a Case for the Misses Leavenworth

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detective novels, mysteries- I love them. I've read some or all of titles of Poe, Wilkie Collins , Arthur Conan Doyle Gaston Leroux and of course Agatha Christie & Dorothy Sayers.  To think I had until just this moment missed "the Mother of the Detective Story," Anna Katharine Green- pains me. I have remedied that and if you have had the same fate I suggest The Leavenworth Case.

It seems Anna Katharine introduced her ongoing series of  stories with Detective Ebenezer Gryce solving murders a full nine years be for Conan Doyle did his Sherlock novels.  Fortunately Detective Gryce has help from a gentleman-Raymond- who can traverse the intrigues of New York society where Gryce can not. Gouty Gryce is likeable, but Raymond is more intriguing and it is from his point of view the murder of a distinguished Mr. Leavenworth and the subsequent evidence that is piling up at the door of one of his two nieces. Both Mary & Eleanore are great beauties & the deeper Mr, Raymond delves into the crime the more he becomes emotionally entangled with both the women.

I can't fault  Green's style-a bit stilted- but some how suggestive of Edith Wharton, I was caught up in the plot rather quickly . Perhaps it is the era Green sets her Case in but I couldn't help think of Wharton & the heroines in her novels-trapped by society's dictates with little to recourse but a successful marriage. Green, a Brooklyn native and the daughter of a criminal attorney, published The Leavenworth Case in 1878.  Green married Charles Rohlfs,  an internationally known furniture designer in 1884.  She went on to publish mysteries with female sleuths-a  society spinster Amelia Butterworth, said to be the prototype for Miss Marple & Violet Strange, debutante leading a secret life as a sleuth.
I have to read these of course- I've got a case.

the romantic langour of Albert Joseph Moore's paintings seem to capture the mood of Mr. Raymond as he falls deeper and deeper under the spell of the two cousins.

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the Mysteries of UDOLPHO, The Players Part I

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Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, written in 1794, is an integral part of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. Austen's blurring of the lines in her mock Gothic novel with Udolpho's plot is one of the many devices Austen calls upon in her novels to lure her devoted readers into the Austen web of literature.

I was lured. The Mysteries of Udolpho is a must read for any curious student of Austen.You will not be treading lightly though-dearest, but your efforts will be rewarded. Poe and Sade read Udolpho too, so there are a multitude insights  and influences to be discovered. The beautiful orphaned Emily St Aubert is imprisoned by her guardian Count Montoni. The Count schemes to sell the lady to the highest bidder. The Count's remote castle in the Apennines is the setting for much of the novel and darling Emily finds 'her present life...like the dream of a distempered imagination, or like one of those frightful fictions, in which the wild genius of the poets sometimes delighted. Reflection brought only regret, and anticipation terror.

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Kazakh model, Ruslana Korshunova ,

who fell to her death a few years ago.

image from here

the players

 

EMILY

a well read and Virtuous Beauty

The death of Emily's beloved father, triggers a series of events that destroy the Emily's cloistered world.

Manchon came running, and barking before her...

The dog still fawned and ran around her,

and then flew towards the carriage...

'Manchon's gone to look for him,' Emily sobbed aloud;

and, on looking towards the carriage,

which still stood with the door open,

saw the animal spring into it.

The dog now came running to Emily, 

then to the carriage, and then back again to her,

whining an discontented.

'Poor rogue!... thou hast lost thy master,

thou mayst well cry!'

"Lady Emily" by Sofonisba

Saint Aubert

 Bronzino here

 Madame Chevron: 

Emily's vain and selfish aunt is seduced by and marries Count Montini.

by Sofonisba Anguissola

Count Monrano

Emily's Venetian suitor

Titian

Count Montini

Radcliffe's Gothic Villian

by Sofonisba

Valancourt

dashing suitor to Emily, friend to Emily's deceased father Saint Aubert.

Her heart, as it gave her back the image of Valancourt, 

mourned in vain regret, but reason soon came with a consolation,
which, though feeble at first,acquired vigour from reflection. 
She considered, that, whatever might be her sufferings, 
she had withheld from involving him in misfortune, 
and that, whatever her future sorrows could be, 

she was, at least, free from self-reproach.

Giovanni Morini here

UDOLPHO, The Castle, Part II, next week

more about SOFONISBA here
image 1 from raucousroyals here
image 2 the Appinines from wikipedia
all Sofonisba images from here

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