Strong Poison
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| Strong Poison | |
 Cover of BBC video version |
|
| Author | Dorothy L. Sayers |
|---|---|
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Lord Peter Wimsey |
| Genre(s) | Mystery Novel |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
| Publication date | 1931 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club |
| Followed by | Five Red Herrings |
Strong Poison is a 1931 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her fifth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
It is in Strong Poison that Lord Peter first meets Harriet Vane, an author of detective fiction. The immediate problem is that she is on trial for her life, charged with murdering her former lover — if Lord Peter does not prove she is innocent, he will lose her before he even persuades her to accept his proposal of marriage. But all the clues point to Harriet as the one who gave Philip Boyes the arsenic that killed him.
[edit] Explanation of the novel's title
The title is derived from a phrase in some variants of the ballad Lord Randall, where the title character was poisoned by his lover.
[edit] Plot summary
Boyes was a novelist and essayist who wrote in support of atheism, anarchy, and free love. Professing to disapprove of marriage, he persuaded a reluctant Harriet to live with him against her principles and they led a Bohemian life in the London art community. A year later he proposed, and Harriet, outraged at being deceived into giving up her public honour, broke off the relationship. During the year that followed, Boyes suffered from repeated bouts of gastric illness, while Harriet had bought several poisons under assumed names to test a plot point of her novel then in progress. Having returned from a holiday in North Wales in better health, Boyes dined with his cousin, the solicitor Norman Urquhart, before going to Harriet's flat to discuss reconciliation. That evening he was taken fatally ill, apparently with gastritis. He died four days later after an agonising period of suffering.
Although it is assumed that Boyes died of natural causes, an indiscreet nurse and some of Boyes' friends insist that foul play is involved. A post-mortem reveals that Boyes' death was due to acute arsenic poisoning. Apart from the evening meal with his cousin, where every item was shared by two or more people, the only opportunity for poison to be administered appears to be in a cup of coffee, offered by Harriet Vane. Appearances are against Harriet and she is charged with Boyes' murder.
Harriet is tried, but the result is a "hung" jury. Wimsey's researcher, Miss Climpson, is one of the jury. She refuses to believe in Harriet's guilt and stoutly results bullying by the foreman. She is supported by two other members who believe it more likely that Boyes committed suicide. With fewer than ten of the jury agreeing on a verdict, the judge must order a fresh trial to be held.
Wimsey visits Harriet in prison, declares his conviction of her innocence, and promises to catch the real murderer. In the course of the interview he also openly admits his intention of marrying her, an offer which she politely but firmly declines. Working against time before the new trial, Wimsey first explores the notion that Boyes did indeed take his own life. Detective Inspector Charles Parker conclusively disproves this notion, but Wimsey has planted a spy in Urquhart’s office, and discovers the real culprit is Urquhart. Misusing his position as his own family's solicitor, he embezzled the considerable fortune of his and Boyes' elderly great-aunt, and subsequently lost the money on the stock market. Urquhart knew that if his aunt died, he would be exposed. Boyes, however, was unaware that he was heir to the money, and at his death Urqhart would inherit and the fraud would not be revealed.
Wimsey sends another investigator to get hold of the great-aunt’s will, which she does in a comic scene exposing the practices of fraudulent mediums. He discovers why and how the murder was done (Urquhart laced an omelette with arsenic and shared it with Boyes, having built an immunity to the poison with small doses over a long period) and tricks him into an admission before witnesses.
At her retrial the prosecution presents no case and Harriet is set free. Exhausted by her ordeal, she again rejects Wimsey’s proposal of marriage.
It is also in this novel that Peter convinces his friend, Detective Inspector Charles Parker, to finally propose to Peter's sister, Mary.
[edit] Characters
- Lord Peter Wimsey – protagonist, nobleman and amateur detective
- Harriet Vane – protagonist, author of detective fiction
- Philip Boyes – Harriet's former lover, now deceased
- Norman Urquhart – Solicitor and Boyes' cousin
- Rosanna Wrayburn, aka Cremorna Garden – great-aunt of Boyes and Urqhart, sometime stage performer, now senile and bedridden
- Charles Parker – police detective; Wimsey's brother-in-law
- Miss Katharine Climpson – spinster and enquiry agent on Wimsey's behalf
- Miss Murchison – typist and employee of Miss Climpson
[edit] Literary significance and criticism
"... highest among the masterpieces. It has the strongest possible element of suspense -- curiosity and the feeling one shares with Wimsey for Harriet Vane. The clues, the enigma, the free-love question, and the order of telling could not be improved upon. As for the somber opening, with the judge's comments on how to make an omelet, it is sheer genius."[1]
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Strong Poison was adapted for television in 1987 as part of a series starring Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter and Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane.
[edit] Relation to earlier books
"Strong Poison" constitutes an exact mirror image of "Unnatural Death", published four years before. In the earlier book, Wimsey encounters the case of a woman who inherited money after a death which was ruled "natural" and - against all odds - works relentlessly throughout the book to prove her a murderess. In "Strong Poison" he encounters the case of a woman who is on trial for murder with an apprently watertight case against her and - again against all odds - works relentlessly throughout the book to prove her innocent.
There are several more clear similarities between the two books. In both, the culprit's identity is obvious from early on, but Wimsey has to work hard to discover the motive and means. Moreover, in both the motive turns out to be the inheritnace of a considerable sum of money, but in both it at first seems that there was no need to commit murder since the culprit stood to get the money anyway - and the bulk of both books is spent in finding out why this was in fact not so.
[edit] References
- ^ Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. A Catalogue of Crime. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. ISBN 0-06-015796-8
