Richard Arkwright’s
second novel The Queen Anne’s Gate
Mystery is a carefully plotted murder mystery with a married couple doing
the detective work. The first person narrator George Pen Owen begins the story
describing his idyllic boyhood days spent with his best friend Harry
Collingwood, days seemingly filled with vigorous destruction of the local
wildlife: killing crows and sparrows; hunting foxes, rats and moths, ferretting
and, fishing (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery,
Vol. 1, Chapter 1). George displays the odd (to modern eyes) but common
Victorian mixture of admiration for the natural world and eagerness to butcher
it:
“An enthusiastic collector of
nature's treasures, I was thus able to add many a rare and novel specimen to my
fernery, my store of butterflies, and my display of stuffed birds. I shall
never forget my first sight of the Osmunda
Regalis.” (Ibid.)
 |
| Osmunda Regalis, Source: Wikipedia |
The inspired
descriptions of Monmouthshire (George’s home) and the Fenlands (Harry’s home) in
the opening chapter may have been inspired by Arkwright’s own life. There are
other autobiographical echoes. Arkwright, like George and Harry, was educated
at Harrow and Cambridge (Ibid.).
Arkwright worked as a barrister in Monmouthshire. Harry Collingwood becomes “a
handsome and attractive barrister … on the high road to professional
distinction.” (The Queen Anne’s Gate
Mystery, Vol. 1, Chapter 2) The most interesting similarity is George’s
aristocratic marriage to “Lady Geraldine St. Pierre, only daughter of the
Marquis of Stoneyhurst.” (The Queen
Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 1, Chapter 1). The prominent role Geraldine takes
in the murder investigation makes me wonder if Richard Arkwright modelled her
character on his own wife, Lady Mary Caroline Charlotte Byng, daughter of the
Earl of Stratford.
While George’s
marriage to Geraldine is a happy one, Harry Collingwood is not so lucky. Harry
marries Jessie Clark, from the neighbourhood of George’s Monmouthshire home. The marriage quickly turns sour. One evening, at a dinner table in front of
George, she “threw off all restraint, and conducted herself with a violence of
manner and language which was inexpressibly painful to witness.” (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 1, Chapter
3) Harry breaks down and tells George: “that the experience of his
married life had been miserable almost beyond endurance.” (Ibid.).
How can George help his best mate Harry to escape this terrible prison of a broken-down
marriage? The solution arrives in the very next chapter: George is called back
from a fishing trip to the Tweed by a telegram: “He is in custody on a charge
of murdering his wife! Come at once!” (The
Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 1, Chapter 4) George rushes back to London
to hear “the main facts of the case … Jessie had been poisoned by strychnine,
conveyed in a glass of orangeade, which Harry had given her himself in her
bedroom.” (Ibid.) Strychnine
particles are found in Harry’s writing desk, and he also left the house for
several hours during the night in question, refusing to explain the reason for
this (Ibid.).
Lady Geraldine
and George are determined to prove Harry’s innocence. They hire a private
detective Mr Sleuthson to help them (The
Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol 2, Chapter 2). Arkwright uses the legal process to give
structure and a sense of urgency to the plot. To begin the investigation of the
murder mystery, an inquest at the “Westminster Police Court” presents us with all the
known facts; all the servants of the household, and medical experts are
interviewed. Later, at “the Central
Criminal Court,” Harry is tried for “wilful murder” (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2, Chapter 3). Here Arkwright
takes the opportunity to complain about a well-noted phenomenon of the age: the
courtroom was
“polluted by the
presence of a row of women – women of gentle birth and breeding – who now, in
their thirst for ab excitement which must be gratified at any cost, had seated
themselves, with their fans and scent-bottles, even with their opera-glasses
and refreshments, to watch the proceedings in the Sensational Trial of the
season.” (Ibid.)
When the
“Guilty!” verdict is pronounced, only one of these women faints with shock. George’s
view on this can be seen as a (tongue-in-cheek?) comment on sensation novels
like the one in which he himself appears:
“I heard long
afterwards that this gracious exception among the group of unmoved spectators
was no less a person than Mrs Alldon, the celebrated novelist. She alone, in
virtue of her profession, could claim a justification for her presence in
court, and she by her conduct demonstrated how far the real tragedies acted
among us, in their awful routine, surpass in horror the wildest conceptions of
imagination.” (Ibid.)
After the verdict, Harry’s
day of execution is set for “the second Monday in May” (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2, Chapter 4). Now the clock
starts running in earnest and tension grows. Will Geraldine and George be able
to save Harry’s life? And if Harry did not kill his wife, who did?
Lady Geraldine
is the brains of the operation. George is Watson to her Holmes. Throughout
their investigation, Lady Geraldine decides what steps to take (for example The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2,
Chapters 1, 2, 5,12, 14). She examines the evidence, including analysing
handwriting with a magnifying glass (The
Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2, Chapter 5). She interviews witnesses
from all social classes winning their trust (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2, Chapter 1). Geraldine has all
the ideas and theories, and she explains them to George (for example, The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2, Chapters 1, 5). She even
talks like a detective (or a barrister): “That fact is established as far as
human testimony goes. Beyond it, the explanation which I suggested just now
rests entirely on circumstancial evidence.” (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2 Chapter 1)
When it becomes
necessary for someone to travel to New York to capture a key witness and
possible suspect, George is left home and Geraldine travels across the Atlantic
accompanied by her lady’s maid and Mr Sleuthson. She
conducts the most delicate part of the murder investigation on her own (The
Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2, Chapters 11 and 12). Later, she appears
in court to give evidence (The Queen
Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2, Chapter 14).
Lady Geraldine
is an unusual character: an aristocratic lady who takes an active lead as an
amateur detective breaking a number of social conventions. She is a female
detective with a supporting and admiring husband in awe of her intellect and
social acumen.
George narrates Lady
Geraldine’s adventure. He expresses his admiration for her “determination and
confidence” (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery,
Vol. 2, Chapter 7), “the powers of persuasion and discreet investigation with
which Geraldine was endowed.” (The Queen
Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2, Chapter 4) He describes the “rapidity with
which she weighed the merits of the various stratagems which instantly occurred
to her” (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery,
Vol. 2, Chapter 11). George reveals his inferiority to
Geraldine’s detective prowess by his questions and inability to follow her:
“George … You don’t understand! … You don’t notice what I mean.” (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2,
Chapter 4, see also Vol. 2, Chapter 5).
Only once (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 2,
Chapter 12) does Geraldine experience self-doubt. Alone in New York,
she has to extract a crucial piece of evidence and thereby potentially
incriminate “a sick and helpless woman”: “With her eyes fixed on the goal of
her ambition … Geraldine had overlooked the nature of some of the steps which
she had taken in the course of her pursuit.” (Ibid.). But the threat of the arrival of the police compels her to
proceed: “She fancied the wretched girl already in the custody of the
police, and exposed to rough handling and cruel questioning.” (Ibid.)
Despite the opposition of professional men (a medical doctor and a
private detective) Geraldine is adamant that the delicate situation is best
handled by herself (Ibid.)
George, like the
George of Driven Home, is a young
gentleman with an interest in sports. He is also “peculiarly sensitive to any
mental strain.” (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery,
Vol. 1, Chapter 4). Receiving the news of Harry’s predicaments, George is “in a
condition rather to receive than to offer comfort and assistance.” (Ibid.). Falling asleep in Harry’s study,
he has a vivid nightmare of Harry performing a magic lantern show of Edgar
Allan Poe’s horror stories. This leads him to discover a clue in Harry’s
desk: a love-charm written in invisible ink (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 1, Chapter 7).
This love-charm
becomes the central clue to the mystery. The
Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery is very much about women's ambitions and
desires. Lady Geraldine takes it upon herself to prove Harry’s innocence. Her
investigation starts from the doomed marriage of Jessie Clark and Harry
Collingwood and leads her to the working-class love story of Sabrina Reed and
Handsome Hugh. Lady Geraldine is by far the smartest and most capable of the characters,
but beyond her solid belief in Harry’s innocence, she does not have much
emotional depth. Instead, the women of the lower social classes, Nanny Price,
Sabrina Reed, Bridget O’Hara, Charlotte Sims and, to an extent, even poor
Jessie Collingwood née Clark, provide the emotional colour of the narrative.
They succumb to hysterics, feel burning jealousy and desperate love; they have
ambitions both professional and social. They also provide moments of slightly
patronizing humour. Nanny Price, the village witch, gives a lively courtroom
performance (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery,
Vol. 2, Chapter 14). Charlotte Sims, the housemaid elevated to a position of a
lady’s maid by Lady Geraldine, dreams of a career as a romantic heroine when
she is asked to help in the investigation:
“The chief
recreation in Charlotte’s previous existence had been the study of sensational
literature; her most cherished aspiration, that she herself might become the
leading spirit in some deed of mystery or daring . . now – could the wildest
conceptions of the mot imaginative reader of romances have evolved a situation
more desirable?” (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery,
Vol. 2, Chapter 11)
Geraldine and
George’s marriage is in stark contrast to that of Harry and Jessie Collingwood.
Jessie shows no regard for her husband and lacks social skills. Geraldine, on
the other hand, is obviously intellectually superior to her husband and has
great social skills. It is worth noting that Jessie grew up in “the position of
a poor relation” in an aristocratic household (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery Vol. 1, Chapter 2), while Lady
Geraldine was the only daughter of a Marquis (The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, Vol. 1, Chapter 1). Again, a
character from a lower social class provides the emotional turmoil and passion,
while the character from the higher social class retains a calm, rational appearance throughout.
In The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, the style
of writing is similar to the earlier Driven
Home and the protagonists (the two Georges) share characteristics. But there
are some marked differences which serve to illustrate the journey from
traditional melodrama to modern detective fiction.
Driven Home derives much of its drama from the
supernatural – the appearance of ghosts, an “irresistible power” (Driven Home, Chapter 7) that guides the
hero’s actions and his “unreasoning horror” (Driven Home, Chapter 9) for the villain. The suspense and drama in The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery is derived
from the suspicions of guilt (who committed the murder) and Lady Geraldine and
George’s desperate race against time to save their friend from the gallows.
There is no villain in The Queen Anne’s
Gate Mystery, instead there is a circle of suspects. The experience of both
the protagonist and the reader is changed by this. Feelings of suspicion and
uncertainty fluctuate between characters because there is no clear, stable
target for animosity and pursuit.
The plot of Driven Home progresses through
coincidences, the plot The Queen Anne’s
Gate progresses to a large extent through logical steps taken by the
detectives in their investigation. While George’s motivations in Driven Home are often irrational (blind
fear, supernatural persuasion), the actions of the amateur detectives in The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery are based
on rational reasoning.
Driven Home offers a series of revelations that
unveil the mystery. In The Queen Anne’s
Gate Mystery the early chapters are littered with clues whose significance becomes
clear towards the end of the story. Driven
Home is a series of more or less sensational surprises: each revelation is a
new piece of information. The Queen
Anne’s Gate Mystery is a series of more or less sensational realizations
when each clue falls into place to reveal the truth. In both novels, as typically in sensation novels, details are pregnant with meaning. In Driven Home, that meaning is exposed at
the moment the detail is discovered, in The
Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, the meaning is delayed; there is space for the
reader to wonder and hypothesize. The reading of Driven Home can proceed linearly, each revelation being a
new little burst of energy to propel the plot forward. The reading of The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery is more
demanding, because each clue, provided it is spotted by the reader in the first
place, complicates the story and adds ‘narrative drag’ as the reader has to
consider all the potential meanings of the clue within the framework of the
continuing story.
Although written
only three years apart (1886 and 1889) Driven
Home and The Queen Anne’s Gate
Mystery offer distinctly different reading experiences. They are both
engaging and full of sensation.
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