Subject: (urth) THE GOOD SOLDIER, John Sutherland, and ROGER ACKROYD

From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000 11:49:41 +0000

Michael Andre-Driussi wrote:

> "THE GOOD SOLDIER is, Eugene Goodheart claims, `one of the most puzzling
> works of modern fiction.' [snip]

It's been a long time since I've read THE GOOD SOLDIER (which mainstream
critics seem to regard as the ne plus ultra of unreliable narration),
and I haven't read any of the criticism referred to in the paragraph
mantis quoted, but my impression is that determining "what happened," as
opposed to the motives of the characters or how we should evaluate them,
is far more straightforward for THE GOOD SOLDIER than for PEACE.

> That's a long quote, but the article gets even better: the title of the
> piece is "Whose daughter is Nancy?" and it becomes something rather like
> our Doris enigma.  It is in a neat little paperback book (Dan'l and hello
> there Henry Kaiser, they have 'em at Half Price Books [which is a used
> bookstore chain based in Texas, Roy]) titled CAN JANE EYRE BE HAPPY? which
> is a sequel to IS HEATHCLIFF A MURDERER? GREAT PUZZLES IN 19TH-CENTURY
> FICTION.

I have IS HEATHCLIFF A MURDERER?  I actually did consider bringing it to
the lists attention earlier, but never got around to it.  It's of
interest to readers of this list, even aside from the specific books he
discusses, because Sutherland is one of the few mainstream critics who
asks the sorts of questions of his books that we ask of Wolfe.  His
general modus operandi is to spot a factual puzzle or apparent error or
inconsistency in a (usually) 19th-century novel, and to explain it
either by external factors or (as is usual on this list) by a closer
reading which solves the puzzle.

Another book which may be of interest to this list, for similar reasons,
is a recent book by Pierre Bayard entitled WHO KILLED ROGER ACKROYD? THE
MYSTERY BEHIND THE AGATHA CHRISTIE MYSTERY.  Not only does Bayard give
the classic mystery novel THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD a lupine reading,
by claiming that the true murderer is not the murderer the book
ostensibly identifies (and he advocates giving a similar treatment to
various literary classics); he has an interesting discussion, with
typology, of the ways in which authors can conceal the "truth" from
their readers.

(Warning: Bayard's book necessarily reveals the (ostensible) murderer in
Christie's mystery; but so does the book's back cover.  So if you
haven't read Christie's book and you don't want the mystery spoiled,
keep away.)

--Adam

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/