Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Jules de Grandin

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are those who are critical of the language of Jules de Grandin. Real Frenchmen don't talk like that, they say, and many of his expressions ("By the beard of a goldfish!") are simply nonsensical. And besides, they promote ethnic stereotyping. I profess a certain fondness for the pyrotechnic language of the old rascal, myself. One of my all-time favorites is: "If it be not so, may Jules de Grandin roast in hell with Judas Iscariot on his left and the one who invented Prohibition on his right!"


Here are a sampling of other gems from _The Adventures of Jules de Grandin_:"_Mort d'un rat rouge_, do you say so?" (17); "Ah bah! Always you must be casting a wet blanket on the parade" (52);"Name of a little blue man!" (53); "Death of my life!" (53); "_Par la moustache du diable_" (53);"Prepare to meet a fully tailored porker before you are much older" (118); "Shall Jules de Grandin be made a fool of twice in one night? Not if he knows it!" (215); "Is there a connection between the devil and the flames of hell?... Yes, my friend" (225); "And the great thirst of the great desert is reflected in Jules de Grandin" (200).


There is other dialect as well in the de Grandin stories. Most noteably, there is the Irish dialect of Detective Sergeant Costello: "I haven't any more idea of what the pitch is than what th' King of Siam had for breakfast this mornin'" (44); "Looks like we've got to find some gink with a Fad for grave robbin', don't it, Dr. Grandin?" (125); "Och, Dr. Grandin, what would we do if we saw a poison snake on th' sidewalk an' us with a jolly bit o' blackthorn in our hands?" (135).


And what of the stories themselves? There are seven stories in the collection, originally published in _Weird Tales_ between 1926 and 1929. All feature the psychic detective Jules de Grandin and his companion Dr. Trowbridge, and they all take place in or around Harrisonville, New Jersey. Some of the antagonists, such as those in "Children of Ubasti" and "The Corpse Master," are monsterous and evil creatures who deserve their bad end. Others, like those in "Ancient Fires" and "The Snake Woman," are much more sympathetic. One of the most interesting stories for me was "The Chapel of Mystic Horror," which draws on legends of the Knights Templar.


If you are tolerant of a certain amount of comical dialect (as I am), you are likely to enjoy these tales. Seabury Quinn was not a great writer; but then, he never pretended to be one. He was a competent craftsman, and his stories contain a certain amount of gusto and good cheer.

I became familiar with this character totally by chance. When the paperback collection was released in the 70s, I was baited by the tag line calling him a "supernatural Sherlock Holmes". The stories are well written almost to the point of classic literature, introducing characters with a taste for excitement, a never-ending knowledge of the bizarre and an interesting sense of justice (The Corpse-Master from "the Casebook Of Jules de Grandin" is an excellent example this.) Who cares if a few of the stories were a little campy, even those tales were fun to read. Since I bought the collection in the seventies, I've lost two of the volumes to "Acts Of God" but the four survivors have remained a treasured part of my library, worthy of rereading several times.

I first became aware of the Jules DeGrandin stories by sheer luck. When a collection of stories was made available in the 70s I was suckered in by the the thought of an "Occult Hercules Poirot." What I found in these books, were a true gems. Since his introduction into my library, I have never been without his stories. His stories are interesting, his approach to supernatural detection are fun and his sense of justice are quite entertaining. If you like Sherlock Holmes and wonder what he would do against a more supernatural opponent, you'll love these stories.