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Bezig met laden... The Case of the Gilded Fly (Gervase Fen Mysteries) (origineel 1944; editie 2005)door Edmund Crispin (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkThe Case of the Gilded Fly door Edmund Crispin (1944)
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Very much of its time and place, I suppose. Lots and lots of pretentious "sparkling" dialog, oceans of alcohol, torrents of multi-syllabic Oxonian vocabulary. Not even very well-crafted: Fen knows within minutes who the murderer is, and the rest of the book stretches out interminably as he teases and hints, and in one place actually names the murderer to another character, but WE are not privy to what he says. Women are either sexual predators or desperately seeking, and not much else. Dated, tricksy, and mostly tedious. I won't read another. It took me 128 days to read this book. I can't say exactly why, as I enjoy Crispin's work - what I've read of it so far - but I started this on October 6th, put it down after about 5 chapters, and didn't pick it up again until earlier this week. Perhaps because it centres around the theater - a setting that doesn't do much for me at all - or maybe I just wasn't in the mood. This is the first Fen mystery, and I suspect that's part of what I found tedious, along with the setting. I was also annoyed with Fen saying, at the half way mark, that he knew who the murderer was; as soon as he said that, all I could think was 'why do I have to read as many pages again before I find out?' But I loved the way Crispin sort of did a Jasper Fforde with this book (and yes, I realise it's properly Jasper Fforde doing a Crispin with his Tuesday Next books, but go with it, please). The characters all have an awareness that they are, in fact, fictional characters living within the confines of the story, and the small asides that let the reader in on this knowledge are often subtle, but they always made me smile when I came across them. I've thoroughly enjoyed Crispin's sly humor in his other books and this one was no different, but I do think this might have made a better short story than a full-length novel. Una joven y temperamental actriz, a quien la totalidad de su compañía teatral detesta, muere asesinada en Oxford, en extrañas circunstancias, durante los ensayosde una nueva obra. Afortunadamente para la policía el crimen ocurre en la propia Facultad donde Gervase y Fen, hombre de letras y detective aficionado, imparte su enseñanza. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de reeks(en)Gervase Fen (1) Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)Adey's Locked Room Murders (0532) DuMont's Kriminal-Bibliothek (1080) Erelijsten
The very first case for Oxford-based sleuth Gervase Fen, one of the last of the great Golden Age detectives. As inventive as Agatha Christie, as hilarious as P.G. Wodehouse, this is the perfect entry point to discover the delightful detective stories of Edmund Crispin - crime fiction at its quirkiest and best. A pretty but spiteful young actress with a talent for destroying men's lives is found dead in a college room just yards from the office of the unconventional Oxford don Gervase Fen. Anyone who knew the girl would gladly have shot her, but can Fen discover who did shoot her, and why? Published during the Second World War, The Case of the Gilded Fly introduced English professor and would-be detective Gervase Fen, one of crime fiction's most irrepressible and popular sleuths. A classic locked-room mystery filled with witty literary allusions, it was the debut of 'a new writer who calls himself Edmund Crispin' (in reality the choral and film composer Bruce Montgomery), later described by The Times as 'One of the last exponents of the classical English detective story . . . elegant, literate, and funny.' This Detective Story Club classic is introduced by Douglas G. Greene, who reveals how Montgomery's ambition to emulate John Dickson Carr resulted in a string of successful and distinctive Golden Age detective novels and an invitation from Carr himself to join the exclusive Detection Club. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.912Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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L'inizio è promettente perchè riesce a presentarci i personaggi e l'ambiente in cui si muovono in maniera brillante e scanzonata, non solo evitando il rischio "spiegone" ma addirittura riuscendo a creare un po' di suspense. Poi pian piano la storia perde mordente e si trascina in giri a vuoto, fino ad arrivare ad un finale francamente debolissimo: peccato perché di solito nei mystery si va in crescendo e si punta tutto sul climax, se non funziona quello ne risente il giudizio sull'intera opera. Il problema è che se crei un detective talmente geniale che risolve il caso tre minuti dopo essere arrivato sulla scena (cito testualmente), poi devi essere molto bravo a giustificare il motivo per cui il libro vada avanti per un altro centinaio di pagine e Crispin evidentemente non ce l'ha fatta, si è perso in lungaggini e minuzie. Per fortuna lo stile arguto e l'ironia garbata la rendono una lettura comunque piacevole.
In conclusione un amante dei gialli vecchio stile qui troverà un dignitoso esponente della categoria, personalmente lo ritengo l'ennesimo esempio del perché fra le miriadi di giallisti fioriti nella prima metà del '900 in Inghilterra solo Agatha Christie abbia superato brillantemente la prova del tempo. ( )