The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
| The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the BBC Adaptation |
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| Author(s) | Dorothy L. Sayers |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Lord Peter Wimsey |
| Genre(s) | Mystery novel |
| Publisher | Ernest Benn |
| Publication date | 1928 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | 'Unnatural Death' |
| Followed by | 'Strong Poison' |
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is a 1928 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her fourth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.
Contents |
[edit] Plot outline
General Fentiman is found dead at the Bellona Club in London, where his body went unnoticed for some hours. His wealthy sister also passed away the same day. Under her will, if she died first, most of her fortune would go to the General's heirs. However if he died first, they would get only modest bequests, and the rest would go to another relative. Lord Peter is asked to help resolve the legal battle between the heirs by discovering who died first.
[edit] Explanation of the title
The title is a wry take on the perception of the novel's events. The Bellona Club is a quiet, respectable gentlemen's club for active or retired military officers (named after Bellona, the Roman goddess of war). The death in the club, subsequent investigations by police and reporters resulting in eventual revelations of murder and suicide, all disturb the peaceful atmosphere, constituting what the traditionalist members regard as "unpleasantness".
“I say, you fellows ... here's another unpleasantness. Penberthy's shot himself in the library. People ought to have more consideration for the members.” (The Unpleasantness..., Chapter XXII
[edit] Plot summary
90-year old General Fentiman has been estranged for years from his sister, Lady Dormer. On the afternoon of 10 November, he is called to her deathbed for a reconciliation, and learns the terms of her will. If she dies first he will inherit a fortune, which his grandsons sorely need. But if he dies first, nearly all of the money will go to Ann Dorland, a distant relative of Lady Dormer's late husband. She is a young woman with artistic leanings who lives with Lady Dormer.
Lady Dormer dies at 10:37 AM the next day, which is 11 November - Remembrance Day. That afternoon the General is found dead in his armchair at the club. This produces a hysterical outburst from his younger grandson, George Fentiman, a veteran of World War I still suffering from the effects of poison gas and shell shock.
Due to the terms of Lady Dormer's will and the time of her death, it becomes necessary to establish the exact time of the General's death. Though the estate would provide amply for all three heirs, Ann Dorland refuses any compromise settlement.
Wimsey is asked to help solve the puzzle by his friend Mr Murbles, the solicitor for the Fentiman family. Wimsey agrees, though he insists that he will pursue the exact truth, regardless of who benefits.
The problem turns out to be deeply mysterious. The General was seated by an open fireplace, so the temperature of the body is of no help. The rigor mortis was well established, indicating death much earlier than the discovery of the body, but one knee was already limp - unusual as rigor usually eases head and neck muscles first. Dr Penberthy, a former army surgeon and club member, who was the first to see the body, certified death by natural causes. He was the General's personal physician, and was treating him for a weak heart.
It would seem obvious that the General must have died sometime after arriving at the club on the morning of 11 November, since he was found later that day. But nobody saw him arrive. He went to the club at some point after visiting Lady Dormer the previous afternoon, but his whereabouts are unknown between those two events. His manservant says the General stayed out overnight, and that a certain Mr Oliver called to say that the General would spend the night with him. No one knows anything about Oliver, but the elder grandson, Robert Fentiman, says that he's seen him often at a popular Italian restaurant. Robert agrees to watch for Oliver, and Wimsey arranges for detectives to assist him.
Robert thinks he sights Oliver, and follows him halfway across England, but the man is not Oliver at all. Wimsey also turns up a few clues - there was a fresh tear in the General's trouser cuff and a scraping of paint on the side of his shoe.
Wimsey locates the taxi driver who picked up the General at Lady Dormer's house, and another who took him to the Bellona Club. The General went to see Dr Penberthy in between. Then, en route to the club, he had the taxi pick up George Fentiman. The two men had a long and angry discussion in the back of the taxi, and then George got out.
Wimsey also inquires into the character of Ann Dorland, trying to learn why she won't compromise. He contacts his old friend, artist Marjorie Phelps, who is also a good friend of Ann Dorland. There is another sighting of Oliver, and this time Robert and the detectives follow him to Italy.
Robert returns from Italy, and admits that Oliver does not exist. Wimsey has figured out what happened. There was no memorial poppy on the General's suitcoat - impossible if he had been on the streets on Remembrance Day.
Actually, the General died at the club the evening before, shortly after seeing his sister. He had just told Robert the terms of Lady Dormer's will. A few minutes later, Robert found his grandfather dead in the club's library, apparently of natural causes. Piqued at losing the inheritance, he concealed the body overnight in the club's telephone booth behind an "Out of order" sign. (The General's cuff was torn by a nail inside the booth, and the paint was scraped from its floor. Also, the process broke the rigor mortis in one leg.) The next day, Robert moved the body to an armchair to be found later. He acted when all the other members had stepped outside for the two minutes' silence, observed on Remembrance Day at 11 AM.
In the meantime, Wimsey has had the General exhumed and properly examined. The General was poisoned with an overdose of the heart medication digitalis.
Suspicion falls on Ann Dorland, who was among the last persons to see the General, and who has an obvious motive. When she suddenly agrees to compromise with the Fentimans, it only adds to the suspicion.
Then George Fentiman has a nervous breakdown. In an incoherent babble, he claims to have poisoned his grandfather, though this is clearly impossible.
Wimsey eventually meets Ann Dorland, who is miserable. But it is not guilt that distresses her, it is callous and humiliating treatment by her former lover - Dr Penberthy. They had been secretly engaged, and he had insisted she fight for the whole estate and not compromise. Then after the autopsy, he broke off with her, giving highly insulting reasons.
The plot is now clear. Penberthy had eyes on Ann Dorland's expected inheritance. When General Fentiman saw him, he spoke of Lady Dormer's will, and Penberthy realized that if the General didn't die at once, Ann Dorland wouldn't collect. So he gave the General a deliberate overdose of digitalis, to be taken later when Penberthy was not in attendance.
He was present next day when the body was discovered, and so was able to certify a natural death, though Robert's intervention confused the time of death. When the poisoning was discovered, he panicked, and broke off with Ann Dorland - insulting her so that she would be too embarrassed to tell anyone.
Wimsey confronts Penberthy and offers him the chance to behave like a gentleman. He cannot save himself, but he can exonerate Ann Dorland from suspicion. Penberthy writes a confession and shoots himself in the club library - one last bit of unpleasantness.
In an epilogue, it is revealed that the three heirs have divided the estate equitably. In fact, Robert, a bluff soldier who expressed distaste for artistic and intellectual women, is now dating Ann Dorland.
[edit] Characters in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
- Lord Peter Wimsey – an aristocratic amateur detective, Bellona Club member
- Detective-Inspector Charles Parker – Wimsey's friend.
- Mervyn Bunter – Wimsey's manservant.
- Mr. Murbles – solicitor to the Wimsey and Fentiman families.
- General Fentiman (deceased) – an elderly retired solder. Bellona Club member.
- Lady Dormer (deceased) – General Fentiman's wealthy widowed sister.
- Major Robert Fentiman – General Fentiman's older grandson. Bellona Club member.
- Captain George Fentiman – the General's younger grandson. Bellona Club member.
- Sheila Fentiman – George's harassed and hard-working wife.
- Ann Dorland – distant relative and companion of Lady Dormer.
- Dr Penberthy – an impecunious physician. Bellona Club member.
- Marjorie Phelps – an artist friend of Wimsey and also Ann Dorland.
[edit] Themes
Written after Sayers' marriage to World War I veteran Oswald Arthur "Mac" Fleming, the book explores the effect the "Great War" had on its veterans. The book opens on Remembrance Day, a momentous occasion in a country where every adult had lost someone in the war. Wimsey meets George Fentiman, and asks him how he's doing. George answers:
“Oh, rotten as usual. Tummy all wrong and no money. What’s the damn good of it, Wimsey? A man goes and fights for his country, gets his inside gassed out, and loses his job, and all they give him is the privilege of marching past the Cenotaph once a year and paying four shillings in the pound income-tax.”
George Fentiman is both grateful and resentful that his wife supports him. Wimsey's health is better, but as noted in Whose Body?, he was also a victim of shell-shock. George's brother, Major Robert Fentiman, appears not be affected by the war — but all is not as it appears.
Similar plot elements appeared in other Lord Peter novels. Whose Body?, The Nine Tailors, and Gaudy Night all touch on World War I or Lord Peter's military service. Unnatural Death and Strong Poison explore the legal technicalities governing wills and inheritance more fully.
[edit] Similarity to Whose Body?
In both this novel and Whose Body?, the murderer is a physician who grossly abused and betrayed the trust of his patients, and of society in general, in order to commit murder; and at the conclusion of both novels, the doctor-murderer provides Wimsey with a written confession detailing his crime.
Nevertheless, the two are very dissimilar. Sir Julian Freke in Whose Body? is utterly immoral and amoral, meticulously planning a murder for years, carrying it out ruthlessly and later feeling not the slightest twinge of conscience. Conversely, Dr. Penberthy in the present book had only succumbed to a momentary temptation, when an easy opportunity for a murder which could make him exceedingly rich suddenly presented itself.
Accordingly, the two meet dissimilar ends. The repentant Penberthy gets a chance to redeem himself in Wimsey's eyes (and those of the reader) by taking all responsibility upon himself and completely exonerating Ann Dorland, who might otherwise have been unjustly prosecuted as a partner to his crime. He is then given the traditional "gentleman's way out", being provided with a loaded gun and the leisure to kill himself. Conversely, the obdurate and unrepentant Freke is denied the chance to kill himself, being rather dragged off to imprisonment, trial, and eventual hanging.
[edit] Wimsey's love life
Bellona Club is the first Wimsey book in which Wimsey's romantic life is explicitly discussed. The artist Marjorie Phelps has known him for years and is attracted to him, though it is not stated or implied they were ever lovers. She indirectly suggests a closer relationship, but Wimsey declines. Wimsey likes her, respects her, and enjoys her company - but that isn't enough. He is not in love with her, and won't settle for less any more.
Marjorie Phelps reappears in Strong Poison; when Wimsey wants to probe the social circle of Harriet Vane and Philip Boyes, he contacts Marjorie, and is relieved to find she holds no grudge for his rejection. She is the first person other than Wimsey himself to realize that he has fallen in love with Harriet. She does not appear again in the Wimsey books.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club was adapted for television in 1972, as part of a series starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter.
