in 1942 and was always intrigued by the title. It is a tale of the childhood of Hilaire Belloc's sister, Marie, and of their mother, who at age 38 met and married Louis Belloc in France. He died after five years of the marriage, and this book goes up to Nov. 6, 1881, when Louis' mother died. It is an idyllic book, though exciting in telling of the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of Paris--the family left Paris by the last train, else the children would surely have died. This has been a beautiful book to read.