Unnatural Death
Encyclopedia
Unnatural Death is a 1927 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers
, her third featuring Lord Peter Wimsey
. It has also been published in the United States as The Dawson Pedigree.
. The lady's death has aroused no suspicion, despite her doctor's dismay at her end coming so quickly, but Wimsey suspects that it may, after all, have been 'unnatural'. The difficulty of discovering the method is compounded by the difficulty of discovering someone with the motive and opportunity to kill.
Wimsey discovers that the patient's great-niece - popular locally - had nursed her through her illness and was the intended heiress. The patient had a horror of contemplating death, however, and refused to listen to entreaties that she must make a will to be sure that her fortune would pass to her great-niece as she wished. A change in the law was imminent and meant that a great-niece would no longer inherit automatically and the estate would probably pass to the Crown. Killing her great-aunt before the legislation came in allowed the niece to secure the fortune intended for her.
When Wimsey begins investigating, using the recurring character Miss Climpson as his intelligence agent, the great-niece is provoked into covering her trail. She kills a former servant, fakes a kidnap-murder and tries to frame a distant relative with an interest in the Dawson estate, and almost kills Miss Climpson. Lord Peter exposes the great-niece's motive and methods, including the false identity she has established in London, and she is eventually arrested and imprisoned on remand, where she commits suicide. The doctor from whom Lord Peter originally heard the anecdote has moved on and is not grateful to be vindicated.
In Gaudy Night
, Peter reflects on this case and confesses that he sometimes faces a dilemma about whether or not to investigate a case; had he not done so in this case, the elderly lady would have been the only victim, and the niece would have gotten away with a single murder, inherited, and gone on living a harmless existence. Instead, because he started snooping, the niece went on to kill two other people, almost killed Miss Climpson and himself, and finally took her own life.
relationships (through they are not explicitly called that, and might not be physically consummated) form a significant part of the book's background. The old woman whose murder originally drew Wimsey to the case is mentioned as having lived with another woman for some forty years, a relationship of strong love and affection, described to Wimsey by a former servant:
In a later chapter (XVI, "A Cast-Iron Alibi") the character Vera Findlater, a young and not too bright woman, is clearly shown to be passionately in love with the murderess and aspiring to form with her the same kind of life-long liaison - indignantly flaring up at the suggestion that she should just "wait for the right man". Tragically, her love is not returned; she is cynically used and finally murdered by the object of her affection.
Sayers shows how the ploy takes effect, immediately when police discover the carefully planted false clues:
Later, the racist canard is shown to be eagerly picked up by the popular press:
Finally, however, the anti-Black slant is exposed as a red herring, and the would-be Black scapegoat—a harmless, elderly West Indian clergyman—gets to keep the 10,000 Pounds (a very large sum at the time) that the murderess sent him in order to implicate him in her crimes.
. This is a reference to The New Arabian Nights
by Robert Louis Stevenson
and not the prince in The Winter's Tale
.
Also near the middle of the book, Wimsey states that Parker's repeated comments are "...like the Raven never flitting, which, as the poet observes, still is sitting, still is sitting, inviting one to heave the pallid bust of Pallas at him and have done with it." This is a reference to "The Raven
" by Edgar Allan Poe
.
. There are also references to several notable multiple murderers in chapter VIII, all of whom initially murdered undetected but who were caught after they continued to kill. The cases mentioned are those of Dr William Palmer
, George Joseph Smith
, Herbert Rowse Armstrong
and Burke and Hare
. Smith and Armstrong are mentioned again in Chapter XIX, along with Thomas Neill Cream
.
The change in the law such that, in the case of intestacy, more distant relatives could not inherit was the Administration of Estates Act 1925
.
Chapter XIX makes reference to several contemporary events, including the transatlantic flight by Clarence Duncan Chamberlin
and Charles Albert Levine
, Foxlaw's win in the Ascot Gold Cup
, and the 1927 Wimbledon Championships
. Chapter XVII mentions the New Zealand cricket team's 1927 tour in England
.
In the final paragraphs, Parker and Wimsey leave the prison after 6am on a June morning having viewed Mary Whittaker's body following her suicide, and Wimsey comments on the unnatural darkness outside. Parker replies: "It is the eclipse". This is a reference to the short solar eclipse
of 24 June 1927, whose path of totality crossed Wales and Northern England. It was largely obscured by cloud and rain but would have caused semi-darkness in London.
"In Unnatural Death, she had invented a murder method that is appropriately dramatic and cunningly ingenious, the injection of an air-bubble with a hypodermic, but not only, in fact, would it require the use of an instrument so large as to be farcical, but Miss Sayers has her bubble put into an artery not a vein. No wonder afterwards she pledged herself 'strictly in future to seeing I never write a book which I know to be careless'."
as Lord Peter Wimsey and with Peter Jones
as Bunter, was made for BBC Radio 4
.
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...
, her third 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 has also been published in the United States as The Dawson Pedigree.
Plot introduction
The plot concerns Lord Peter's investigation into the death, three years earlier, of an elderly lady in the last stages of cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
. The lady's death has aroused no suspicion, despite her doctor's dismay at her end coming so quickly, but Wimsey suspects that it may, after all, have been 'unnatural'. The difficulty of discovering the method is compounded by the difficulty of discovering someone with the motive and opportunity to kill.
Plot summary
Overhearing a conversation in a restaurant between Wimsey and his friend Parker, a doctor tells the two of a death that affected his career. A terminal cancer patient, old and wealthy, died unexpectedly early; the doctor provoked outrage when he queried the cause, and local opinion forced him eventually to move away. Wimsey is moved to investigate.Wimsey discovers that the patient's great-niece - popular locally - had nursed her through her illness and was the intended heiress. The patient had a horror of contemplating death, however, and refused to listen to entreaties that she must make a will to be sure that her fortune would pass to her great-niece as she wished. A change in the law was imminent and meant that a great-niece would no longer inherit automatically and the estate would probably pass to the Crown. Killing her great-aunt before the legislation came in allowed the niece to secure the fortune intended for her.
When Wimsey begins investigating, using the recurring character Miss Climpson as his intelligence agent, the great-niece is provoked into covering her trail. She kills a former servant, fakes a kidnap-murder and tries to frame a distant relative with an interest in the Dawson estate, and almost kills Miss Climpson. Lord Peter exposes the great-niece's motive and methods, including the false identity she has established in London, and she is eventually arrested and imprisoned on remand, where she commits suicide. The doctor from whom Lord Peter originally heard the anecdote has moved on and is not grateful to be vindicated.
Characters in "Unnatural Death"
- Lord Peter WimseyLord Peter WimseyLord 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...
– protagonist, an aristocratic amateur detective - Detective-Inspector Charles Parker – Wimsey's friend
- Mervyn BunterMervyn BunterMervyn Bunter is a fictional character in Dorothy L. Sayers' novels and short stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.- Literary Background :Dorothy L...
– Wimsey's manservant - Miss Alexandra Katherine Climpson – a gossipy, harmless-seeming spinster employed by Wimsey to make clandestine enquiries
- Miss Agatha Dawson (deceased) – a rich elderly cancer patient who died suddenly 3 years prior to the novel's action
- Miss Mary Whittaker – Miss Dawson's great-niece and heiress
- Dr Carr – Miss Dawson's doctor
- Miss Vera Findlater – a friend and admirer of Miss Whittaker
- Bertha and Evelyn Gotobed – former servants of Miss Dawson
- Rev Hallelujah Dawson – impoverished West Indian clergyman and distant cousin of Miss Dawson
- Mr Murbles – a solicitor and friend of Wimsey
- Mrs Muriel Forrest – the secondary identity of Mary Whittaker
Major themes
The central murder in this novel exemplifies its theme: a crime identified as such is by definition a failure, whereas successful crimes are never even suspected, and we can have no idea how many of the latter are committed.In Gaudy Night
Gaudy Night
Gaudy Night is a mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the tenth in her popular series about aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, and the third featuring crime writer Harriet Vane....
, Peter reflects on this case and confesses that he sometimes faces a dilemma about whether or not to investigate a case; had he not done so in this case, the elderly lady would have been the only victim, and the niece would have gotten away with a single murder, inherited, and gone on living a harmless existence. Instead, because he started snooping, the niece went on to kill two other people, almost killed Miss Climpson and himself, and finally took her own life.
Lesbian relationships
LesbianLesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
relationships (through they are not explicitly called that, and might not be physically consummated) form a significant part of the book's background. The old woman whose murder originally drew Wimsey to the case is mentioned as having lived with another woman for some forty years, a relationship of strong love and affection, described to Wimsey by a former servant:
Miss Agatha was never one for flirting and foolishness. Often she used to say to me: 'Betty' she said 'I mean to be an old maid and so does Miss Clara, and we are going to live together and be ever so happy, without any stupid, tiresome gentlemen' (Chapter XII, "A Tale of Two Spinsters").
In a later chapter (XVI, "A Cast-Iron Alibi") the character Vera Findlater, a young and not too bright woman, is clearly shown to be passionately in love with the murderess and aspiring to form with her the same kind of life-long liaison - indignantly flaring up at the suggestion that she should just "wait for the right man". Tragically, her love is not returned; she is cynically used and finally murdered by the object of her affection.
Racism
One of the fiendishly clever villain's ploys is to blame her crimes upon a non-existent gang composed of Blacks and Jews, depict her completely innocent distant Black cousin as its "Boss" and pretend to have been brutally kidnapped by it.Sayers shows how the ploy takes effect, immediately when police discover the carefully planted false clues:
"God Bless my soul" said Sir Charles [a rather stupid Chief Constable]
"An English girl in the hands of a nigger. How abominable!"
Later, the racist canard is shown to be eagerly picked up by the popular press:
The Yell came out with the gang story all over the front page this morning, and a patriotic leader about the danger of encouraging coloured aliens (Ch. XXI).
Finally, however, the anti-Black slant is exposed as a red herring, and the would-be Black scapegoat—a harmless, elderly West Indian clergyman—gets to keep the 10,000 Pounds (a very large sum at the time) that the murderess sent him in order to implicate him in her crimes.
Allusions/references to other works
Near the beginning of the story when first hearing of the titular death, Wimsey claims he feels just like Prince Florizel of BohemiaBohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
. This is a reference to The New Arabian Nights
The New Arabian Nights
New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1882, is a collection of short stories previously published in magazines between 1877 and 1880...
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
and not the prince in The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...
.
Also near the middle of the book, Wimsey states that Parker's repeated comments are "...like the Raven never flitting, which, as the poet observes, still is sitting, still is sitting, inviting one to heave the pallid bust of Pallas at him and have done with it." This is a reference to "The Raven
The Raven
"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness...
" by Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
.
Allusions to actual history, geography and current science
The murder case Wimsey and Parker are discussing at the beginning of Chapter 1 is that of Dr Edmund William Pritchard, who was publicly hanged in Glasgow in 1865 for the murders of his wife and mother-in-law, who were poisoned with antimonyAntimony
Antimony is a toxic chemical element with the symbol Sb and an atomic number of 51. A lustrous grey metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite...
. There are also references to several notable multiple murderers in chapter VIII, all of whom initially murdered undetected but who were caught after they continued to kill. The cases mentioned are those of Dr William Palmer
William Palmer (murderer)
William Palmer was an English doctor who was convicted of murder in one of the most notorious cases of the 19th century.-Early life:...
, George Joseph Smith
George Joseph Smith
George Joseph Smith was an English serial killer and bigamist. In 1915 he was convicted and subsequently hanged for the slayings of three women, the case becoming known as the "Brides in the Bath Murders". As well as being widely reported in the media, the case was a significant case in the...
, Herbert Rowse Armstrong
Herbert Rowse Armstrong
Herbert Rowse Armstrong TD. MA. was an English solicitor and convicted murderer, the only solicitor in the history of the United Kingdom to have been hanged for murder...
and Burke and Hare
West Port murders
The Burke and Hare murders were serial murders perpetrated in Edinburgh, Scotland, from November 1827 to October 31, 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses of their 17 victims to provide material for dissection...
. Smith and Armstrong are mentioned again in Chapter XIX, along with Thomas Neill Cream
Thomas Neill Cream
Dr. Thomas Neill Cream , also known as the Lambeth Poisoner, was a Scottish-born serial killer, who claimed his first proven victims in the United States and the rest in England, and possibly others in Canada and Scotland...
.
The change in the law such that, in the case of intestacy, more distant relatives could not inherit was the Administration of Estates Act 1925
Administration of Estates Act 1925
The Administration of Estates Act 1925 is a law passed in 1925 in England and Wales that changed the rule of inheritance from primogeniture to that of modern day norms. This statute does not apply to Scotland or to Northern Ireland....
.
Chapter XIX makes reference to several contemporary events, including the transatlantic flight by Clarence Duncan Chamberlin
Clarence Duncan Chamberlin
Clarence Duncan Chamberlin was the second man to pilot a fixed-wing aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to the European mainland, while carrying the first transatlantic passenger.-Early life:...
and 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...
, Foxlaw's win in the Ascot Gold Cup
Ascot Gold Cup
The Gold Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 2 miles and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in June....
, and the 1927 Wimbledon Championships
1927 Wimbledon Championships
-Men's Singles: Henri Cochet defeated Jean Borotra 4-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-5-Women's Singles: Helen Wills Moody defeated Lili de Alvarez 6-2, 6-4...
. Chapter XVII mentions the New Zealand cricket team's 1927 tour in England
New Zealand cricket team in England in 1927
The New Zealand cricket team toured England in the 1927 season. The team contained many of the players who would later play Test cricket for New Zealand, but the tour did not include any Test matches and the 1927 English cricket season was the last, apart from the Second World War years and the...
.
In the final paragraphs, Parker and Wimsey leave the prison after 6am on a June morning having viewed Mary Whittaker's body following her suicide, and Wimsey comments on the unnatural darkness outside. Parker replies: "It is the eclipse". This is a reference to the short solar eclipse
Solar eclipse
As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...
of 24 June 1927, whose path of totality crossed Wales and Northern England. It was largely obscured by cloud and rain but would have caused semi-darkness in London.
Literary significance and criticism
"The tale is perhaps a little forced in conception and remote in tone. That is the trouble with all the great masters -- they accustom us to such dazzling performances that when they give us what would seem wonderful coming from other hands, we sniff and act choosy. The mode of compassing death has been carped at, but no one could do anything but rejoice at Miss Climpson and her subterfuges.""In Unnatural Death, she had invented a murder method that is appropriately dramatic and cunningly ingenious, the injection of an air-bubble with a hypodermic, but not only, in fact, would it require the use of an instrument so large as to be farcical, but Miss Sayers has her bubble put into an artery not a vein. No wonder afterwards she pledged herself 'strictly in future to seeing I never write a book which I know to be careless'."
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
In 1975, an adaptation starring Ian CarmichaelIan 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 Wimsey and with Peter Jones
Peter Jones (actor)
Peter Jones was an English actor, screenwriter and broadcaster.-Early life and career:Jones was born in Wem, Shropshire and he was educated at the Wem Grammar School and Ellesmere College. He made his first appearance as an actor in Wolverhampton at the age of 16 and then appeared in repertory...
as Bunter, was made for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.