‘The Man Born to Be King’

Extract

During the industrial depression of the early Thirties a certain man faced, through no fault of his own, bankruptcy. One of his acquaintances, until then not a particularly close friend, wrote to him saying : ‘Count upon my assistance to the full extent of my bank-balance.’

Until 1937 Miss Dorothy Sayers was known to the English-speaking world as one of the most brilliant of its writers of detective stories, that new form of the novel which will excite the interest of future literary commentators. They were extremely interesting novels as well as most ingenious detective problems that Miss Sayers wrote. The mysteries were really absorbing, the clues were fair game, the characterisation was realistic and covered a very wide range of human types, while the literature of the hemispheres was laid in tribute to add piquancy to the plot. A deeper strain was also present. Like the great majority of detective-stories, those by Miss Sayers were strongly moralistic; they proclaimed the necessity of a moral order and depicted in friendly terms the activities of those who maintain it. Clouds of Witness showed the devastating despair induced by a grande passion; The Documents in the Case was a fearful indictment of adultery; The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club revealed the appalling effects upon the soul of great scientific intelligence which does not bow down before the Creator of that which science investigates; Murder must Advertise was concerned with the drug traffic; Busman’s Honeymoon revealed the sordid effects of avarice, Strong Poison and Unnatural Death the corruption of the human character by sheer selfishness. The moral effect was the stronger because no one could be aware that it was being inculcated as they pursued the fascinating course of the detective story.