The Murder Of My Aunt by Richard Hull

"My father was unfortunate in his financial affairs … My aunt was made my sole guardian and trustee. Everything was to be hers for life, but out of it she was to make me an allowance, the size of which she was to determine, as long as I lived with her or in any place of which she approved. Should I leave her, she was under no moral obligation to assist me, and at no time was she under any legal obligation. … So then at Llwll I must live while my aunt lives and insists on my staying there. If only, if only my aunt— No, I’m not going to think about that possibility. It makes my pen tremble, it makes the most frightful thoughts rise to my mind." - Richard Hull, The Murder of My Aunt

The Murder of My Aunt (1934) by Richard Hull is a classic from the golden age of mystery novels. It's a different sort of mystery where the murderer or would be murderer is known to the reader right from the beginning. The mystery is not who did it but will they be caught.  

And so when the Murder of My Aunt begins we are introduced to Edward Powell. It is the early 1930's and Edward is living with his aunt in the fictional town of Llwll located in a rural part of Wales. Edward narrates the book through his diary and he is not happy to be living in Llwll which he regards as a place lacking in culture and refinement.  

Edward would love to leave Llwll for London or Paris but his Aunt Mildred controls the purse strings and due to a clause in her will she gets to decide where Edward will live. Granted, Edward could decide to defy his aunt and move out anyway but he would need to get a job. And every job according to Edward including office work is beneath him: "The idea of my solemnly expressing a preference as to which compartment of hell I preferred, was too comic". 

Most people are beneath Edward as he sees it. He regards his neighbors as fools and people of no class and they don't take kindly to him either. But Edward though he detests his aunt does have a real respect for her intelligence. It's very much a battle of wills between these two and the drama is in who will end up being victorious

I enjoyed The Murder of My Aunt.  Edward is not a likeable character but he is fascinating and also funny in a dark humor sort of way. And I finished the book wondering how much Edward is to blame for the way his life turned out?   His parents died when he was a baby nder mysterious circumstances and Aunt Mildred was not the best parenting figure.  

She puts Edward down referring to him in one climatic scene as “a sponger on my bounty who hasn’t even the decency to admit that he is sponging”.  And  more insults proceed from there. That would have been a hard woman to grow up with. And so Edward's sense of superiority and not trusting anyone is probably a defense mechanism. But the empathy ends when we learn about the violent ways Edward is planning to murder Mildred.

I recommend The Murder of My Aunt. You don' t always have to be in the dark with regard to who the culprit is for a mystery novel to keep your attention.

Autumn Day - A Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

  Autumn Day

Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.

Lay your shadow on the sundials

and let loose the wind in the fields.

Bid the last fruits to be full;

give them another two more southerly days,

press them to ripeness, and chase

the last sweetness into the heavy wine.

Whoever has no house now will not build one

anymore.

Whoever is alone now will remain so for a long

time,

will stay up, read, write long letters,

and wander the avenues, up and down,

restlessly, while the leaves are blowing.                   

What I've Been Reading

What a great reading year I am having and Libby is a major reason why.  Here are two more books that kept me enthralled and it's going to be hard this year to compile my top ten list.  So many wonderful books to choose from:

"Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare’s colleagues and closest friends is found dead, with a line from R. M. Holland’s most famous story, “The Stranger,” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with the storylines of her favourite literature. To make matters worse, the police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her closest confidant, her diary, the only outlet she has for her darkest suspicions and fears about the case. - Goodreads. 

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths (2018) won the 2020 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel.  And an academic setting can be a great place for a mystery.  It's a tight knit community.  The teachers all know each other and there can be conflicts.  The Stranger Diaries is my first time reading Elly Griffiths and this novel held my interest all the way through.  

I would also describe The Stranger Diaries as a fair play mystery where the author leaves subtle clues throughout the book so that the reader has a chance to figure out who the murderer is before the novel comes to a close.  Agatha Christie is the gold standard for fair play mysteries and as with Anthony Horowitz, Elly Griffiths is a writer who is expertly following in that fine Christie tradition.

"The newly constituted United States actually emerged as a fragile, internally divided union of states contending still with European empires and other independent republics on the North American continent. Native peoples sought to defend their homelands from the flood of American settlers ... The system of American slavery grew increasingly powerful and expansive ... Bitter party divisions pitted elites favoring strong government against those, like Andrew Jackson, espousing a democratic populism for white men ... Taylor’s elegant history of this tumultuous period offers indelible miniatures of key characters from Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Margaret Fuller. It captures the high-stakes political drama as Jackson and Adams, Clay, Calhoun, and Webster contend over slavery, the economy, Indian removal, and national expansion" - Goodreads

America right now is a very divided country and to try and make sense of it all I have started an American History reading project.  My first book was American Revolution by Gordon S Wood which covered 1763 to 1789.  And for my next book I decided on American Republics: A Continental History of The United States (1783-1850) by the award winning historian Alan Taylor.  American Republics is a gripping, well written history book that will engage the reader.

And one theme that Alan Taylor brings home in American Republics is that America was a fragile union way before the Civil War era.  We were divided not only by north and south but by east and west.  We were also divided politically between those who wanted a strong central government and those that wanted more power to the states.

Alan Taylor details the violent early beginnings of the United States: slavery, Native American removal and the philosophy of Manifest Destiny.  It's not a pretty picture and Taylor tells it honestly.  But if we are to learn from history we cannot ignore the past.  On the plus side there are always people in every age who speak out and try to right the wrongs at often tremendous cost to themselves. American Republics tells theIr stories as well.  

Two very different books both I highly recommend

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

You suppose she has nearly forgotten me?" he said.  "Oh, Nelly! you know she has not! You know as well as I do, that for every thought she spends on Linton, she spends a thousand on me! At a most miserable period of my life, I had a notion of the kind: it haunted me on my return to the neighbourhood last summer; but only her own assurance could make me admit the horrible idea again. And then, Linton would be nothing, nor Hindley, nor all the dreams that ever I dreamt. Two words would comprehend my future – death and hell: existence, after losing her, would be hell. Yet I was a fool to fancy for a moment that she valued Edgar Linton’s attachment more than mine. If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day."

It was twenty, maybe twenty-five five years ago that I first read Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Bronte.  I felt then that it was a brilliant, mesmerizing novel. I still feel that way.  And now, after a second reading, I think I understand it better in terms of what Emily Bronte was trying to say although there are many different interpretations among the critics.  The great classics defy a neat summing up.  One can only speculate and so here are my thoughts.

When I first read Wuthering Heights I wondered did Emily Bronte approve of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff's passionate all consuming and self destructive love?  And what to make of Heathliff's actions once his beloved Catherine dies?  Everyone around Heathcliff: his wife, his son, Catherine's husband and daughter and Hindley's son must be made to suffer and Heathcliff takes a sadistic pleasure and glee in causing their suffering. 

Are we to approve of Heathcliff's selfish and vengeful behavior because a cosmic love like his does not have to play by the rules of decency?  But now due to a second reading of Wuthering Heights I see the novel more clearly thanks in part to the character of Nellie Dean.  Nellie is the longtime housekeeper of the Earnshaws and Lintons.  Nellie narrates most of Wuthering Heights telling the story of these two families to a young traveller Mr Lockwood who is staying in the area and eager to learn the sad history of Wuthering Heights.  

Nellie begins her story 30 years prior when Heathliff a six year old orphan was found on the streets of Liverpool by Mr. Earnshaw who brought him home and raised him as a son.  Mr Earnshaw's daughter Catherine formed a bond with Heathcliff but her brother Hindley saw Heathcliff as a threat.  After Mr. Earnshaw dies Hindley becomes the young master of Wuthering Height and Heathcliff reduced to a badly treated servant.  But Catherine tries to protect Heathcliff.  She remains his loyal friend and companion and Heathcliff never forgets her love and kindness.  

That is the genesis of what happens at Wuthering Heights and the ensuing heartache, tragedy and cruelty that will follows Catherine Earnshaw's death. Nellie Dean is the voice of reason in this novel.  She is clear headed, intelligent, kind and a sounding board for the other characters as they tell her their stories.  Nellie is not perfect.  She can meddle and withhold information out of a desire to help which can backfire. But she is the moral center of Wuthering Heights and I believe the voice of the author.

So how did Emily Bronte feel about Heathcliff and Catherine?  Like Nellie I don't believe she approved of alot of their behavior, particularly Heathcliff.  But as with Nellie I think Bronte had compassion for Heathcliff.  And there is something elemental and eternal about Heathcliff and Catherine. like the moors themselves which Emily loved and wrote about so  brilliantly.

I highly recommend Wuthering Heights, the 5th novel for my classics challenge, reread a favorite classic, hosted by Ann at In Search Of Wonder