This is a pop-up window in case somebody objects to an apparent violation of copyright laws, in which case it is easy to remove. If the Philo Vance novels are still covered by copyright (last I saw was ©1957 Beverly Wright), then I apologize for extracting a substantial, more than 'fair-use', section on this page, and will take it off. There is no intention on my part of making money out of this usage. -- Grobius
A Classic Philo Vance MomentVance himself had taken the case with unwonted seriousness. His Menander translations had been definitely put aside.[His current project was 'the uniform translation of the principal fragments of Menander found in the Egyptian papyri'.] He became moody and waspish -- a sure sign that his mind was busy with an absorbing problem. After dinner each night he went into his library and read for hours -- not the classic and aesthetic volumes on which he generally spent his time, but such books as Bernard Hart's The Psychology of Insanity, Freud's Der Witz und Seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten, Coriat's Abnormal Psychology and Repressed Emotions, Lippo's Komik und Humor, Daniel A. Huebsch's The Murder Complex, Janet's Les Obsessions et la Psychasthènie, Donath's Über Arithmomanie, Riklin's Wish Fulfillment and Fairy Tales, Leppman's Die forensische Bedeutung der Zwangsvorstellungen, Kelo Fischer's Über den Witz, Erich Wullfen's Kriminalpsychologie, Hollenden's The Insanity of Genius, and Groos's Die Spiele des Menschen. [He had these books in his personal library?!] He spent hours going over the police reports....He had a long discussion one night with *** on de Sitter's conception of physical space as a Lobatchewskian pseudosphere, his object being, I surmised, to acquaint himself with ***'s mentality. He read ***'s book, World Lines in Multidimensional Continua, and spent nearly an entire day studying Janowski's and Tarrasch's analyses of the Pardee gambit [a chess-playing suspect's claim to fame]. On Sunday -- eight days after the murder [by bow and arrow] of [Cock] Robin [by 'Sparrow'] -- he said to me, "Eheu, Van! This problem is unbelievably subtle. No ordin'ry investigation will ever probe it. It lies in a strange territ'ry of the brain; and its superficial childishness is its most terrible and bafflin' aspect. Nor is the perpetrator going to be content with a single coup....The perverted imagination that concocted this beastly crime is insatiable...." The Bishop Murder Case (© 1928), by S.S. Van DineI think the author would like us to believe that he has himself read all these books he references in the Philo Vance series, but it's more likely he used the card catalogue in the New York Public Library just to dig up titles. -- Grobius |