[A post sent today to the Nero Wolfe discussion mailing list at Yahoo! Groups]
Faterson wrote:
Read the Masterpieces First
Jim wrote:
I think the question is "Which are the masterpieces?"
Absolutely, that
is the no. 1 crucial, essential question if
Rex Stout’s reputation among mainstream literary critics is to be raised.
Jim wrote:
How many masterpieces are there? Is there a definitive list ??
I don’t think there can ever be a definitive list, and there can never be complete consensus.
However, considering that there are
47 Nero Wolfe volumes, it really would be useful to come up with a shortlist of those Nero Wolfe volumes that most of us (both casual Wolfe fans and Wolfe “experts”) can agree are definitely among the finest Wolfe volumes available.
For example, I find
Fer-de-Lance to be the best Nero Wolfe volume. However, I realize it is not appreciated as much by other Wolfe fans who prefer later (at least slightly later, say late 1930s) Wolfe volumes where the 2 leading characters are supposed to be “more developed”.
In the 1-page
Rex Stout biography in Bantam Books’ most recent edition of Wolfe volumes,
The Rex Stout Library, the following Wolfe volumes are explicitly mentioned as examples of
Rex Stout’s art (disregarding
Fer-de-Lance,
A Family Affair, and
Death Times Three that are only, or also, mentioned by virtue of their being the first, last, and posthumous Wolfe volume, respectively):
This is, on the whole, a very decent, representative list – good picks by Bantam Books. It is obvious they picked one novel from each decade (1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s).
And, indeed, that’s a good way of going about picking “Wolfe masterpieces”. One of the remarkable traits of the
Corpus is that it was published from the 1930s to the 1970s, with hardly any loss of quality of writing along the way. This is one of those things that make
Rex Stout stand out among his peers. For example,
Agatha Christie’s output is similarly voluminous; however, by common consensus, her finest writings definitely belong to the 1930s and 1940s period, with the final few Poirot novels, such as
Third Girl (1969) and
Elephants Can Remember (1972), being excruciatingly bad. (I’m afraid they would never even have been published if they didn’t have
Agatha Christie’s name on the cover.) Compare that with the 2 excellent final Wolfe novels from the 1970s,
Please Pass the Guilt and
A Family Affair. I believe these two are more than a match, in terms of quality, to most of the 1930s or 1950s Wolfe volumes.
Also, compare
Rex Stout with the likes of
Dashiell Hammett. Unlike Stout,
Hammett is recognized by mainstream literary criticism as a classic of American literature; but
Hammett published all of his celebrated novels in the 1930s, and then lived for 30 more years without publishing anything of note.
So, in compiling a list of
Rex Stout’s masterpieces, we should definitely stress the aspect of
Rex Stout’s longevity and the exquisite quality of writing he was capable of producing in his 70s or 80s.
In making our picks for “The Rex Stout Masterpieces List”, we should avoid volumes that are, in one way or another, controversial, and whose merit even among “hard-core Wolfe fans” is disputed.
So, let’s take a look at
the 33 Nero Wolfe full-length novels first; and let’s start from the end, as those novels will be easier to sift through.
Shall we include either of the 2 novels from the 1970s in our List of Masterpieces
I don’t think so. Although I believe both
A Family Affair (1975) and
Please Pass the Guilt (1973) are excellent Wolfe novels, they seem to be controversial among Wolfe fans. Some Wolfe fans even claim
A Family Affair is the best Wolfe volume of them all (going to the opposite extreme from me, who claims
Fer-de-Lance, the very first Wolfe novel, to be the best of them all). However, there are other undisputed Wolfe fans who detest
A Family Affair for reasons that are too spoiler-ish to delve into right now.
Please Pass the Guilt does not seem to rouse as much general enthusiasm as is expected from a masterpiece, so, we can’t include it in our List, either.
And so, we shall include neither of the two 1970s Wolfe novels in our “List of Rex Stout Masterpieces”.
Let’s move on to the 1960s now. We have 9 Wolfe novels in the 1960s to pick our masterpieces from.
And our first pick will be quite obvious; we are joining Bantam Books and including
The Doorbell Rang (1965) in our List. The Nero Wolfe vs. FBI encounter has been universally acclaimed as one of the finest Wolfe novels. No dispute there whatsoever.
Now, let’s employ “the Sherlock Holmes method of elimination” in looking at the other 1960s Wolfe novels. Which novels
cannot be included in our List of Masterpieces
Not
Too Many Clients (1960), for sure; Wolfe fans keep arguing about whether Archie Goodwin congratulates a wife-beater in this volume; this novel also seems a bit garish in the context of the
Corpus. Other volumes we should probably discount are
The Father Hunt (1968) and
The Mother Hunt (1963); not remarkable and exciting enough, seems to be the consensus. (With a number of people affirming A&E’s version of
The Mother Hunt was more exciting to watch than the novel was to read.) We shall also have to ignore
Death of a Dude (1969); Wolfe “vacationing” on a ranch in Montana is not everyone’s cup of tea. I happen to think this is an excellent late Wolfe novel, but other Wolfe fans detest this volume. The racially charged
A Right to Die (1964), a would-be sequel to
Too Many Cooks (1938,) is disputed among Wolfe fans and would be a controversial pick; let’s leave it out of our List.
The Final Deduction (1961) and
Gambit (1962, despite the burning of the dictionary and the chess plot) do not seem notable enough to merit their inclusion in The List. So, we are left with
Death of a Doxy (1966), a delightful romp of a late Wolfe novel, incredibly refreshing considering it was written by an 80-year-old man pretending to be in his 30s, and I would propose to include
Death of a Doxy (1966) in our List of Masterpieces.
Let’s look at the 1950s novels now. We have 10 novels to make our pick from, one for every year in the decade. (That’s some Wolfean regularity on
Rex Stout’s part, isn’t it
) Bantam Books picked
If Death Ever Slept (1957) for this decade, but I beg to differ. While it’s a good novel, I don’t think it’s entirely satisfactory, to use Wolfe’s favourite term, to merit the label of a “masterpiece”. What 1950s novel
cannot be included among undisputed masterpieces due to being too controversial
That’s obvious:
The Black Mountain (1954), depicting Wolfe’s trip to Communist Yugoslavia/Montenegro; some Wolfe fans love it, others hate it; it cannot be on our List. All the other 1950s Wolfe novels seem pretty standard fare, with the exception of, perhaps, 3 volumes. First, there is
The Golden Spiders (1953); it is generally well-regarded, and has already been picked
twice (both in 1981 and in 2000) by American TV producers as a pilot for a Nero Wolfe TV series. So, let’s include
Golden Spiders in our List. Further, my vote would go to
Plot It Yourself a.k.a.
Murder in Style (1959); it is as refreshing and delightful to read as
Death of a Doxy seven year later, and shows Archie Goodwin in top narrative form. Finally,
the 1950s masterpiece that I believe Bantam Books did
not pick only because they had already picked another off-beat Wolfe novel before (
Too Many Cooks), and two of them would be too many in a shortlist of only 5 Wolfe novels. I mean, of course,
In the Best Families (1950). This is
Rex Stout’s tour de force, possibly his best book ever. It’s the culmination of “the Zeck trilogy” (with the foregoing two volumes being distinctly less impressive and memorable); I’ve never heard of any Wolfe fan who would not enjoy
In the Best Families, and so, let’s also include this volume in our List.
In the 1940s, we have six Wolfe novels to make our pick from. And the choice is obvious:
The Silent Speaker (1946), universally hailed by Wolfe fans and non-fans as perhaps the finest “pure detection” entry in the
Wolfe Corpus. But, I would also include
Over My Dead Body (1940) in our List; a classic, delightful murder mystery from the Golden Era. The one 1940s novel we must unequivocally refuse to include in the List would be
Where There’s a Will (1940); quite a few Wolfe fans have already expressed their distaste for this novel, and I find it to be the worst Wolfe volume hands down. It looks like
Rex Stout was overreaching by publishing 2 Wolfe novels in the same year, 1940 (both the delightful
Over My Dead Body and the atrocious
Where There’s a Will). Stout never did such a thing again, and after World War II, he published no more than 1 Nero Wolfe full-length novel per year. A wise decision
Finally, there are six 1930s Wolfe novels where we can make our final picks among novels. Again, the pick seems obvious; we agree with Bantam Books and shall pick
Too Many Cooks (1938). The first four Wolfe novels are said to lack the polish of the later Wolfe novels, and so cannot be included in The List. However,
Some Buried Caesar (1939) seems to inspire many Wolfe fans’ enthusiasm; I happen to think it’s a watered-down “cover version” of
Too Many Cooks... but if you insist, we may also include it in our List.
And so, we’ve arrived at the following tentative List of Nero Wolfe Full-Length Novel Masterpieces:
That’s 9 “undisputed masterpieces” from among
the 33 Wolfe novels published. Not a bad score at all
Nine is a higher number than the number of all
Dashiell Hammett or
Raymond Chandler novels ever published, although
Hammett and
Chandler are held in higher esteem by mainstream literary critics. That seems to be unfair, considering the list above.
But wait, apart from
the 33 Wolfe novels, there are also
the 14 collections of Wolfe “novelettes” (longish short stories)
Could we perhaps expand our List of Nero Wolfe Masterpieces by including a short story collection or two
The answer is, Yes. Although I very much prefer Wolfe novels over Wolfe short stories, one volume immediately comes to mind as worthy of inclusion in The Masterpieces List: the very first pair of Wolfe novelettes, published together as
Black Orchids (1942). It’s a pair of suspenseful and hilarious murder mysteries (that’s no oxymoron for
Rex Stout ), showcasing Archie Goodwin’s narrative skill at its most impressive; the volume belongs on our List.
From among the remaining 13 collections, which
cannot be included in our Masterpieces List
Well, for one,
Death Times Three [1985]; a posthumous volume containing what I currently find to be the finest Wolfe short story of all (
›Frame-Up for Murder‹, 1958), but it would be a stretch to include this collection among the finest Wolfe volumes. Further, for reasons unknown to me, the story
›The Squirt and the Monkey‹ (1951) seems to be detested by many Wolfe fans, which makes
Triple Jeopardy (1952) ineligible for inclusion in our List. Similarly, quite a few Wolfe fans believe Stout did not restrain himself enough when writing the four stories (some of them highly eccentric) collected in
And Four to Go (1958), so this collection cannot be included in The List, either. As to the pair of stories united in
Not Quite Dead Enough (1944), with Archie Goodwin joining the US Army... sorry, I don’t think these are on the level of the other “masterpieces”, or even
Black Orchids only; let’s strike this volume out. Over on the
Golden Age Detection mailing list,
Michael E. Grost recommended the following 2 triplets of Wolfe stories:
Three Men Out (1954) and
Three for the Chair (1957), but for myself I cannot confirm this at the moment; I can’t even remember what most of the six stories are about; I’ll be paying better attention as I re-read the
Wolfe Corpus the next time around.
To conclude our examination of the
Wolfe Corpus, Jim, here is my
TOP 10 NERO WOLFE MASTERPIECES LIST(in publication order)From among these 10, I would recommend for those (literary critics or otherwise) who have never read any Nero Wolfe before to start with
The Silent Speaker or
Black Orchids. Comments, objections, and suggestions for improving The List are highly welcome!