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  • J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twenty-fourth Instalment

    J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twenty-fourth Instalment

    Michael Guest

    Viscount Allworth is in a lather over the prospect of being uncovered for forging his son Lord Bury’s signature. Fuelling his gambling and extravagant lifestyle, cash moneys obtained from the ‘Chellston affair’ (see Chapters 4, 10, 11 and 17) only served to blow his debts out into further spirals. Incorrigible; though we can’t fail to Read more

  • J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twenty-third Instalment

    J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twenty-third Instalment

    Michael Guest

    Some pointed remarks in this and recent chapters invite a cursory digression into the world of heraldry. Whether an art or a science as are variously asserted, it is an intriguing and complicated field with roots in the ancient past as well as tendrils — if in some ways tenuous ones — in the present. Read more

  • J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twenty-second Instalment

    J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twenty-second Instalment

    Michael Guest

    We find a slight mix-up in the text this week, but one that involves a significant issue of plot and theme. It is where the young Lord Bury appears about to take Lady Montague’s side against William, in her confrontation with the two girls. Lady Kate draws up her slight, ‘scarcely fifteen’-year-old figure in a Read more

  • J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twenty-first Instalment

    J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twenty-first Instalment

    Michael Guest

    There is an idiosyncratic slide, moving from the omniscient narrator’s opening reflection on the parable of the “wise and foolish builders,” to Theophilus (Theo) Blackmore’s own seemingly spontaneous reflection on “Sand! sand!” in his meeting with Viscountess Allworth. It is almost as though the narrator informs as much as observes the character’s consciousness. To date, Smith’s Read more

  • J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twentieth Instalment

    J.F. Smith’s Mystery of the Marsh — Twentieth Instalment

    Michael Guest

    Sometimes the anomalies in a text can provide a starting point to explore possibilities of meaning that aren’t immediately evident. The first such a one in this chapter is striking: Smith’s misquotation from Romeo and Juliet, which ought to read: These violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die. (2.6) An erroneous word, Read more