by Belloc · Cluster: Satirical Novel · Politics and Finance · Edwardian England
Abstract
A comic anti-detective novel (dedicated to Maurice Baring) tracing a great emerald, gift of Catherine the Great to an English sea-captain, down through the rising fortunes of the de Bohun family to its loss at a Hertfordshire country house. Belloc promised a detective story ‘with nothing to find out’, using the mystery frame to satirize social climbing, political careers, and the mania for talismans and pedigrees.
Capitoli / Chapters
Connections
Forms & Genres: Novel, Detective Fiction, Satire Themes & Concepts: Satire of Society, Money and Avarice, Family and Lineage, Class Conflict, Superstition and Omen, Economics Motifs: Gems Jewels, Great House, Money and Gold Historical References: Victorian England Settings: England, Russia, Rural England, Europe Archetypes: Self-Made Man