Post by Andrew McDowellPost by Joe PfeifferI've been reading through the Lord Peter Whimsey stories. They
give the reader a view of 1920's England (from the upper classes,
mainly). The overt and blatent racism and classism is offputting to modern
readers (at least this one). I still enjoy the mysteries and
from a amateur historian perspective, the depictions of daily
life.
The earlier stories are also very interesting for their gripping
description of PTSD long before the term was coined.
"Shell shock" was known, of course. Lord Peter's mother
is rather dismissive of it, I recall.
Post by Andrew McDowellI see that "Whose Body" is available at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/45867 and does indeed contain references to what we would now call PTSD. I quite liked it. The good guys, at worst, are guilty of flaunting their non-racism and non-classism.
An early scene in it comes to mind where Lord Peter
makes fun of Bunter, his war comrade and personal
servant, abusing his power over Bunter - service was
poorly paid and precarious, and being servile is a
job skill.
Post by Andrew McDowellAs part of the story you see Wimsey realising that what started as an intellectual hobby - amateur detection - should be pursued with an eye to its social benefits rather than just his own amusement - he must continue to investigate suspects he has come to like. A notion of service to society and therefore (for Lord Wimsey) his social inferiors is likely to be incompatible with overt classism and racism - and classism and racism would also as make it more difficult to obtain information from those inferiors.
Margery Allingham's "Albert Campion" is partly another
"take" on Lord Peter: he's an aristocratic younger son
but I think we are never told whose. Campion is his
common-people pseudonym but also his preferred identity,
as if Bruce Wayne chose to be, well, maybe Matches Malone
all the time - where Bruce poses as a criminal (I think "Matches"
passes as an arsonist for hire) and collects information from
the criminal community. Campion's choice of servant, Lugg, has
criminal history but probably is even more dependent,
economically, on his master's kindness. Not to mention
protection from the law of the land. Though in practice, they
are each entertainingly rude to the other. You could
say that Lugg wants his boss to be properly aristocratic like
Lord Peter, but Lugg's own effort when he wants to play the role
of Bunter or Jeeves leaves something to be desired.
I don't know if a story where Lord Peter recruits a
reformed criminal lockpicker to teach a female agent
the basic skills is a kind of tribute in reply to Campion
and Lugg. I'm pretty confident that an episode of Lugg
insisting on reading out the newspaper during the master's
morning bath follows from a description of Bunter doing that.
And there's usually several young men around who can
demonstrate to criminals the benefit of an expensive
education with a substantial athletic element when
Campion arranges for this to occur.
John Creasey's "The Toff" is yet another suave upper-class
detective with a personal manservant for a partner in
adventures, but Wikipedia relates him to "The Saint",
whom I understand as a self-made man and semi-ethical
criminal, and not to Wimsey and Bunter or even Holmes
and Watson. And... Creasey wrote faster. I expect it
to show.