I. Zangwill. The Big Bow Mystery
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The Big Bow Mystery
By I. Zangwill
Chicago and New York Rand, McNally &Company
Copyright, 1895, by Rand, McNally &Co.
[Illustration: 'My God!' he cried.]
INTRODUCTION.
OF MURDERS AND MYSTERIES.
As this little book was written some four years ago, I feel able to review it without prejudice. A new book just hot from the brain is naturally apt to appear faulty to its begetter, but an old book has got into the proper perspective and may be praised by him without fear or favor. 'The Big Bow Mystery' seems to me an excellent murder story, as murder stories go, for, while as sensational as the most of them, it contains more humor and character creation than the best. Indeed, the humor is too abundant. Mysteries should be sedate and sober. There should be a pervasive atmosphere of horror and awe such as Poe manages to create. Humor is out of tone; it would be more artistic to preserve a somber note throughout. But I was a realist in those days, and in real life mysteries occur to real persons with their individual humors, and mysterious circumstances are apt to be complicated by comic. The indispensable condition of a good mystery is that it should be able and unable to be solved by the reader, and that the writer's solution should satisfy. Many a mystery runs on breathlessly enough till the dénouement is reached, only to leave the reader with the sense of having been robbed of his breath under false pretenses. And not only must the solution be adequate, but all its data must be given in the body of the story. The author must not suddenly spring a new person or a new circumstance upon his reader at the end. Thus, if a friend were to ask me to guess who dined with him yesterday, it would be fatuous if he had in mind somebody of whom he knew I had never heard. The only person who has ever solved 'The Big Bow Mystery' is myself. This is not paradox but plain fact. For long before the book was written, I said to myself one night that no mystery-monger had ever murdered a man in a room to which there was no possible access. The puzzle was scarcely propounded ere the solution flew up and the idea lay stored in my mind till, years later, during the silly season, the editor of a popular London evening paper, anxious to let the sea-serpent have a year off, asked me to provide him with a more original piece of fiction. I might have refused, but there was murder in my soul, and here was the opportunity. I went to work seriously, though the
SIR: Now that 'The Big Bow Mystery' is solved to the satisfaction
of at least one person, will you allow that person the use of your
invaluable columns to enable him to thank the hundreds of your
readers who have favored him with their kind suggestions and
solutions while his tale was running and they were reading? I ask
this more especially because great credit is due to them for
enabling me to end the story in a manner so satisfactory to myself.
When I started it, I had, of course, no idea who had done the
murder, but I was determined no one should guess it. Accordingly,
as each correspondent sent in the name of a suspect, I determined
he or she should not be the guilty party. By degrees every one of
the characters got ticked off as innocent-all except one, and I
had no option but to make that character the murderer. I was very
sorry to do this, as I rather liked that particular person, but
when one has such ingenious readers, what can one do? You can't let
anybody boast that he guessed aright, and, in spite of the trouble
of altering the plot five or six times, I feel that I have chosen
the course most consistent with the dignity of my profession. Had I
not been impelled by this consideration I should certainly have
brought in a verdict against Mrs. Drabdump, as recommended by the
reader who said that, judging by the illustration in the 'Star,'
she must be at least seven feet high, and, therefore, could easily
have got on the roof and put her (proportionately) long arm down
the chimney to effect the cut. I am not responsible for the
artist's conception of the character. When I last saw the good lady
she was under six feet, but your artist may have had later
information. The 'Star' is always so frightfully up to date. I
ought not to omit the humorous remark of a correspondent, who said:
'Mortlake might have swung in some wild way from one window to
another,
satirically prodded will not demand his name, as I object to
murders, 'at any rate in real life.' Finally, a word with the
legions who have taken me to task for allowing Mr. Gladstone to
write over 170 words on a postcard. It is all owing to you, sir,
who announced my story as containing humorous elements. I tried to
put in some, and this gentle dig at the grand old correspondent's
habits was intended to be one of them. However, if I
taken 'at the foot of the letter' (or rather of the postcard), I
must say that only to-day I received a postcard containing about
250 words. But this was not from Mr. Gladstone. At any rate, till
Mr. Gladstone himself repudiates this postcard, I shall consider
myself justified in allowing it to stand in the book.
Again thanking your readers for their valuable assistance, Yours,
etc.
One would have imagined that nobody could take this seriously, for it is obvious that the mystery-story is just the one species of story that can not be told impromptu or altered at the last moment, seeing that it demands the most careful piecing together and the most elaborate dove-tailing. Nevertheless, if you cast your joke upon the waters, you shall find it no joke after many days. This is what I read in the
I. ZANGWILL.
LONDON, September, 1895.
NOTE.
