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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 10, Spring 1946
Page 252
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252 FANTASY COMMENTATOR CARR, John Dickson The Burning Court New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937. 304pp. 19 1/2 cm. $2.00 London: Hamish Hamilton, 1937. 318pp. 19 cm. 7/6. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1938. 318pp. 19 cm. 3/6. New York: Popular Library, no date (1944). 221pp. 16cm. 25c (paper covered) Synoptic review: I am fairly certain that Carr wrote The Burning Court as a satire on the detective story and the legal processes of "justice". No other reason for the fiendish manner in which he rips asunder a proposed perfect solution to murder and body-theft can be discerned. Yet the possibility that this is satire detracts neither from its interest nor its realism. The plot is rather simple, as murder mysteries go. An old man dies, apparently from natural causes. Poisoning is suspected by a relative when he finds traces of arsenic in the death chamber; but upon opening a sealed crypt for examination of the corpse, the latter has inexplicably disappeared. Meanwhile, the central character in the book, a reader for a publishing firm, brings home for weekend perusal a manuscript discussing famous murder trials of history. He discovers that a celebrated murderess of a century ago is identical in feature, maiden name and eccentricities with his wife. After that, matters become complicated; the police enter the picture, and the author of the manuscript himself arrives on the scene to work out the manner in which the victim could have been poisoned and the body stolen; seemingly supernatural effects which have been in evidence throughout are likewise explained, and assigned purely natural bases. Only in the final two pages does an occult raison d'etre triumph. Though such inferences are admittedly dangerous, it seems quite possible that this book influenced the novels Unknown Worlds magazine printed during its final year of existence. The device of placing bourgeois, respectable, intelligent men and women of the present time in close contact with the supernatural without removing them from their everyday life had not been done often until The Burning Court. Much would be explained if we could be sure that "Conjure Wife" and "The Strange Profession of Jonathon Hoag" had been written after perusal of Carr's work. The Burning Court achieves its effects remarkably well without the stock stage properties of the average weird tale. Judged as a detective story, it is cunningly contrived and easy reading---probably nine-tenths of its length is direct conversational quotation. Certainly there has never been anything quite like it for a combination of two apparently irreconcilable literary forms: the detective story, which depends on logic, and the fantasy, with its deus ex machina possibilities. ---Harry Warner, Jr. ---oOo--- This- 'n' -That---concluded from page 236 Chapman White (Viking, $2 1/2), whose plot hinges on the action of a magic coin that permitted its owner to be in two places at once. If you like tales of the supernatural, try a modern ghost novel, Sarah Mandrake, by Maggie-Owen Wadelton (Boobs-Merrill, $2 3/4). (The author's real name, incidentally, is Mrs. Maggie Jeanne (Melody) Wadelton.) Moralistic, and not as well written as his earlier novels, is C. S. Lewis' Great Divorce (Macmillan, $1 1/2) which relates of adventures in a spirit world where Heaven and Hell are distinct realities. The length of Richard Witter's article has resulted in the omission of "Forgotten Creators of Ghosts" and the shortening of "The Immortal Storm"; both will lengthened in our next number, however. See you then! --A.L.S.
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252 FANTASY COMMENTATOR CARR, John Dickson The Burning Court New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937. 304pp. 19 1/2 cm. $2.00 London: Hamish Hamilton, 1937. 318pp. 19 cm. 7/6. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1938. 318pp. 19 cm. 3/6. New York: Popular Library, no date (1944). 221pp. 16cm. 25c (paper covered) Synoptic review: I am fairly certain that Carr wrote The Burning Court as a satire on the detective story and the legal processes of "justice". No other reason for the fiendish manner in which he rips asunder a proposed perfect solution to murder and body-theft can be discerned. Yet the possibility that this is satire detracts neither from its interest nor its realism. The plot is rather simple, as murder mysteries go. An old man dies, apparently from natural causes. Poisoning is suspected by a relative when he finds traces of arsenic in the death chamber; but upon opening a sealed crypt for examination of the corpse, the latter has inexplicably disappeared. Meanwhile, the central character in the book, a reader for a publishing firm, brings home for weekend perusal a manuscript discussing famous murder trials of history. He discovers that a celebrated murderess of a century ago is identical in feature, maiden name and eccentricities with his wife. After that, matters become complicated; the police enter the picture, and the author of the manuscript himself arrives on the scene to work out the manner in which the victim could have been poisoned and the body stolen; seemingly supernatural effects which have been in evidence throughout are likewise explained, and assigned purely natural bases. Only in the final two pages does an occult raison d'etre triumph. Though such inferences are admittedly dangerous, it seems quite possible that this book influenced the novels Unknown Worlds magazine printed during its final year of existence. The device of placing bourgeois, respectable, intelligent men and women of the present time in close contact with the supernatural without removing them from their everyday life had not been done often until The Burning Court. Much would be explained if we could be sure that "Conjure Wife" and "The Strange Profession of Jonathon Hoag" had been written after perusal of Carr's work. The Burning Court achieves its effects remarkably well without the stock stage properties of the average weird tale. Judged as a detective story, it is cunningly contrived and easy reading---probably nine-tenths of its length is direct conversational quotation. Certainly there has never been anything quite like it for a combination of two apparently irreconcilable literary forms: the detective story, which depends on logic, and the fantasy, with its deus ex machina possibilities. ---Harry Warner, Jr. ---oOo--- This- 'n' -That---concluded from page 236 Chapman White (Viking, $2 1/2), whose plot hinges on the action of a magic coin that permitted its owner to be in two places at once. If you like tales of the supernatural, try a modern ghost novel, Sarah Mandrake, by Maggie-Owen Wadelton (Boobs-Merrill, $2 3/4). (The author's real name, incidentally, is Mrs. Maggie Jeanne (Melody) Wadelton.) Moralistic, and not as well written as his earlier novels, is C. S. Lewis' Great Divorce (Macmillan, $1 1/2) which relates of adventures in a spirit world where Heaven and Hell are distinct realities. The length of Richard Witter's article has resulted in the omission of "Forgotten Creators of Ghosts" and the shortening of "The Immortal Storm"; both will lengthened in our next number, however. See you then! --A.L.S.
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