I forget which version of Grant Allen's "The Curate of Churnside" I read first. Was it the one from either of his collections, Strange Stories (1884) or Twelve Tales: With a Headpiece, a Tailpiece, and an Intermezzo (1899)? Or was it the version with the very different finale that was printed in Cornhill Magazine in 1884? All I know is that, most likely, Allen preferred the version found in his collections and, most likely, the different ending in the magazine resulted from an editor worried about offending readers. "The Curate of Churnside," you see, is a very daring tale.
However, that Cornhill editor couldn't get around the story's plot involving a curate (which is an assistant minister) murdering his uncle by stabbing him in the back, quite literally and with thorough premeditation. But what should happen to that murderous clergyman in the end? If I'm right, the editor wanted justice to be served, be it by the legal system, by a guilt-ridden conscience, or by fate. The author, though, wanted his tale to be far more unconventional or unsettling.
The respected curate Walter Dene tenderly mends a dog's paw -- a sad accident that occurred while the clergyman was murdering his uncle! This illustration from Grant Allen's "The Curate of Churnside" appeared in its Cornhill Magazine publication.
Upon discovering these two versions, I knew I had a very interesting insight into how the late Victorians were questioning the moral foundations of their cosmos. Centuries of storytelling suggest that, in one way or another, crime will be punished. My research in ghostlore has taught me that, when it doesn't at first, the dead can return to request rectification. My interest in Edgar Allan Poe's tales has shown me that -- even when detectives are unhelpful or God seems unconcerned -- guilt or fate or even insanity will ensure a murderer gets revealed. Think especially of "A Tell-Tale Heart" or "The Black Cat."
But Allen's version of "The Curate of Churnside" challenges that preconception. And that was pretty bold. And that's why, after presenting his version of the tale, I include what I call "The Cornhill Ending" in The Curate of Churnside & An African Millionaire, the first of the Curated Crime Collection.
This is followed by An African Millionaire (1897). While this novel isn't quite as unsettling as the short story, it is a lot of fun. The premise involves an ingenious con man who relentlessly targets and frustrates a South African diamond tycoon, and this allows Allen to make some pointed social commentary, too. 1897 saw the release of a few important novels using farfetched fantasy to comment on colonization. Bram Stoker's Dracula might be considered more an invasion narrative, but -- as Lucy Westenra might tell you -- Dracula's efforts to "convert" the English natives to his way of doing things makes him a very weird kind of colonizer. Maybe H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, which debuted the same year, is clearer example of how one alien's invasion is another's colonization.
And Allen questions the morality of the colonial presence in Africa by showing that the title victim is far from innocent. Not quite a vampire or a Martian perhaps, but someone readers don't mind seeing swindled over and over. In fact, this is one of those heist stories that nudge one to root for the robber.
Grant Allen
Please consider purchasing The Curate of Churnside & An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen. If all goes well, the first three (of a projected nine) volumes of the Curated Crime Collection will be out before the end of the year. Read more about them here -- or find this first one at Amazon.
-- Tim
No comments:
Post a Comment