Saturday, July 25, 2009

The decline of civilization

A blurb from the Times Literary Supplement included with my edition of Hare Sitting Up calls author Michael Innes "the acknowledged grand master of that civilized entertainment, the donnish detective story."

Page 62 of the novel begins thus:
"Judith Appleby, as it happened, had heard of Splaine Croft. Two of her friends had sent sons there, and had reported with satisfaction that it seemed a fairly civilized place. It was funny how, as civilization seeped away, the idea of civilization became all the go."
© Peter Rozovsky 2009

Labels: , , , ,

2 Comments:

Blogger pattinase (abbott) said...

I particularly remember Hamlet Revenge of was it Hamlet's Revenge.

July 25, 2009  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

It's Hamlet, Revenge!, which may make it the most confusingly punctuated title in all crime fiction. Someone recommended the book to me, perhaps when I made one of my Shakespeare posts. The punctuation is so eye-catching that it must be significant.

This may be the first time I'll look for a book based on the title's punctuation.

July 25, 2009  

Post a Comment

<< Home