Fer-de-Lance (book)

infobox Book |
name = Fer-de-Lance
title_orig =
translator =


author = Rex Stout
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Nero Wolfe
genre = Detective fiction
publisher = Farrar & Rinehart
release_date = October 24, 1934
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 313 pp. (first edition)
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by = The League of Frightened Men

"Fer-de-Lance" is the first Nero Wolfe detective novel written by Rex Stout, published in 1934 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. The novel appeared in abridged form in "The American Magazine" (November 1934) under the title "Point of Death." The novel was adapted for the 1936 movie "Meet Nero Wolfe".

Plot introduction

The first Nero Wolfe mystery involves the death of a college president while playing golf in Westchester County, New York. Although the characters are not as fully developed as they would become later in the series, the essential characteristics of Wolfe, Archie, and several other regulars already are clearly present.

As the first novel in the series, "Fer-de-Lance" introduces Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, Fritz Brenner, Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, Orrie Cather and other characters who recur throughout the entire corpus. Its descriptions of Wolfe's Manhattan brownstone conflict with the established architecture set down by Stout in all subsequent novels and stories, so may be viewed as somewhat non-canonical. Likewise, the characters have slightly different personalities. Wolfe's manner of speaking is notably more baroque and long-winded than in later stories.

The story's title is the common name of "Bothrops atrox", a venomous South American snake. ["Fer-de-Lance", chapter 16]

Plot summary

Maria Maffei, a family friend of one of his sometime employees Fred Durkin, appeals to Wolfe to locate her missing brother Carlo, a metalworker. Wolfe, affected by the Depression, decides to take the job, although it is unappealing to him. Archie locates Anna Fiore, a girl who listened in on a phone call Carlo received at his boarding-house. Wolfe learns from her that Carlo had clipped a story from a copy of the "New York Times" about the sudden death (apparently by stroke) of Peter Oliver Barstow, president of Holland College. Before Wolfe makes any more progress, Carlo Maffei is found stabbed in the back in the countryside. His sister says she will pay Wolfe to find his killer, so he keeps working.

After consulting with a sports equipment dealer, Wolfe conjectures that Barstow had been murdered, that his own golf club had been the murder weapon, and that Carlo Maffei had been hired to construct it. He further speculates that whoever ordered the weapon killed Maffei to keep him silent.

The unfamiliar word

In most Nero Wolfe novels and novellas, there is at least one unfamiliar word.

* Myrmidon, chapter 13. While on his way to see D.A. Anderson in White Plains, Archie remarks, "And here was I ... headed for a revelation to the District Attorney that would probably result in my having the pleasure of meeting H.R. Corbett or some other flat-footed myrmidon in the anteroom of E. D. Kimball's office — and wouldn't that have been nice?" [ "Fer-de-Lance", Farrar & Rinehart edition, pages 193–194. A myrmidon is an unquestioning follower or subordinate who carries out orders without scruple or hesitation.]

Cast of characters

*Nero Wolfe — The private investigator
*Archie Goodwin — Wolfe's assistant, and the narrator of all Wolfe stories
*Carlo Maffei — Italian-American metalworker whose disappearance forces Wolfe to begin working
*Maria Maffei — Sister of Carlo Maffei and friend of Fred Durkin's wife
*Peter Oliver Barstow — President of Holland College, whose bizarre death on a golf course is the key to the mystery
*Lawrence Barstow — Peter Barstow's son, who was with him when he died
*Ellen Barstow — Widow of Peter Barstow
*Sarah Barstow — Peter Barstow's daughter
*E.J. Kimball — Grain broker who was one of the foursome when Barstow died
*Manuel Kimball — E.J. Kimball's son who was also one of the foursome
*Anna Fiore — Cleaning girl at Carlo Maffei's boarding house
*Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, Orrie Cather and Bill Gore — Freelance detectives employed by Wolfe

Reviews and commentary

* Isaac Anderson, "The New York Times Book Review" — Several times in the course of this story Nero Wolfe is called a genius. The term is painfully inadequate, but it is the best that the dictionary offers ... The only thing that he does not know at the very beginning is the identity of the murderer. That he is to learn later, and the method he chooses for revealing his knowledge to the authorities provides a sensational concluding chapter for a story that abounds in surprises. Nero Wolfe is so fat that locomotion is next to impossible for him. For his fact-finding he depends upon his secretary, Archie, and it is the latter who tells the tale. The author has done a clever bit of work in making the narrative style employed by Archie correspond so exactly to his character and attainments as they are revealed in little touches here and there throughout the book. [Anderson, Isaac, "The New York Times Book Review"; October 28, 1934, p. 18. "Right off, Archie had stolen a major reviewer out from under Wolfe's nose," wrote John McAleer in "Rex Stout: A Biography" (p. 256). "There was to be no helping this. But it was no misfortune. If you bought Archie, sooner or later you would buy Wolfe, too. There was no other way to go. That was all the encouragement Rex needed. Wolfe had survived the journey of creation."]

* Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, "A Catalogue of Crime" — The first and longest of the Nero Wolfe stories, in which all the familiar characters and their habits get established. The murder is done by means of a golf club -- the implement, not the membership -- and it entangles a college president, a baby, some Italian nondescripts, and much philosophizing by Wolfe and futilizing by the police.Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. "A Catalogue of Crime". New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. ISBN 0-06-015796-8]

* John McAleer, "Rex Stout: A Biography" — Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes died on 6 March 1935, at ninety-four. During the last year of his life he read "Fer-de-Lance". After his death, a marginal note he had made was found. Carl Van Doren got hold of it and showed it to Rex. It read, "This fellow is the best of them all." Another early and steadfast admirer was William Faulkner. Carvell Collins, whom Faulkner picked as his literary executor, says: "Among the detective fiction Faulkner read — and it was of considerable quantity — he especially liked that by Rex Stout. One of Mr. Stout's novels which was singled out was "Fer-de-Lance". [McAleer, John, "Rex Stout: A Biography" (1977, Little, Brown and Company; ISBN 0316553409), p. 256]

* J. Kenneth Van Dover, "At Wolfe's Door" — The basic conventions are all in evidence — Wolfe's obesity, immobility, daily routines, elegant diction. Panzer, Durkin, Cather, and Gore debut in supporting roles. Wolfe and Archie engage in typical squabbles; Wolfe is gratuitously and offensively curt to certain callers, and is an irresistible host to others. His ethical standards are unusually idiosyncratic... [Van Dover, J. Kenneth, "At Wolfe's Door: The Nero Wolfe Novels of Rex Stout" (1991, Borgo Press, Mitford Series; second edition 2003, James A. Rock & Co., Publishers; Hardcover ISBN 091873651X / Paperback ISBN 0918736528); p. 7]

Adaptations

"Meet Nero Wolfe"

Columbia Pictures adapted the first Nero Wolfe novel for the screen in 1936, as "Meet Nero Wolfe". Herbert Biberman directed a cast that included Edward Arnold as Wolfe; Lionel Stander as Archie Goodwin; John Qualen as Olaf, Wolfe's Scandinavian chef; and a young Rita Hayworth (then Rita Cansino) as Maria Maringola, who sets the story in motion when she asks for Wolfe's help in finding her missing brother, Carlo.

In 2002 "Scarlet Street" magazine revisited the film — little seen in the years after its release — finding it neither the travesty it is sometimes thought to be, nor a faithful recreation of the world of Nero Wolfe. "Judging the film as a film and dismissing questions of fidelity to the source material, "Meet Nero Wolfe" is an above average minor A picture, a solid mystery, and unfailingly entertaining," the magazine reported. "No, at bottom, it's not Rex Stout's Nero and Archie, but it's a well-developed mystery (thanks to Stout's plot) with compensations all its own — and an interesting piece of Wolfeana." [Hanke, Ken, "Meet Nero Wolfe"; "Scarlet Street", issue #45, 2002, p. 77]

Publication history

*1934, "The American Magazine", abridged as "Point of Death," November 1934
*1934, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, October 24, 1934, hardcover:In his limited-edition pamphlet, "Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I", Otto Penzler describes the "notoriously rare" first edition of "Fer-de-Lance": "Black cloth, front cover and spine stamped with gold lettering; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly black, pink and green pictorial dust wrapper … As is true of all the Nero Wolfe novels published by Farrar & Rinehart, the first edition may be identified by the appearance of the publisher's monogram logo on the copyright page. If no logo appears on the copyright page the book is a later printing." [Penzler, Otto, "Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I" (2001, New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, limited edition of 250 copies) p. 9] :Farrar & Rinehart issued a second printing in December 1934, and a third printing in October 1935.Townsend, Guy M., "Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography" (1980, Garland Publishing; ISBN 0824094794), p. 7] :In April 2006, "Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine" estimated that the first edition of "Fer-de-Lance" had a value of "$15,000 and up." [Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." "Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine" (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 32]
*1934, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1934, hardcover
*1934, Brooklyn, NY: Junior Book Club, 1934, hardcover
*1935, London: Cassell, 1935, hardcover
*1936, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, June 1936, hardcover
*1941, New York: Pocket Books, July 1941, paperback
* New York: Lawrence E. Spivak, Mercury Mystery #37, not dated, abridged as "Meet Nero Wolfe," paperback
*1953, "Verdict", June–October 1953, paperback
*1955, London: Penguin, 1955, paperback
*1958, New York: Dell Great Mystery Library, March 1958, paperback
*1964, New York: Pyramid (Green Door), February 1964, paperback
*1965, New York: Viking, "Royal Flush" (with "Murder by the Book" and "Three Witnesses"), July 23, 1965, hardcover
*1997, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 0553278194 January 1997, paperback
*1998, New York: Otto Penzler Books (Otto Penzler's First Edition Library) ISBN 1883402174 February 1998, hardcover (facsimile first edition)
*2004, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 1572703881 May 2004, audio CD (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
*2008, New York: Bantam Dell Publishing Group (with "The League of Frightened Men") ISBN 0553385453 June 2008, paperback

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0027952|title=Meet Nero Wolfe

The unfamiliar word
*Wiktionary-inline|myrmidon