The Thousandth Woman by E. W. Hornung
May. 19th, 2021 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeE. W. Hornung's last novel! After nearly three years, the read-through is drawing towards its close...
And The Thousandth Woman (1913) is a fitting one to go last, because it's absolutely typical of E. W. Hornung in several of the best ways. We have crime, adventure, romance, Australia, the Thames Valley, a plucky and dauntless heroine, a twisting plot, gorgeous prose and plenty else besides.
The book opens upon a scene familiar to Raffles readers: a German liner sailing from Italy to England. Our hero, Walter 'Sweep' Cazalet, has been out in Australia for ten years after a disastrous crash ruined his family's stockbroking firm, and we meet him telling the story to a colourful yet shrewd American named Hilton Toye. We hear about Henry Craven, the unscrupulous partner who caused the crash for his own gain; Scruton, his instrument, who went to prison for his part in the affair while Craven walked free; and Blanche Macnair, the childhood friend of Cazalet whom Toye also knows and admires. But Cazalet returns to England to discover that Craven, who lived in Cazalet's old family home up the Thames, has just been murdered. Toye, intrigued by the affair, decides to play detective—but all is not quite what it seems...
The title is a reference to the Kipling poem The Thousandth Man; in a pivotal scene Cazalet and Blanche read the poem, and he declares that she is the thousandth woman. The exact reason for this is a spoiler, so I won't go into detail, but rest assured that she's as good a leading lady as Hornung ever wrote, and although the het 'childhood best friends to lovers' story is not really my thing, I nevertheless liked the relationship between Blanche and Cazalet. Hornung does his restrained emotional meaning thing very well in their reunion after Cazalet's ten years in Australia, and there's an amazing sequence later on where they have 'the week of their lives' travelling round London and the country in a motor-car together under rather fraught circumstances. It's also (perhaps, in light of Hornung's mixture of conventional romances and, well, *gestures at Raffles stories* not) interesting how often their relationship is explicitly compared to one between two men—besides the gender-swapped title reference, Cazalet's behaviour towards Blanche is several times described as being the same as how he'd treat a man.
Cazalet's return to England after ten years in Australia also provides a great opportunity for something I've mentioned before in reviewing Hornung's later books: conveying a sense of time passing and historical change. When Cazalet first arrives, there's a brilliant sequence describing all the changes in London since he left, particularly the superseding of horses by motor-cars; new technology, fashions and social trends are all conspicuous in the setting, and there are multiple references to 'Victorian' things as belonging to a specific and past historical period. (The emphasis on Cazalet's unpatriotism for sailing on a German liner also seemed rather significant for a book published in 1913—although there is a similar line in one of the Raffles stories). Suffice it to say that Hornung, when it comes to Progress and the Future, is not, e.g., E. M. Forster... It's a fascinating little bit of historical perspective—and made me feel quite wistful for what might have been if Hornung had lived longer and been able to write in even later periods.
Then there's the twisty and dramatic plot, also as much fun as Hornung's plots usually are. I did think—it's a fairly short book—there were a few things that could have done with a bit more time spent on them, and I don't think I was supposed to find Toye quite as off-putting as I did find him, but on the whole I enjoyed the swerves and complications as the mystery of the murder is unravelled. The themes of crime and punishment, revenge, loyalty and friendship will be familiar to fans of the Raffles stories, certainly.
And now there are just three short story collections left to go! I'm especially looking forward to the next one, Witching Hill, which seems to be one of the more popular non-Raffles books by Hornung, and an interesting departure from his usual style...
And The Thousandth Woman (1913) is a fitting one to go last, because it's absolutely typical of E. W. Hornung in several of the best ways. We have crime, adventure, romance, Australia, the Thames Valley, a plucky and dauntless heroine, a twisting plot, gorgeous prose and plenty else besides.
The book opens upon a scene familiar to Raffles readers: a German liner sailing from Italy to England. Our hero, Walter 'Sweep' Cazalet, has been out in Australia for ten years after a disastrous crash ruined his family's stockbroking firm, and we meet him telling the story to a colourful yet shrewd American named Hilton Toye. We hear about Henry Craven, the unscrupulous partner who caused the crash for his own gain; Scruton, his instrument, who went to prison for his part in the affair while Craven walked free; and Blanche Macnair, the childhood friend of Cazalet whom Toye also knows and admires. But Cazalet returns to England to discover that Craven, who lived in Cazalet's old family home up the Thames, has just been murdered. Toye, intrigued by the affair, decides to play detective—but all is not quite what it seems...
The title is a reference to the Kipling poem The Thousandth Man; in a pivotal scene Cazalet and Blanche read the poem, and he declares that she is the thousandth woman. The exact reason for this is a spoiler, so I won't go into detail, but rest assured that she's as good a leading lady as Hornung ever wrote, and although the het 'childhood best friends to lovers' story is not really my thing, I nevertheless liked the relationship between Blanche and Cazalet. Hornung does his restrained emotional meaning thing very well in their reunion after Cazalet's ten years in Australia, and there's an amazing sequence later on where they have 'the week of their lives' travelling round London and the country in a motor-car together under rather fraught circumstances. It's also (perhaps, in light of Hornung's mixture of conventional romances and, well, *gestures at Raffles stories* not) interesting how often their relationship is explicitly compared to one between two men—besides the gender-swapped title reference, Cazalet's behaviour towards Blanche is several times described as being the same as how he'd treat a man.
Cazalet's return to England after ten years in Australia also provides a great opportunity for something I've mentioned before in reviewing Hornung's later books: conveying a sense of time passing and historical change. When Cazalet first arrives, there's a brilliant sequence describing all the changes in London since he left, particularly the superseding of horses by motor-cars; new technology, fashions and social trends are all conspicuous in the setting, and there are multiple references to 'Victorian' things as belonging to a specific and past historical period. (The emphasis on Cazalet's unpatriotism for sailing on a German liner also seemed rather significant for a book published in 1913—although there is a similar line in one of the Raffles stories). Suffice it to say that Hornung, when it comes to Progress and the Future, is not, e.g., E. M. Forster... It's a fascinating little bit of historical perspective—and made me feel quite wistful for what might have been if Hornung had lived longer and been able to write in even later periods.
Then there's the twisty and dramatic plot, also as much fun as Hornung's plots usually are. I did think—it's a fairly short book—there were a few things that could have done with a bit more time spent on them, and I don't think I was supposed to find Toye quite as off-putting as I did find him, but on the whole I enjoyed the swerves and complications as the mystery of the murder is unravelled. The themes of crime and punishment, revenge, loyalty and friendship will be familiar to fans of the Raffles stories, certainly.
And now there are just three short story collections left to go! I'm especially looking forward to the next one, Witching Hill, which seems to be one of the more popular non-Raffles books by Hornung, and an interesting departure from his usual style...
no subject
Date: May. 23rd, 2021 09:15 am (UTC)I always love reading your book reviews here - now I can comment on them, too!
I haven't read too many of Hornung's non-Raffles stories, yet (only Youngblood, Peccavi, and Fathers of Men), but they all sound really interesting, and (perhaps?) with thematic and detail-ish similarities, even when the plots themselves vary. I look forward to reading this one, and the others - even more so after reading your reviews :D
What jumped out at me here was the use of the name "Scruton" for one of The Baddies (right??) - in Youngblood, isn't the really horrible chap named Scrafton? I wonder if there was a reason Hornung used that same Scr..ton formulation for characters we aren't meant to like? Assuming, of course, that Scruton in this is such a character.
Hornung's romances are so interesting, aren't they?? It always struck me in Youngblood just how much Harry and Fanny's relationship is completely predicated on their friendship, and that the "romantic" elements of it came later, and really seemed to play second fiddle to their friendship; or, rather, was a nice but subordinate addition to a relationship which already had a great deal of value. At least as I read it, anyway, haha! And then, as you say, when you take that sort of construction in his socially acceptable heterosexual relationships and then look at Raffles and Bunny, or Gwynneth and Ella... I also find all of that quite interesting in light of that quote from one of Doyle's letters to his mother about Hornung and his reaction to Doyle and Jean Leckie, with Doyle protesting that his and Jean's relationship was platonic, and Hornung saying he didn't see how that made any difference. There is something deeply interesting within all of that, but I've yet to precisely put my finger on it, ahhaha.
Well, in any case, it is precisely that relationship dynamic that I LOVE in Hornung's writing, and the way he seems to write significant relationships between men and women as little or no different to significant relationships between men and men and women and women. There may even be further points of interest to tease out there, when we draw Bunny's gender-non-conformity into the equation, too (in The Rest Cure, of course, but not only there - Bunny referring to himself as Andromeda, and the scattering of other times he is likened to women or feminine traits, like [off the top of my head] the Sister Anne thing in Wilful Murder - but I am certain there are others).
And yeah, with this gender-swapped title from the Kipling poem here, and if Cazalet explicitly treats Blanche as he would treat a man, would seem to fit that apparent pattern...
INTERESTING STUFF! This one is already on my To Read list, of course, along with all of Hornung's works, but it was extremely interesting to read your thoughts on it, and now when I get around to reading it (God, whenever that will be. Why are there so many books in the world??) I will bear these things in mind :D
...This was a very rambley and disjointed comment, sorry. And my first ever anything on DreamWidth! ...Bodes well, huh? XD
Wolfie <3
no subject
Date: May. 23rd, 2021 11:03 am (UTC)Reading all Hornung's books in order has been so, so interesting for getting to see the plot and thematic similarities between them, and between the Raffles stories and the rest. There are plenty (I shall make a bingo card when I've finished!), and I think it gives greater insight into the Raffles stories as well.
That is a good point about the similarity of names! Although the extent to which Scruton is a bad guy is... complicated (spoilery details, I'm afraid—but he's another example of Hornung exploring the complexities of crime and criminals, I think, which is also something he does a lot in various different ways).
There is something deeply interesting within all of that, but I've yet to precisely put my finger on it, ahhaha.
This whole paragraph is very interesting—thanks for your thoughts! I'm not a great fan of most of Hornung's het romances—they're fine, certainly not actively bad, but I think I tend to feel that I'd prefer them if they stayed as friendships. But yes, what that sort of thing says about how Hornung views and portrays gender is an interesting theme. I think much of his writing really gives a strong sense of men and women as equals on a basic human level, despite the rules of the society his stories are set in—and that obviously ties in with his portrayals of sexuality and romantic relationships, and how that differs from more conventional romances of the time. Good stuff!
Why are there so many books in the world??
Why indeed :D Well, I'm glad you enjoyed the review, and I hope you like this book whenever you do get round to reading it!
And my first ever anything on DreamWidth! ...Bodes well, huh? XD
Absolutely :D