Clouds of Witness
Encyclopedia
Clouds of Witness is a 1926
1926 in literature
The year 1926 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is founded in Middlebury, Vermont....

 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...

, the second in her series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...

.

It was adapted for television in 1972, as part of a series starring Ian Carmichael
Ian Carmichael
Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...

 as Lord Peter.

Plot introduction

The fiancé of Lord Peter's sister, Lady Mary Wimsey, is found dead outside the conservatory of the family's shooting lodge in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. Peter and Mary's elder brother, the Duke of Denver, is charged with wilful murder and put on trial in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

.

Explanation of the novel's title

The novel's title alludes to Hebrews 12:1: "we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses", as well as to G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....

's short story "The Man in the Passage", where this reference to the Bible hints to the literary motif of mirrors and reflections, symbolizing the difficulties of human perception. In solving the mystery, Lord Peter's problem is the opposite of the usual case: rather than having too few clues to go on, there are too many, and Peter pursues several avenues that turn out to be false before hitting on what really happened.

Plot summary

After the events of Whose Body?
Whose Body?
Whose Body? is a 1923 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, which introduced the character of Lord Peter Wimsey.-Plot introduction:Lord Peter is intrigued by the sudden appearance of a naked body in the bath of an architect, and investigates...

, Lord Peter Wimsey goes on an extended holiday in Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

. Returning to Paris, he receives the news that his sister Mary's fiancé, Captain Denis Cathcart, has been found shot dead outside the Wimseys' shooting lodge at Riddlesdale in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. His brother, Gerald, Duke of Denver, has been arrested for the murder. Cathcart was killed by a bullet from Denver's revolver, and Denver's only alibi is that he was out for a walk at the time Cathcart died. Gerald admits that he quarrelled with Cathcart earlier that night, having received a letter from a friend which told him that Cathcart had been in trouble in Paris for cheating at cards. Later that night, Mary went outside and found Gerald kneeling over Cathcart's body.

Peter and his close friend, Inspector Charles Parker
Charles Parker (detective)
Charles Parker is a fictional police detective who appears in several Lord Peter Wimsey stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, and eventually becomes Lord Peter's brother-in-law.He is first introduced in Whose Body? as a Detective Inspector from Scotland Yard...

, investigate the grounds, and find several tantalizing clues: footprints belonging to a strange man, motorcycle tracks outside the grounds and a piece of jewellery, a lucky charm in the shape of a cat. They also agree that both Gerald and Mary are hiding something; Gerald stubbornly refuses to budge from his story that he was out for a walk, and Mary is faking a severe illness to avoid talking to anyone.

In the course of the following weeks, Peter investigates several false avenues. The man with the footprints turns out to be Mary's secret fiancé, Goyles, a radical Socialist agitator considered "an unsuitable match" by her family, who was meeting Mary to elope with her. She had been covering for him on the assumption that he killed Cathcart, but when Goyles is caught, he admits that he simply ran away in fear when he discovered the body. Furious and humiliated, Mary breaks off their engagement.

While investigating the surrounding countryside Peter meets a violent, homicidal farmer, Mr. Grimethorpe, with a stunningly beautiful wife. Grimethorpe seems a likely killer, but while investigating his alibi (and nearly being killed by stumbling into a bog
Bog
A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

 pit), Peter confirms that Grimethorpe was elsewhere on the fatal night. However, he discovers that Gerald was visiting Grimethorpe's wife. Gerald has refused to admit it, even to his family or his lawyers.

Eventually, the jewelled cat leads Wimsey to Cathcart's mistress of many years, who left him for an American millionaire. Wimsey travels to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 to find her, and makes a harrowing trans-Atlantic flight back to reach London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 before Gerald's trial in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 ends. From her, Wimsey brings a letter that Cathcart wrote on the night of his death, after receiving her farewell letter. In it, Cathcart announces his intention to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

. He took Gerald's revolver from the study, went out into the garden and shot himself, though he lived long enough to crawl back to the house.

This simple sequence of events has been cluttered up by a series of bizarre coincidences: Cathcart's mistress's farewell arriving on the same night that news of his cheating reaches Gerald; his suicide happening on the same night that Gerald planned to meet Mrs. Grimethorpe; and Gerald arriving back to stumble over the body just as Mary comes out for her rendezvous with Goyles. Hence the "cloud of witnesses". In his closing statement, Gerald's lawyer comments ironically that, had Cathcart's death been the only event of that night, the truth would have been immediately obvious and unquestioned.

Gerald is acquitted. As he is leaving the House of Lords, Mr. Grimethorpe appears and shoots at him, then panics and flees, and is killed by a speeding car.

In the final scene, Inspector Sugg, last seen in Whose Body?
Whose Body?
Whose Body? is a 1923 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, which introduced the character of Lord Peter Wimsey.-Plot introduction:Lord Peter is intrigued by the sudden appearance of a naked body in the bath of an architect, and investigates...

, is startled to find Wimsey, Parker, and Freddy Arbuthnot on the street after midnight, all drunk as lords. Apparently they have been celebrating the end of the case. Sugg assists them into cabs, then reflects, "Thank God there weren't no witnesses."

Loyalty

Loyalty to another person is a major theme in the book. Duke Gerald, Peter's brother, refuses to tell about where he had been in the night, in order to protect Mrs. Grimethorpe. He risks being hanged for a murder he did not commit rather than betray her. For her part, Mrs. Grimethorpe is willing to come forward and save him by providing an alibi, taking a considerable risk of being murdered by her rabidly jealous husband (it very nearly happens). Mary, believing Goyles to be the murderer, tries to shield him by formally making a false confession to having killed Cathcart, which, had the police believed it, might have led to her being charged with murder.

In marked contradiction with these three cases, Goyles exhibits a clear disloyalty and cowardice in having fled when finding Cathcart's body and completely abandoning Mary, with whom he intended to elope. Goyles' bad character might reflect Sayers' unfavourable opinion of radical Socialists, evident where "The Soviet Club" is described. (However, Socialists are here satirized and ridiculed, rather than being demonized as for example in Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

's "The Secret Adversary
The Secret Adversary
The Secret Adversary is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head in January 1922 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in that same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition...

", published in the previous year).

Continuity

This book marks the start of Charles and Mary's interest in each other, though it is several more years before they marry. In an early part of the book, Parker is seen as becoming deeply depressed when finding evidence which seems to indicate that Mary was involved in the murder or shielding the murderer, from which the reader gradually understands that he is in love with her. Parker considers this love to be hopeless, given the great disparity in their social status (a Duke's daughter and a policeman of working-class origin) as he blurts out to Wimsey. However, Wimsey, though quite astonished by Parker's interest in his sister, assures him that after Mary narrowly avoided both marrying a card-sharp and eloping with a radical Socialist agitator, her family would welcome "even a God-fearing plumber, not to speak of a respectable police officer". By the end of the book, Mary, though friendly to Charles, is still far from reciprocating his ardent love.

In one passage Wimsey himself admits to having been smitten by Cathcart's former mistress during their short encounter in New York, though wisely not trying to do anything about it.

Literary and historical references

  • There are several references to Manon Lescaut
    Manon Lescaut
    Manon Lescaut is a short novel by French author Abbé Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité . It was controversial in its time and was banned in France upon publication...

    the tragic romance novel. Cathcart, an Englishman raised in France, is highly romantic in his attitudes. Like the hero of Manon, Cathcart was passionately in love with his mistress, and went to desperate lengths to continue paying for her extravagant lifestyle. His suicide note contains a quote from the book: "Je suis fou du douleur" ("I am mad with misery").
  • In discussing whether Gerald actually comprehends that he could be condemned to death if he is found guilty of murder, Parker recounts the hanging of the English Peer Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers
    Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers
    Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers was the last member of the House of Lords hanged in England.The 4th Earl Ferrers, descendant of an ancient and noble family, was the eldest son of Hon. Laurence Ferrers, himself a younger son of the Robert Shirley, 1st Earl Ferrers-a descendant of Robert...

    , in 1760.

Literary significance and criticism

"... this is likely to be more highly esteemed on a second reading. His younger brother's brilliant exculpation of the duke gives rise to the famous remark, uttered in the House of Lords: 'Gentlemen, the barometer is falling.' Read it to find the context."

A copy of Clouds of Witness was one of the volumes modified by Joe Orton
Joe Orton
John Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...

 and Kenneth Halliwell
Kenneth Halliwell
Kenneth Halliwell was a British actor and writer. He was the mentor, boyfriend and eventual murderer of playwright Joe Orton.- Childhood :...

 in their adulterations of library books from the Islington and Hampstead libraries in the early 1960s.

TV Adaptation

The novel was adapted as a television miniseries in 1972, starring Ian Carmichael
Ian Carmichael
Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...

 as Lord Peter and Glyn Houston
Glyn Houston
Glyn Houston , is an actor best known for his television work. He is the brother of the late film actor Donald Houston.-Early life:...

 as Bunter. The adaptation is largely faithful to the book, with a few differences:
  • Grimethorpe is not killed at the end. Instead, Bunter tackles him as he is trying to draw a gun at the end of the Duke's trial, and in the struggle, Grimethorpe receives a self-inflicted gunshot wound that incapacitates him in the hospital for several weeks. Peter gets Mrs. Grimethorpe and her daughter to safety by hiring her as a caretaker for a villa in Italy
    Italy
    Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

     owned by his family.
  • Mary (Rachel Herbert) and Charles (Mark Eden
    Mark Eden
    Mark Eden is a British actor.-Career:Born in London, Eden has appeared in repertory theatre in England and Wales and at the Royal Court Theatre. His many television and film roles include the Doctor Who serial Marco Polo in which he played Marco Polo...

    ) begin dating at the end of the episode. In a subsequent adaptation of Murder Must Advertise
    Murder Must Advertise
    Murder Must Advertise is a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, published in 1933.Most of the action takes place in an advertising agency, a setting with which Sayers was very familiar. One of her advertising colleagues, Bobby Bevan, was the inspiration for the character Mr Ingleby...

    they are married and have at least two children, as in the book of that name.

Transatlantic Flight

At the time of writing, Transatlantic flight
Transatlantic flight
Transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. A transatlantic flight may proceed east-to-west, originating in Europe or Africa and terminating in North America or South America, or it may go in the reverse direction, west-to-east...

 was just four years old, the risky domain of daring pioneering aviators, and passenger flights were still a distant dream. Wimsey's decision to return from New York by plane rather than by boat is a sensational news item reported with banner headlines in the London papers, making the faithful Bunter deeply worried for his life. In fact, this makes Wimsey the first passenger to ever fly on a transatlantic flight. The first such passenger recorded in actual history was Charles Albert Levine
Charles Albert Levine
Charles Albert Levine was the first passenger aboard a transatlantic flight.-Biography:Levine was born on March 17, 1897, in North Adams, Massachusetts. He joined his father in selling scrap metal, later forming his own company buying and recycling World War I surplus brass shell casings...

in 1927.
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