strange and random happenstance: Scrooge

Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer
Published by: Arrow
Publication Date: 1941
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Joseph Herriard wants a real English Christmas. With family, friends, and figgy pudding. After years abroad treading the boards he's returned home to Lexham Manor and his older brother Nat. While Joseph embodies the spirit of Christmas his brother embodies that of Ebenezer Scrooge. Needless to say, Nathaniel is not thrilled with having people descend on his home for the holidays. The holidays are just an excuse to force people whose only connection is blood to get together and argue. But Joseph has high hopes, even if his guest list might be a bit problematic being heavy on the relatives. First there's Joseph's wife, Maud, then there's their deceased brother's children, Stephen Herriard and his gold-digging fiance Valerie Dean, Paula Herriard, who brings a young playwright, Willoughby Roydon, in tow hoping her uncle will fund his new play which she will star in, Mathilda Clare, a distant cousin, and Edgar Mottisfont, Nat's old business partner. All these people don't get along at the best of times and they all want something from Nat. In particular, they all want what he's worked hard for; money. But why should he fund the bad play of a nobody? Why should he give his nephew funds against his expectations? Mathilda is the only one who can see what's coming, "[t]here'll be murder before we're through." Nat misses dinner. This isn't like Nat at all. His bedroom door is locked. Stephen and Joseph break it down to find that Nat is dead, stabbed in the back, though the murder weapon is missing. And all six guests, not to mention the inhabitants and servants of Lexham Manor, all have a motive. Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard isn't pleased to be called in on Christmas Day during a snowstorm. But murder is murder no matter when it happens and he has one to solve. A locked room whodunit with way too many suspects.

I don't completely know why it is that murder fits the bill around the holidays. I bookmarked an article to read the other day talking about this phenomena and then I promptly forgot to go back and read it. Probably because I know why they are comforting to me. It's not just the vicarious thrill of watching relatives be murdered, though perhaps this is a nice release of the pressure valve that has stopped you from committing familicide. They just make it feel like everything is right in the world. It's a small little world we can inhabit for a short while where everything makes sense and everything is under control. Sure there's death, but it's a death that makes sense. They were murdered for a certain reason, it's not the capricious nature of fate but someone with a score to settle. Murder mysteries literally are like comfort food to me and during the holidays is when we all turn to comfort food and cookies. Like how Midsomer Murders is cozy while still having the highest body count of any murder mystery out there. Seriously, I think in one episode we didn't just hit double digits, but somewhere around twenty people died if you took into account a historical tunnel collapse. Here's the thing, give me a country house, a murder, and something that forces everyone to stay put and I'm a happy camper. Therefore Envious Casca fit the bill perfectly. And it had the added bonus of being a locked room mystery taking place during a snowstorm. It ticked all the boxes. Sure, the cast of characters aren't the nicest lot. In fact any one of them could have been killed and I would have been fine with it. But I just loved the puzzle of it all. Who was where when. All the different rooms, all the preposterous alibis, this was a very cleverly engineered piece of malice and murder. And unlike the previous book involving Inspector Hemingway that I read the atmosphere and the environment added so much that I couldn't help but enjoy it. Savor it this holiday season!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Christmas, English, Envious Casca, Familicide, Georgette Heyer, Lexham Manor, Locked Room, Midsomer Murders, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Mystery, Nathaniel Herriard, No Wind of Blame, Scotland Yard, Scrooge

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Published by: Everyman's Library
Publication Date: 1843
Format: Hardcover, 180 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Ebenezer Scrooge is not a nice man. Miserly and miserable. On this Christmas Eve, the seventh anniversary of the death of his business partner, Jacob Marley, the fates will try to change this man forever. Upon arriving home he is visited by the ghost of Marley who tells Ebenezer that tonight he will be visited by three spirits who will try to change his fate. If he doesn't head their warnings he will be forced to carrying the chains of his own making when he leaves this earthly coil. The ghosts will show him the past, present, and future, and they hope that what they have to show will bring joy and love into Ebenezer's heart... or he too will be cursed as Marley's ghost is.

One of my earliest holiday memories is watching Mickey's Christmas Carol, which had a surprising lack of Mickey, being relegated to the role of Bob Cratchit. But then again, it was only right that it stared Uncle Scrooge... who, while created in the fifties, was in fact based on the Victorian penny pincher. Because of this early exposure, not only was the story ingrained on my very being at a young age, but all other versions tend to be judged by this one, even the source material has to be placed side by side with this magical memory. In my lifetime alone their have been eight feature film adaptations, from Muppets to Murray, to scary Jim Carrey performance capture of 3-D horrors, and twelve adaptations for television, including the Patrick Stewart version which I felt was so flat that it should be excised from the cannon. This doesn't even take into account parodies, which category I technically think Scrooged should really be put in... but you get the picture. A plethora of versions exist and each one has been set up as some kind of "special event." None of them seemed that special to me, but were used as an excuse for family time each time.

I remember going to see The Muppet Christmas Carol in the theaters for New Years in 1992. Now I'm the biggest Muppet fan there is, yet still, it was missing something. Now that I have read the book I think the flaws are in the book, not in the adaptations. Mickey's Christmas Carol is beyond censure because of the glow of youthful memories. I'm sure if I were to watch it now it would make me cringe... but that's how our memories work. Somehow shows like Gummy Bears and She-Ra remain wonderful in our memories, but have you ever tried to re-watch them? I actually did with both these shows... the experiment was painful and shall never be repeated, I'd rather have my memories intact regardless of the truth of the situation. Scrooged is also exempt because it takes the material and goes beyond. It becomes this weird, violent, satirical, horrifying, yet oddly touching movie that you can't look away from. Only by going beyond or mocking the source material has any modern adaptation worked and this is all because of the flaws in the book.

One of my friends chided me saying "Bah! Hum-wha? I thought it was mandatory to love this book?" Maybe that's why I dislike it, because by some mysterious alchemy that I can not conceive of, this book has achieved this hallowed place in literature and the holiday season. Now if I was in a theater listening to Dickens read it to me, well, I might see the appeal. But as it lies there on the page, it was just flat and lifeless. Scrooge, as he is written, is a bit of a milquetoast. He is not as bitter and vitriolic as he has been portrayed over the years. What really got me was that his "goodness" seemed to be buried very shallowly. All it took was the the Ghost of Christmas Present to show him a party with games and Scrooge is all, "can we stay and play games, this is fun." Excuse me!?! You're this bad ass evil man, your name is synonymous with any miserly person, it is in the dictionary for Pete's sake, and just one game and you're ready to throw off your evil ways and help everyone? Sheesh. I expected better of this book, but in the end, I was not swayed... it's lucky those ghosts weren't trying to do a number on me!