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A review by slippy_underfoot
Kind Hearts and Coronets: Israel Rank by Roy Horniman
4.0
Oh, I did enjoy that.
It wasn’t as tight and smart as Kind Hearts and Coronets, the film which it inspired, but it was if anything darker and more carnal - quite unexpected in a novel from 1907.
Edwardian England. The protagonist, the eponymous Israel Rank, son of an aristocratic Englishwoman, disowned by her family for marrying a Jewish commoner, sets his sights on avenging her by killing everyone who stands between him and his inheritance of the Gascoyne Earldom.
The book is written in the lovely, rich, and witty Edwardian style you’ll know if you are familiar with the work of Jerome K. Jerome, Oscar Wilde, or George and Weedon Grossmith.
“There are few who would be willing to risk the fury of mankind by giving an accurate description of their lives and actions.”
“Yes, I am afraid we men are very selfish, that is, until we have wives and daughters of our own. The possession of sisters does not seem to instil the same sense of responsibility to woman-kind.”
Rank is by turns a winning and disturbing presence, witty and clever but also manipulative, cold and dissembling. He’s a narcissist who can always find some sophisticated justification for his horrific scheme, making great claims about his finer qualities and capacity for advanced thought.
It is of its time, for sure, so it pays to be aware that the racial and social profiling can make for uncomfortable reading these days, but I have to say that - by imbuing such a horrible character with these views - it appears that Horniman is satirising rather than endorsing these attitudes.
It wasn’t as tight and smart as Kind Hearts and Coronets, the film which it inspired, but it was if anything darker and more carnal - quite unexpected in a novel from 1907.
Edwardian England. The protagonist, the eponymous Israel Rank, son of an aristocratic Englishwoman, disowned by her family for marrying a Jewish commoner, sets his sights on avenging her by killing everyone who stands between him and his inheritance of the Gascoyne Earldom.
The book is written in the lovely, rich, and witty Edwardian style you’ll know if you are familiar with the work of Jerome K. Jerome, Oscar Wilde, or George and Weedon Grossmith.
“There are few who would be willing to risk the fury of mankind by giving an accurate description of their lives and actions.”
“Yes, I am afraid we men are very selfish, that is, until we have wives and daughters of our own. The possession of sisters does not seem to instil the same sense of responsibility to woman-kind.”
Rank is by turns a winning and disturbing presence, witty and clever but also manipulative, cold and dissembling. He’s a narcissist who can always find some sophisticated justification for his horrific scheme, making great claims about his finer qualities and capacity for advanced thought.
It is of its time, for sure, so it pays to be aware that the racial and social profiling can make for uncomfortable reading these days, but I have to say that - by imbuing such a horrible character with these views - it appears that Horniman is satirising rather than endorsing these attitudes.