Customer Reviews

Fer-de-Lance

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Compose yourself, Archie. Why taunt me? Why upbraid me? I am merely a genius, not a god. -Nero Wolfe

Rex Stout was in the midst of an unusually interesting life (including being a child math prodigy and serving on President Theodore Roosevelt's yacht) when he created one of the great detective series of all time, introducing Nero Wolfe for the first of 72 adventures in Fer-de-Lance. The brilliance of Stout's creation lies in the blending of Wolfe--an eccentric, elephantine, misanthropic, misogynistic, beer guzzling, gourmand--and his footman, Archie Goodwin--a classic, wise cracking, hard boiled dick. The combination, sort of like teaming Mycroft Holmes and Sam Spade, allowed him to use the best elements of both the British drawing room mystery and the American private eye novel. The result has enchanted readers for almost 70 years. Fans include everyone from Oliver Wendell Holmes to PG Wodehouse, James M. Cain to Kingsley Amis.

Nero Wolfe, logging in around 280 lbs and quaffing 6 quarts of beer a day, rarely leaves his 35th Street brownstone in Manhattan, preferring to tend his orchids and worry over the exquisite meals prepared by his butler/chef Fritz. To support his high living, Wolfe takes on investigations in a very unofficial capacity, relying on Goodwin to do the physical work and periodically summoning the principals in a case to his home for an exhibition of his deductive genius. His arrogant manner is nicely captured in the following admonition to a sporting goods salesman who has condescendingly demonstrated the proper use of golf clubs:

You know, Mr. Townsend, it is our good fortune that the exigencies of birth and training furnish all of us with opportunities for snobbery. My ignorance of this special nomenclature provided yours; your innocence of the elementary processes provides mine.

Meanwhile, Archie narrates the stories in the familiar sardonic banter of the great noir novels:

When I consider the different kinds I've seen it seems silly to say it, but somehow to me all lawyers look alike. It's a sort of mixture of a scared look and a satisfied look, as if they were crossing a traffic-filled street where they expect to get run over any minute but they know exactly what kind of paper to hand the driver if they get killed and they've got one right in their pocket.

This sets up an amusing dramatic tension between the two, as when Nero tells Archie:

Sit down. I would prefer to have you here, idle and useless...As I have remarked before, to have you with me like this is always refreshing because it constantly reminds me how distressing it would be to have someone present--a wife, for instance--whom I could not dismiss at will.

Lest it seem that Wolfe is to much of an egomaniac to be tolerated, Archie makes it clear that he stays around just for the sheer joy of watching the elephantine savant in action and Wolfe himself acknowledges that much of his facade is mere pretense when a District Attorney commands his presence in Westchester, he tells Archie to refuse, saying "I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action." And Wolfe sometimes lets slip his admiration for Archie, telling a witness in the case, "Mr. Goodwin is a man of discretion, common decency and immeasurable valor."

It has long been a theory of mine that if you create characters of sufficient interest to enrapture your audience, you can get away with not always cranking out a top flight story, we'll show up just to spend some time with familiar friends (this carried Magnum PI and Cheers through some mighty lean episodes & even whole seasons). Nero and Archie are always worth a visit, never more so than in this their inaugural case.

GRADE: A

Rex Stout wrote 47 Nero Wolfe books. Some are great, some are good, none are bad. You might as well start with the first one -- and if you like it, you will read them all.

I think my main takeaway is how books written 60 years in the past can be so topical. No more 5 cent phone calls, or having to go to a drugstore to make a call, or having Archie gripe about having to pay for two sandwiches costing a total of 95 cents -- yet Rex Stout engrosses you in his mysteries as if they were contemporary.

I read all of them I could get from libraries in the 1960's -- now I have chosen to listen to the whole series read by Michael Prichard. I own them all on tape, and I'm currently on number 18, taking my delicatable time.

The fact that they were written that long ago sets the hook -- this is not a contemporary writer trying to recreate the past, but a writer writing in the here and now, it seems.

Just as we get comfortable with characters in modern TV series, so will you get comfortable with the idiosycracies of Wolfe and Goodwin. You will have a compulsive desire to read them all -- which is why this remains an immensely popular series. Read two or three, and if you think you are a mystery fan ..... and don't get hooked ..... then switch to romance novels.

Rex Stout was truly an amazing man. (A brief bio is included in the Bantam Crime Line series.) He published his very first Nero Wolfe novel at the age of 48, after having completed extraordinary careers as a warrant officer on Theodore Roosevelt's yacht, a sightseeing guide, a bookkeeper, and devising a banking system. (Whew!) While "Fer-De-Lance" is not the best Wolfe story, it is the first. I originally read all the novels as I found them and am now reading them in chronological order. It really doesn't matter what order you take them in. Just try one or two. For those who are unfamiliar with the Wolfe novels, Nero Wolfe is a New York private detective who detests work, spends four hours a day cultivating his orchids, drinks gallons of beer, and tolerates women only when absolutely necessary. His assistant, Archie Goodwin, does the legwork for Wolfe. Goodwin is a good looking, wise-cracking, milk-drinking foil for Wolfe. Other assorted characters appear from time to time who are just as colorful. The great thing about the Wolfe novels is the way that Stout brings each character to life. To be honest, you really don't care that much "whodunnit" because the characters and atmosphere are so entertaining. A great, great series. If you've never tried them, what are you waiting for?

Nero Wolfe is one of the most famous detectives in fiction. Wolfe is a genius for solving murders but that is not what makes these books worth reading. It is Wolfe's eccentricities combined with the narration of Wolfe's assistant, Archie Goodwin. Rex Stout displays clever and funny writing (especially the dialogs), to keep the story moving. Nero Wolfe is, of course, the incredibly obese detective who rarely leaves his apartment in Manhattan but sends Archie Goodwin, (his hardboiled, skirt-chasing assistant) to gather evidence for him so that Wolfe can sit in his chair and solve the case.

Fer-De-Lance is the first book in the Nero Wolfe series (there are 73 in the series) and it is amazing how fully developed the characters were even in this first book. It has been said that that you can pick up any of the novels in any order and you won't feel out of place. In this story, Wolfe is short of money (a perennial problem as he lives in an expensive apartment, with a chef, a gardener to maintain his precious orchids, and Archie on staff). Wolfe first needs to find a case that can pay him enough and he is lucky enough to find a convenient murder and even better he has a clue that the police don't have as he knows another murder is linked to the first. Slowly, and yet inexorably, Wolfe reels in the murderer and solves the case.

But solving the murder is only a small part of the story. It is the narration of Archie Goodwin, the wonderful dialog, and the uniqueness of Nero Wolfe, that make this a fun story to read. There is little mystery in the actual murder but watching Wolfe crack the case and figure out how to get the evidence against the killer is pure joy.

After watching the Nero Wolfe episodes from A & E, brilliantly rendered by Timothy Hutton and company, I am finally getting around to reading these terrific books. I am starting at the beginning, and am enjoying myself enormously. According to many readers and Amazon reviewers, I have a lot to look forward to, because they get even better than this book. Hooray! But one star off and a poke in the eye to Bantam Crime Line. There are irritating and unnecessary typos in this edition. These wonderful books (and their fans!) deserve better.

Rex Stout was a prolific writer. Like Edgar Rice Burroughs, he was also adept at getting paid. Over the decades, the characterizations of Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe underwent a slow metamorphosis. The characters became slightly softer as Stout's readership grew. But that's not how things started.

"Fer-De-Lance" was the first Nero Wolfe novel, and it's a bit more hard-boiled. The Nero Wolfe of this book is cold and somewhat ruthless, certainly as assured of his own genius as Howard Roark in Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead". Archie Goodwin is a glib tough guy, brilliant in his own right, and Inspector Cramer truly does hate Wolfe (unlike later tales, when he seems almost amiable).

With so many Nero Wolfe books available, I think it's important that this be the first you read. It is undistilled brilliance. When suspicious characters or bloated egos encounter Wolfe's cunning, incisive interrogation, the result is quite entertaining.

This one started it all and is the best one of all.

The old cliche, "Does he have a book in him?" applies absolutely here. Stout began his long writing career after a string of entrepreneurial business successes. He published this during prohibition and experienced a quick, deserved success.

Fans of the gargantuan appreciate many dimensions of Stout's clean, well-lighted place: Archie's wisecracks and lifestyle, his internal ruminations. But I like best Wolfe's observations about life, and this book is extremely rich in them - more so than any other book, I believe.

Among all the books, this one has the cleverest murder technique and one of the most subtle plot setups. Beware, though: it also contains some blunt instruments of racism and prejudice along for the ride.

What a great book, though. If you've never read any of the series, please start here if you can manage.

The Nero Wolfe series is absolutely outstanding, and this book serves as a good introduction for it. The plot concerns an Italian immigrant and a university president who have just been killed. Although there seems to be no link between the two, Wolfe discovers it and exploits it to expose a killer.

Don't expect an Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes plot for this novel--Stout wrote good mysteries, but his gems are in his characters. Wolfe, the overweight, orchid-loving, car-fearing gourmand, and his sidekick Archie, the epitome of the 1930's fast-talking, sarcastic detective, are lovable right from the beginning. Although Stout still has a few details to work out, the set-up is the same in this book as it is in the last. That isn't to say Stout didn't improve it--he didn't have to; it was perfect from the start. He achieved the rare find in the world of mystery--FOUR-dimensional characters in a plausible setting with a credible mystery.

Bottom Line: Serves as a good introduction, but don't expect a great mystery, just exemplary characters!! Make certain you get the Bantam Crime Line edition--it comes with an introduction and trivia about Nero Wolfe at the end of the novel--great for either the beginning reader or the long-time fan.

This is the first Nero Wolfe novel but not the first Nero Wolfe investigation: Nero and Archie have been together for some years, and some people owe them great debts of gratitude. Like many later stories, this is largely set in Westchester County. There is a definite affinity with P. G. Wodehouse in the mixture of accuracy and escapist fantasy.

Rex Stout is one of my favorite authors of all time. If you're new to his works, beware, you'll become addicted. But that isn't such a bad thing, he was a prolific writer and you'll not soon run out of material. Fer-De-Lance is the first Stout published about the now famous team of inspiring, albeit grumpy and slighly neurotic, genius detective Nero Wolfe and charming legman Archie Goodwin, who frequently purposely ruffles Nero's feathers. This book is definitely worth reading. Highly entertaining, with one caveat: if you have never read Wolfe before, begin with a different one as your very first. Try Some buried Caesar, or The Silent Speaker first to help you develop a feel for this incredible duo....then I think you'll appreciate Fer-De-Lance more. (You can also find Nero Wolfe on cable TV... a serious treat for any Wolfe fan) Enjoy!