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A review by lisabethoneil
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume, Fergus Hume (1859-1932)
3.0
Fergus Hume wasn’t originally a writer when he entered a second-hand book store in Melbourne to ask who their bestselling author was. The writer Emile Gaboriau, one of the first names in French mystery fiction, was someone Hume hadn’t heard of but he quickly bought all of Gaboriau’s books intending to write something similar. Hume self-published Mystery of a Hansom Cab in Melbourne, Australia, where his story takes place, but after only earning a small amount from sales he sold the rights to Hansom Cab Publishing Company for 50 pounds.
This would make Hume sound like a hack writer (defined here as a writer who publishes low-quality, often rushed books), which would be correct if discussing any of his numerous other books, but after Hansom Cab Publishing switched to a paper cover the book quickly sold 350,00 thousand copies which made the sales of A Study in Scarlet, the first of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries published the year after, appear insubstantial. Hence, Mystery of a Hansom Cab became the most commercially successful detective fiction of the 19th and 20th centuries.
This begs the question though why the popularity of Hume’s mystery dwindled as the years went by, so much so that many people now wouldn’t know the name Fergus Hume or Mystery of a Hansom Cab while the stories of Sherlock Holmes, who were originally outsold by Hume’s mysteries, became family names.
The mystery presented by Mystery of a Hansom Cab certainly isn’t as convoluted as say an Agatha Christie novel but its turns and changes keep you interested as you read. It’s very much a mystery of the Victorian Period, and many critics and scholars have debated the genre enough that it’s considered a mesh of mystery and sensation.
Early on in the novel Detective Gorby gives a summary of the plot:
"Here’s a man — well, say a gentleman — who gets drunk, and, therefore, don’t know what he’s up to. Another gent who is on the square comes up and sings out for a cab for him — first he says he don’t know him, and then he shows plainly that he does — he walks away in a temper, changes his mind, comes back and gets into the cab, after telling the cabby to drive down to St Kilda. Then he polishes the drunk one off with chloroform, gets out of the cab, jumps into another, and after getting out at Powlett Street, vanishes. . . . There are three things to be discovered — First, Who is the dead man? Second, What was he killed for? And Third, Who did it?”
Like many of the other detective novels in the tradition that Hume’s story helped create, Detective Gorby seems to have an intelligence level unmatched by any of the others in his novel. Like his contemporary, Sherlock Holmes, everyone always seems to be a step behind Gorby. This is made very clear when Gorby quickly realizes that the murder centers on the beautiful and popular Madge Frettlby, who is contending with two romantic rivals intent on her hand, and a mysterious document taken from the dead man’s vest pocket."
A suspect is arrested eventually who stalwartly maintains his innocence but who also refuses to give his alibi, though claiming it could save his life, and eventually tells his beloved that it would curse her life if she learned the secret.
Gorby doesn’t have the bravado of Sherlock Holmes; in fact there isn’t a great detective like Sherlock or Poirot despite being a professional like them. Instead the detective work is shared among a great number of characters. Gorby tracks his chief suspect, the lawyer Calton questions the suspect, Madge desperately seeks to clear her lover’s name, and Gorby’s rival Kilsip seeks information from the back alley’s of Melbourne. The case advances, then takes back-steps, and then reverses completely, all the while becoming more complicated including messages from a dying woman, the last-minute appearance of the key witness, and the tried and true method of the secret from the past.
Due to the popularity of the novel, Mystery of a Hansom Cab was adapted into a play, and three movies. Both the 1911 movie and the 1925 movie got fairly good reviews but have since been lost. The most recent telefilm, made in 2012, got very bad reviews. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation gave it 2/5 stars. Judging from the trailer, and the fact that the entire 100-minutes long film is on youtube, the reviews are right. So few people have seemed to want to watch it that all the major critics haven’t even seen the film.
This would make Hume sound like a hack writer (defined here as a writer who publishes low-quality, often rushed books), which would be correct if discussing any of his numerous other books, but after Hansom Cab Publishing switched to a paper cover the book quickly sold 350,00 thousand copies which made the sales of A Study in Scarlet, the first of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries published the year after, appear insubstantial. Hence, Mystery of a Hansom Cab became the most commercially successful detective fiction of the 19th and 20th centuries.
This begs the question though why the popularity of Hume’s mystery dwindled as the years went by, so much so that many people now wouldn’t know the name Fergus Hume or Mystery of a Hansom Cab while the stories of Sherlock Holmes, who were originally outsold by Hume’s mysteries, became family names.
The mystery presented by Mystery of a Hansom Cab certainly isn’t as convoluted as say an Agatha Christie novel but its turns and changes keep you interested as you read. It’s very much a mystery of the Victorian Period, and many critics and scholars have debated the genre enough that it’s considered a mesh of mystery and sensation.
Early on in the novel Detective Gorby gives a summary of the plot:
"Here’s a man — well, say a gentleman — who gets drunk, and, therefore, don’t know what he’s up to. Another gent who is on the square comes up and sings out for a cab for him — first he says he don’t know him, and then he shows plainly that he does — he walks away in a temper, changes his mind, comes back and gets into the cab, after telling the cabby to drive down to St Kilda. Then he polishes the drunk one off with chloroform, gets out of the cab, jumps into another, and after getting out at Powlett Street, vanishes. . . . There are three things to be discovered — First, Who is the dead man? Second, What was he killed for? And Third, Who did it?”
Like many of the other detective novels in the tradition that Hume’s story helped create, Detective Gorby seems to have an intelligence level unmatched by any of the others in his novel. Like his contemporary, Sherlock Holmes, everyone always seems to be a step behind Gorby. This is made very clear when Gorby quickly realizes that the murder centers on the beautiful and popular Madge Frettlby, who is contending with two romantic rivals intent on her hand, and a mysterious document taken from the dead man’s vest pocket."
A suspect is arrested eventually who stalwartly maintains his innocence but who also refuses to give his alibi, though claiming it could save his life, and eventually tells his beloved that it would curse her life if she learned the secret.
Gorby doesn’t have the bravado of Sherlock Holmes; in fact there isn’t a great detective like Sherlock or Poirot despite being a professional like them. Instead the detective work is shared among a great number of characters. Gorby tracks his chief suspect, the lawyer Calton questions the suspect, Madge desperately seeks to clear her lover’s name, and Gorby’s rival Kilsip seeks information from the back alley’s of Melbourne. The case advances, then takes back-steps, and then reverses completely, all the while becoming more complicated including messages from a dying woman, the last-minute appearance of the key witness, and the tried and true method of the secret from the past.
Due to the popularity of the novel, Mystery of a Hansom Cab was adapted into a play, and three movies. Both the 1911 movie and the 1925 movie got fairly good reviews but have since been lost. The most recent telefilm, made in 2012, got very bad reviews. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation gave it 2/5 stars. Judging from the trailer, and the fact that the entire 100-minutes long film is on youtube, the reviews are right. So few people have seemed to want to watch it that all the major critics haven’t even seen the film.