It is currently Thu, 28 Mar 2024, 14:17




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 45 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next
 Too Many Clients (1960) 
Author Message
User avatar

Joined: Wed, 4 Jul 2007, 16:45
Posts: 101
Location: UK
New post Too Many Clients (1960)
Quote:
You're invited to use this topic to discuss the quotations from Too Many Clients (1960) – a Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Stout.

You may also use this thread for general discussions about this literary work; you do not necessarily need to discuss specific quotations.

Or, if you'd like to talk about anything else related to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, or Rex Stout, feel free to create a new discussion topic.


If anybody has any quotes from this novel, I would very much like to see them posted - challenge me to read it, and perhaps a few tidbits will persuade me to revise my opinion, as with Where There's a Will for Faterson! :wink:

I watched the episode again yesterday, and still think Stout was trying to hard to be 'noir' - plus that a woman must have severely irritated him before he started writing! :twisted: I don't think there was one balanced woman in the cast - bar Mrs Perez - and most of them were 'dealt with' fairly roughly (what was Wolfe's problem with Julia McGee? I don't know if it was Chaykin's delivery or Stout's dialogue, but I couldn't understand why he was so completely disgusted with her at the end?)

So. If anybody has any juicy excerpts to restore my faith in this story, and goad me into actually reading the rest of the book, I am willing to shelve my prejudices! :wink:

_________________
'The discretion of an avalanche'


Mon, 16 Jul 2007, 11:54
Profile
site admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat, 7 Oct 2006, 18:46
Posts: 198
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
If anybody has any quotes from this novel, I would very much like to see them posted - challenge me to read it, and perhaps a few tidbits will persuade me to revise my opinion, as with Where There's a Will for Faterson! :wink:

That's an excellent challenge you put up there, Adonis. 8) I've consulted my notes from my first complete study of the Corpus and, unfortunately, I'll be unable to dispell your doubts about Too Many Clients. :( That's because my notes show I have just one, yes, a single quotation from Too Many Clients that I found worth keeping track of.

Therefore, I went ahead and, an hour ago, created the new collection of quotations from Too Many Clients. I've already posted the single quote I have available; anyway, this particular quote was good enough to warrant a cross-reference to one of your quotes you selected from If Death Ever Slept. The cross-reference relates to the equally mulish character of Wolfe & Archie: another characteristic the two protagonists of the Corpus share, despite all other outward and radical differences between the two.

Wolfe and Archie are frequently perceived as diametrically opposed characters and psychologies. However, as can be seen, there are quite a few things they have in common. Two other commonalities we have discovered so far are: preference for work over personal relationships, especially intimate ones towards women; and dislike of TV. Mulishness is now number 3 on that list :!:

Also, I've permitted myself to insert the standard opening lines of a thread into your first post you commendably made yesterday. :wink: That's because it's useful if the first post in a discussion forum thread contains a direct link to the collection of quotations / novel to which a particular thread is dedicated. The new collection also now contains the reverse link to this thread.

So, it will be up to some other Wolfe fan (or myself when I re-read Too Many Clients in future) to oblige you, Adonis, and select a sufficient number of excerpts to entice you to read Too Many Clients, after all. Maybe Danielle aka Goodwingrad could do that for you, as she did for me with Where There's a Will? :P After all, she's the one who passionately claims the impossible: that all books ever written by any great writer are equally excellent. :roll: If that's true, there should be at the very least 15 selectable quotes from Too Many Clients, though they certainly escaped my notice when I read the novel for the first and only time so far.

Adonis, as a compensation for my failure to oblige you regarding quotations from Too Many Clients, I'm officially announcing you may look forward to seeing many quotations I was able to select from one of your own favorite Wolfe & Archie novels, The Mother Hunt. You started the collection some time ago, and it now contains 11 quotes; there will be several dozen quotes more added by me as soon as I find the time. (Though even their overall number won't come close to the amount of quotes I was able to find in the greatest Rex Stout masterpieces, such as Fer-de-Lance, with 115 quotations, and Too Many Cooks, with 82 excerpts. All of those are coming up later on these webpages.)

Of course, it would be entirely wrong to measure a literary work's quality by the number of quotations one is able to select from it. No, that's definitely wrong. However, the number of available quotations is usually a good indicator of the quality of a literary work. That indicator may not always be reliable, but it frequently is.

Despite my having been unable to select more than just a single quotation from Too Many Clients upon my first reading of the novel, I have pleasant memories of it, unlike with Where There's a Will, where I selected no quotation at all and was sorely disappointed by the novel's insipid nature, as it appeared to me then. In contrast, Too Many Clients seemed to be composed in that “fresh breeze” 1960s style of Rex Stout's, that Adonis appears to dislike so much. There was the lurid, blatantly sexual theme of the novel to make it memorable, for one thing. I also remember Archie waxing lyrical about the unsurpassable beauty of a poor Italian girl. I always enjoy those kinds of romantic scenes and emotions when depicted by Rex Stout; he does them very well, just like the writer he admired most of all, Jane Austen. :D

So, despite the paucity of quotable excerpts, I enjoyed reading Too Many Clients, although I would readily agree it's not one of the finest novels in the Corpus.

AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
a woman must have severely irritated him [Stout] before he started writing! :twisted:

Ah, but don't women irritate us men all the time? :twisted: One of the ways for writers to get back at them has, since time immemorial, been to write an evil short story or novel depicting their shortcomings, isn't that so? Oops, there I go again with one of those politically incorrect statements. :oops:

AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
I don't think there was one balanced woman in the cast - bar Mrs Perez

I can see Nero Wolfe (one of Rex Stout's two alter egos) frowning at the concept of a balanced woman. :lol: He'd no doubt pronounce it to be an oxymoron. :twisted:

AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
what was Wolfe's problem with Julia McGee? I don't know if it was Chaykin's delivery or Stout's dialogue, but I couldn't understand why he was so completely disgusted with her at the end?

I no longer remember this aspect of the story – it wasn't as memorable an installment, I'm afraid. I'll be paying more attention to Julia McGee when I read/watch the story the next time around.


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 12:45
Profile E-mail WWW
User avatar

Joined: Wed, 4 Jul 2007, 16:45
Posts: 101
Location: UK
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
Faterson wrote:
Therefore, I went ahead and, an hour ago, created the new collection of quotations from Too Many Clients.


Thanks for this! :) And for posting at the Nero Wolfe community, asking for contributors - perhaps one of the Oracle, as I like to think of them, will oblige :wink:

faterson wrote:
Wolfe and Archie are frequently perceived as diametrically opposed characters and psychologies. However, as can be seen, there are quite a few things they have in common.


Also, I think Archie is an active, present incarnation of Wolfe's past self - romantic, athletic, too often ruled by his heart and not his head, etc. Although I can barely bring myself to imagine Wolfe as a young man, passionate and energetic, I appreciate that this might be one reason why he first employed Archie, and grows ever more dependent upon his assistant as the years go by - he can see a lot of his former self in him, and enjoys reliving the safer memories of his youth through Archie's work and private life.



faterson wrote:
(Though even their overall number won't come close to the amount of quotes I was able to find in the greatest Rex Stout masterpieces, such as Fer-de-Lance, with 115 quotations, and Too Many Cooks, with 82 excerpts. All of those are coming up later on these webpages.)


Goodness gracious, I thought I was bad! :wink: I do have more quotes than I have uploaded, but most of them are 'reference' excerpts - people's descriptions, addresses, characteristics, etc. For instance, from a couple of the novellas, I have picked up that Archie has three aunts, and once lived on a farm where there were horses, although he doesn't seem too keen on riding any more! I'm not sure why I collect these markers, however - in Fer de Lance, for example, Archie reports that his parents are dead, but Stout resurrects them (or at least his mother) later in the corpus; and then there's Saul and his mythical marriage and family (which doesn't work with my interpretation of the character, who is a 'bachelor', shall we say, through and through).


faterson wrote:
I also remember Archie waxing lyrical about the unsurpassable beauty of a poor Italian girl.


I thought that would impress you, when watching the episode! :wink: Archie is also very protective of her memory, and takes her parents on as clients for a dollar - I admire his motives in that scene, but I am all the more confused as to why Stout would juxtapose such gallantry with the champagne gesture. Is the reader to imply that Dinah Hough 'deserved' it, but that the young girl, Maria, is it, must be avenged? :? Pardon my persistance, I'm just confused.

faterson wrote:
Ah, but don't women irritate us men all the time? :twisted: One of the ways for writers to get back at them has, since time immemorial, been to write an evil short story or novel depicting their shortcomings, isn't that so? Oops, there I go again with one of those politically incorrect statements. :oops:


I'm a 'she', if you haven't already guessed :wink: But I heartily concur that Stout was no doubt merely manipulating women in his books when he apparently could no longer maintain the upper hand in his own home SPOILER ahead! - Julia McGee is bundled up in a quilt, Meg is nearly smothered, Dinah is beaten, Maria is killed - and all for trying to beat men at their own game! :P

_________________
'The discretion of an avalanche'


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 14:35
Profile
site admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat, 7 Oct 2006, 18:46
Posts: 198
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
Goodness gracious, I thought I was bad! :wink: I do have more quotes than I have uploaded, but most of them are 'reference' excerpts - people's descriptions, addresses, characteristics, etc.

You were correct in not uploading mere reference excerpts. Such encyclopedic material perhaps ideally belongs to Wikipedia pages for Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, for example.

Occasionally, you may want to include such reference quotations on these webpages, too (in analyzing the Wolfean characters' traits), but it would seem best if these quotes collections concentrated primarily on the presentation of quality snippets from works of literature, film, etc.

And yes, there are that many wonderful, quality-focused quotations in both Fer-de-Lance and Too Many Cooks. Don't hesitate to post more quotes than you've already posted, Adonis, as long as you feel they serve these pages' purpose: illustrate & analyze the qualities and features of Rex Stout's prose.

Sorry, Adonis (hope you're not offended), for inserting a SPOILER ahead! reference in your previous post. :wink: This really is necessary; there are many people who haven't read or watched Too Many Clients yet, who may be reading this forum thread to get an idea about what the novel might be like – without having important plot elements revealed to them. :D

After all, we want site visitors to bless these pages for their usefulness, not curse them because they might spoil their reading pleasure. 8)

Feel free to discuss any revealing plot elements in Too Many Clients – after all, that's what this thread is intended for – but let's try and precede any particularly revealing comments with a courteous SPOILER alert. :)


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 14:55
Profile E-mail WWW
User avatar

Joined: Sat, 7 Jul 2007, 3:51
Posts: 19
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
Hello you two!

I have been busy as of late with my friends and family, so I haven't been able to do much writing e-mails and such. However, getting Alex's e-mail about Too Many Clients and then reading your posts here, I HAVE to find quotes from TMC now! I will do it! I just recently bought that book, what a coincidence, and was wanting to actually reread it and collect quotes myself. I will do this with a happy heart and shall convince Adonis to read it!

I will do this as quickly as I can because there are many plans for the rest of this month that are going go to keep me busy. Just you wait, you too. I shall prove once again how great Rex Stout's books are! :wink:


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 16:21
Profile WWW
site admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat, 7 Oct 2006, 18:46
Posts: 198
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
Goodwingrad wrote:
I HAVE to find quotes from TMC now! I will do it!

Great :!:

AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
I think Archie is an active, present incarnation of Wolfe's past self

I forgot to add to this that I can't really subscribe to this theory. It's simply unimaginable, to me, that Archie Goodwin could ever degenerate into a Nero Wolfe, however insulting that may sound to hard-core hippopotamus fans. :twisted:

Ultimately, I think that Nero Wolfe as a human being is a freak of nature, something abnormal – a failure in human terms, if you want to use the condemning term. In contrast, Archie is a success as a human being.

So, this is one of those things that make Rex Stout unique among all mystery writers: here, for once, is a Watson that is capable of outshining his Sherlock, albeit on “purely human terms”. But, isn't simply being human what counts most in people's lives :?:

As I said elsewhere, I believe that both Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are Rex Stout's alter egos. However, I would call Nero Wolfe an exaggerated caricature of what a human being should not be like – that is, Wolfe may have been meant by Stout to typify the development of one's own intellect at the cost of the rest of one's personality. (Think of Wolfe's lack of ordinary human warmth, lack of bodily exercise, gluttony, fear of strangers, women, cars, fear of going out, etc. etc.)


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 17:25
Profile E-mail WWW
User avatar

Joined: Wed, 4 Jul 2007, 16:45
Posts: 101
Location: UK
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
Faterson wrote:
Sorry, Adonis (hope you're not offended), for inserting a SPOILER ahead! reference in your previous post. :wink: This really is necessary; there are many people who haven't read or watched Too Many Clients yet, who may be reading this forum thread to get an idea about what the novel might be like – without having important plot elements revealed to them. :D


My apologies! (This is bringing back memories of the Nero Wolfe community.) I'm still not thinking of Too Many Clients in terms of an actual story, possibly because I haven't read the book! :wink: I did hesitate before mentioning Maria, but I thought SPOILER ahead! it might be allowed if I didn't mention who killed her - her death isn't really integral to the plot, it's just unfortunate (although, now I come to think of it, she was hardly innocent herself!) Doesn't that count as a teaser? The blurb on the back of my Raymond Chandler book announces that a certain character is killed, and I hadn't reached that part yet when I belatedly noticed it, but the death is more of a catalyst than a spoiler.

And Goodwingrad - I can't wait! Bring it on! :wink:

_________________
'The discretion of an avalanche'


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 17:30
Profile
User avatar

Joined: Wed, 4 Jul 2007, 16:45
Posts: 101
Location: UK
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
I did hesitate before mentioning Maria, but I thought SPOILER ahead! it might be allowed


Is that irony? :wink:

_________________
'The discretion of an avalanche'


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 17:45
Profile
site admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat, 7 Oct 2006, 18:46
Posts: 198
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
The blurb on the back of my Raymond Chandler book announces that a certain character is killed

That's why I never, ever read any kinds of blurbs, and jump right into the story itself. I hate all manners of spoilers, no matter how insignificant these may seem to some. I do rely heavily on literary critics' recommendations, but those literary critics who are intelligent are capable of recommending a work of literature or film without divulging any elements of the plot. Or, if they can't avoid doing so, they alert the reader of the review well ahead that a spoiler is coming up a few lines below. :)

So, these are the guys I'm trying to emulate in my own Wolfe talk. 8)

Thanks so much, Adonis, for not taking offence at my inserting the SPOILER warnings here and there throughout the site. :)

As evidence that I practise what I preach, take a look at the collection of quotations from Agatha Christie's Death in the Clouds. As you can see, the last 2 quotes in that collection are stridently marked SPOILER.

This means you can rest assured that by reading the non-spoiler quotations on the webpage, none of the important plot elements of that fine Agatha Christie novel will be revealed to you. That's the thing that matters a lot to many readers. 8)

By the way, since we mentioned Ross Macdonald in another thread and I recommended him to any Chandler afficionado, you may want to take a look at an extensive collection of quotes from Ross Macdonald's superb novel The Ivory Grin, available in the old, non-wiki version of this quotations site. (Of course, that collection, just like all the other earlier collections, will be transferred to the new, wiki version of this site later on.) I think the 65 quotes show clearly how excellent Ross Macdonald was at imitating Chandler, while still retaining enough of his own originality to be counted among the finest American mystery writers of all time.

AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
Is that irony? :wink:

Ah, let the past bury its dead, and let's just look ahead into a bright Wolfean future. :P


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 17:54
Profile E-mail WWW
User avatar

Joined: Wed, 4 Jul 2007, 16:45
Posts: 101
Location: UK
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
Faterson wrote:
It's simply unimaginable, to me, that Archie Goodwin could ever degenerate into a Nero Wolfe, however insulting that may sound to hard-core hippopotamus fans. :twisted: ...a failure in human terms ...[Stout's Archie is] a Watson that is capable of outshining his Sherlock ... I would call Nero Wolfe an exaggerated caricature of what a human being should not be like


Little Miss Contrary, here - I'm not a 'hard-core hippopotamus fan' by any means - and I would have to agree that Wolfe is mostly a device, the traditional genius detective with his own brand of idiosyncrasies, but it's those quirks that balance his egomaniacal talent for me. And Archie, of course - I love Wolfe because Archie does.

The main complaint I have with Wolfe is the subconscious itch I detect on the part of Stout to override his genius' shortcomings with a fantastic backstory - sure, he's fat and selectively agoraphobic now, but he was a romantic idealist in his youth, roaming from country to country fighting political injustice; he claims to distrust and avoid the company of women, but had all sorts of entanglements in the past, etc. I know this sounds cockeyed, as it should probably go towards a convincing explanation as to why Wolfe is as he is, but it's all a little hackneyed for me. Why not just have an overweight detective who would prefer not to work, and is certainly not going to transport himself all over New York state if he is made to, who loves his food and his orchids and his books? I like the shared gallantry on the part of Wolfe and Archie, but I would prefer for the distinctions between the two to be just as clear - Archie is the ladies' man, Archie is the active one who walks everywhere. Wolfe has had his day, why keep chipping away at Archie's appeal?

Anyway! I love all of the negative points about Wolfe, and don't regard him as a failure. He wants to stay in the comfort of his own home - and I will admit that the backstory has given him grounds for deserving that right - and 'play with his toys'. What's wrong with that? Sometimes I would much rather read a good book than waste half an hour of my life in smalltalk just because some people can't bear to sit in silence. I also like that his social intellect is somewhat lacking, for all his genius - his sheltered existence has compounded his impatience with fools and liars, and also inflated his own sense of worth (his speeches also annoy me, but I think his pomposity adds to the reverse-charm of the character, and boosts Archie's rating!)

But mostly I love Wolfe for what is not said - his trust and affection for Archie is evident in every story, and yet not once does he say more than 'Satisfactory'. In The League of the Frightened Men, Wolfe leaves the brownstone and lets a woman drive him to an unknown destination in a taxicab - all because Archie is in danger. Every scene like that is a reward for persevering with Wolfe, I find. And why is Fritz so loyal? And why does Cramer have a grudging respect for him? Because they - and the reader - understand what is beneath the attention-seeking and the grandstanding and the self-indulgent daily routines, and that is a very human character who inspires fierce loyalty from the few who are closest to him.

I also agree that Archie is more than a mere bumbling Watson or an affable Hastings - he could leave Wolfe and make a success of his own agency, as most of the tricks and fact-gathering skills that lead up to Wolfe's moments of glory are solely down to Archie's ability as a detective. And he does so in Best Families, of course. But Archie is much more than just a private detective, like Philip Marlowe - he is Wolfe's Archie Goodwin, and he would be a completely different character without playing off his boss. Wolfe brings out so many private angles of Archie's personality - his envy of being replaced, his constant need for approval, his blind good faith in others. Archie just believes that Wolfe has all the answers, and stays as an assistant when he could be his own man - something he often states for effect - because he wants to.

(Did you notice that I delivered that reply in the form of a patented Nero Wolfe lecture, in honour of the fat genius? :wink:) I'm done, now!

_________________
'The discretion of an avalanche'


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 20:47
Profile
site admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat, 7 Oct 2006, 18:46
Posts: 198
New post Re: Too Many Clients - a 1960 Nero Wolfe novel
AdonisGuilfoyle wrote:
Archie is more than a mere bumbling Watson or an affable Hastings

One can't really mention Archie Goodwin and Hastings / Dr. Watson in one breath, though, can one :?: Hastings is a papier-mâché puppet, not a real human being. Likewise, to a smaller degree, Dr. Watson. His only role in the stories is to play the fool and make Sherlock Holmes look smarter by contrast.

If anything, Archie's role in Wolfe stories is exactly the opposite: to make the Big Detective look less grandiose and more fallible, as well as comical. That's a neat twist of the tired old formula that Rex Stout accomplished in the Corpus :!:

Compared to those theoretical writers' constructs (Hastings and Dr. Watson), Archie Goodwin is a full-bloodied human being. He's the one that many readers would preferably choose to identify themselves with, instead of the Big Detective. (In contrast, who would really want to identify themselves with Hastings or Dr. Watson?)

No wonder, then, that Agatha Christie called Archie Goodwin, not Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout's primary achievement.

Such assessment does not take anything away from Nero Wolfe's stature – it adds to it by showing how much more there is in Rex Stout's Wolfe stories than in the commonplace formulaic tales of detection featuring a Big Detective and a Watson.


Tue, 17 Jul 2007, 22:28
Profile E-mail WWW
New post 
What a great discussion! So many interesting ideas.

Foremost, I am afraid I will have to be irritating. I know this is the wrong forum, but I tried earlier to post some quotes from TMC but couldn't navigate the system. :oops:
Since no one else found anything worth quoting, it's probably just as well.
If you wish, you can check chapter 4, page 36 (Archie's AG) and chapter 5, page 47 (Wolfe's opinion of satyrs, old and new and self!!)

Back to irritating in general. Do women irritate men? Absolutely, and it is returned. Can you imagine how boring life would be otherwise?
As for matrimony, it is said, that if it were not for marriage, men would go through life thinking they have no faults at all.
Wolfe is a perfect example of that. He will admit to being magisterial, but does not consider it a fault.

I too cannot see Saul as a family man and his home proves it. (DVD version). Wolfe pronounces it "a good room" - any woman would run screaming into the night, the 3, or was it more, different cheeses notwithstanding.

Stout made Wolfe a lump of grey matter, who detests emotion and feelings. Everyday life in the Brownstone says otherwise.
The 10,000 orchids alone scream passion and anyone who so appreciates and delights in the pleasures of the palate has to be a sensual specimen. He goes to the mat over day-old watercress, the expiration date of summer corn and just how many juniper berries can be tolerated with venison.
Another examole, when Cramer brings Wolfe the gift of an orchid. Archie gives it a miss, whereupon Wolfe accuses Archie of having no sentiment.
From the first i rejected the notion that Wolfe hates music. Impossile. Look at his birthplace. It is surrounded on all sides by countries who produced the greatest music on earth. Montenegro could not have been a barren conclave. Wolfe grew up with music and I don't believe he hated it. Well, maybe for a short time, when someone made him take piano lessons :D , but I'm sure he outgrew that.
Sometimes I think, the only thing wrong with Wolfe is (dare I say it?) . . . Stout. :twisted:

Somewhat OT, am I the only one looking for a hidden P.G. Wodehouse connection? How close of contemporaries were they? Both were writers, both lived and worked in France for a time.
Wodehouse is loved for Jeeves and Wooster. Stout's greatest literary success is Wolfe and Archie - both pseudo father/son teams.
Wodehouse mentions Stour quite often in his stories. Aunt Dahlia is a devoted fan and Bertie even used some direct Wolfe quotes. And then there are the parallels of Anatole and Fritz.
Stout does not seem to return the compliment.

Enough ramblings. I will be looking for more nonexisting quotes.


Thu, 19 Jul 2007, 1:32
User avatar

Joined: Sat, 7 Jul 2007, 3:51
Posts: 19
New post 
starfish wrote:
Somewhat OT, am I the only one looking for a hidden P.G. Wodehouse connection? How close of contemporaries were they? Both were writers, both lived and worked in France for a time. Wodehouse is loved for Jeeves and Wooster. Stout's greatest literary success is Wolfe and Archie - both pseudo father/son teams. Wodehouse mentions Stour quite often in his stories. Aunt Dahlia is a devoted fan and Bertie even used some direct Wolfe quotes. And then there are the parallels of Anatole and Fritz. Stout does not seem to return the compliment.


I will just do this quickly since this is OT and some people really get cranky if OT posts occure in their forums. :wink: However, I just have to say something about this. Just an FYI, I only recently got into Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series, and I also couldn't help but see the similarities! Naturally, I fell in love with the series instantly, and now I'm going to be on a look out for these mentionings of Rex Stout, because I haven't come across them yet. Already, though, Bertie has mentioned Sherlock and Poirot several times and apparently he is a mystery aficionado. Haha! Stout, Christie, Doyle...Wodehouse really knew where it was at. *sigh* I love how all my favorite things connect.

Okay, enough of that. Don't worry Starfish about those quotes you couldn't post because you can't understand the system. I will get them for you because I'm in the process of collecting them. :D


Thu, 19 Jul 2007, 4:11
Profile WWW
site admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat, 7 Oct 2006, 18:46
Posts: 198
New post 
starfish wrote:
I tried earlier to post some quotes from TMC but couldn't navigate the system. :oops:

:o Oh, don't say so. :cry: I took great pains to modify the MediaWiki software for the needs of this site to make adding quotes as easy as can possibly be.

Starfish, I'd be very obliged if you could specifically describe what your problem was. It seems so easy to add quotations I can't imagine what could have gone wrong for you. Here are the 4 simple steps:
That's all that needs to be done, Starfish :!: Can you please let me know which of these 4 steps seemed to pose a problem :?: I'll appreciate your help a lot. It's really my top priority to make the system of adding quotes as simple as can be. Thanks! :D

starfish wrote:
Wodehouse mentions Stout quite often in his stories. [...] Stout does not seem to return the compliment.

It's a well-known fact Stout and Wodehouse had mutual admiration for each other. I don't know any details, though. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I read a quote or two where Stout uttered words of praise for Wodehouse – I'm not sure whether that was through Archie's mouth or whether it was a comment made by him as a writer in an interview, for example.


Thu, 19 Jul 2007, 10:45
Profile E-mail WWW
New post 
Yay! Guess what I did? I collected a bunch of quotes from TMC and are now up for everyone to veiw! What do you think? Sorry, Alex, but I don't know how to do all those little paragraph thingababobs and whatever else you have to do make it look all professional like we actually care about copyrighting and what not. :wink: I wanted to do it myself so you wouldn't have to bother, but I couldn't. Sorry about that. :oops:

Oh! I intend on writing a review for this book too, just because these things need some pizazz. :P

Oh! And Adonis, guess what? You can now officially read Too Many Clients and not be afraid of Archie condoning wife beaters. I've figured the mystery out, though many probably have done before me, but do you want to know why Archie sent the husband champagne? Well, in Yeager's little room of pleasures he served champagne called Dom Perignon. So, when Archie sent the guy Dom Perignon with "Compliments from Archie Goodwin" it was a jab at the husband. Obviously our chivalrous Archie was appalled by what he had done to her, so he rubs it in that she had gone to Yeager's love nest instead of seeking the arms of her husband. Make sense? Of course it does! I'm not just being optimistic. It was a spur of the moment thing that Archie did, and you have to keep your eyes open for clues. Archie's memory is so good he's practically a freak, so you must always remember everything while you read.

I almost missed it too! I nearly squealed when I caught the name of the champagne. No more excuse now, Adonis! 8)


Fri, 20 Jul 2007, 1:07
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 45 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group.
Designed by Vjacheslav Trushkin for Free Forums/DivisionCore.