Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The Adventures of Romney Pringle

British author R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943) primarily wrote detective stories and is best known for his legal/forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke, using Freeman's early experiences as a colonial surgeon to help inspire and inform his work. That same military experience left Freeman a semi-invalid from malaria and blackwater fever but also gave him time to write.

For Freeman's first works, he used the pen name Clifford Ashdown and collaborated with Dr. John James Pitcairn, a medical officer at Holloway Prison. These were a series of stories published in such magazines as Cassell's that featured gentleman con man Romney Pringle. The Adventures of Romney Pringle from 1902 collected the first six cases of Pringle; first editions of this work are so rare today, Elizabeth Foxwell reported in 2009 that one sold for over $3,000 at Sotheby's (if you see a copy like the one to the right and it's a bargain, grab it.)
 
Freeman is credited with inventing the inverted detective story, where the identity of the criminal is shown from the beginning, demonstrated in some of the stories included in this volume:

"The Assyrian Rejuvenator"
"The Foreign Office Despatch"
"The Chicago Heiress"
"The Lizard's Sacle"
"The Paste Diamonds"
"The Kailyard Novel"

As Bob Schneider noted for GA Detection, Romney Pringle lives by his wits and keen observational powers, being a consummate student of human nature. The "gentleman" moniker is relevant to the handsome, charming Pringle because runs a pseudo literary agency, eschews violence and—when not participating in his criminal pastimes of patent medicine fraud, forgery or burglary—enjoys fine art, bicycling and boating. He's also a master of disguises and has skills that help him track down his prey, usually other criminals, including experience in chemistry and gemology.

Freeman had a detailed and personal knowledge of the backstreets of London, Highgate and Hampstead in the years prior to World War II, and his descriptions are one of the most charming aspects of his writing, counting no less than T.S. Eliot and Raymond Chandler as fans. There are criticisms, too, including Freeman's tendency to be repetitive in certain catch-phrases, dialogue, settings and character types, but such quibbles can be overlooked in the grander scheme of Freeman's storytelling.

One of Freeman's other well-known contributions is his essay "The Art of the Detective Story," included in  Detection Medley, book of essays published by the Detection Club in the UK in 1939. Freeeman is fairly critical of the standard of detective fiction writing in his day and includes such observations as the following, which seems as relevant now as it did over 70 years ago:

The rarity of good detective fiction is to be explained by a fact which appears to be little recognized either by critics or by authors; the fact, namely, that a completely executed detective story is a very difficult and highly technical work, a work demanding in its creator the union of qualities which, if not mutually antagonistic, are at least seldom met with united in a single individual. On the one hand, it is a work of imagination, demanding the creative, artistic faculty; on the other, it is a work of ratiocination, demanding the power of logical analysis and subtle and acute reasoning; and, added to these inherent qualities, there must be a somewhat extensive outfit of special knowledge. Evidence alike of the difficulty of the work and the failure to realize it is furnished by those occasional experiments of novelists of the orthodox kind which have been referred to, experiments which commonly fail by reason of a complete misunderstanding of the nature of the work and the qualities that it should possess.

Comments

[Richard R.]

It's always interesting to read these reviews, but frustrating when a book sounds interesting and is virtually unavailable and unaffordable. (grinds teeth)

[BV Lawson]

I agree, Richard! Even in this day and age of backlists as eBooks, there are many that just haven't been (and maybe won't be) made available any time soon. I'm fortunate to have a great public library. Don't forget interlibrary loan!

[Martin Edwards]

Very good choice - interesting book and notable writer.

[BV Lawson]

I'm surprised I hadn't come across these before, but they stand up quite well for something written over a century ago!