Wisdom of Ages

Contemplating Old Lady Detectives

One thing about reading old books is that you enter into a different world. What was not written to be historical becomes, many decades after the book was penned, an interesting glimpse into a time and place long gone, never to come again. Such are the books of Patricia Wentworth, and very specifically the Miss Silver series, which I have been reading through (again) recently.

There are strong parallels between Miss Silver and Miss Marple as written by Agatha Christie. Both are little old ladies. Both are wise from the accumulated years of observing human nature. And both, of course, assist with solving crimes. There are differences. Miss Silver takes up detection, which she primly refers to as ‘private enquiries’ as her profession, and in every book there is the same passage about how working has enabled her to have her own home, unlike her first profession as a governess. Over the 32 books in which she occurs (and of which I have read all but the last two, some of those repeatedly at this point) there are recurring themes, and in some places, entire pages which I know can’t be copy-and-paste as they were written before that oh-so-convenient trick of wordprocessors and computers came into being. It’s something I’ve noted before in binge-reading an entire series over the course of a week or even a month… but when I look at the perspective of time, the first Miss Silver book (the Grey Mask, not her best) was published in 1928 and the last came out just at Wentworth’s death, in 1961. Now, there’s a literary legacy to aspire to!

Aside from the description of Miss Silver as a relict of the bygone Victorian (in later books, Edwardian) era, the repeating themes in the books are of danger, generally murder although the death may not take place until late in the book, and suspense which is often fairly Gothic in the structure (see especially The Benevent Treasure) of the plot. The theme which is in every book is of a romance, sometimes central to the mystery plot, other times only glancingly connected (as in The Listening Eye, where there are two romantic sub-plots!). Miss Silver’s long friendship with a Detective Inspector weaves a thread throughout the series, as well.

One of the major differences between Christie’s Miss Marple, and Wentworth’s Miss Silver is that Marple ages through the years. She becomes quite frail and infirm as the books progress (Miss Marple first appears in print a year before Miss Silver, in 1927, and makes her final chronological appearance in 1971) where Miss Silver never changes in her physical description or abilities. Which is a definite choice on the part of the author, as the world around her character does change. Miss Silver is written through the second World War, and it figures in the books, and into the chaotic social changes following that war as England pulled itself out of the ruins and attempted to rebuild. Those upheavals appear in the books, are portrayed in other characters, become plot points for some of them… and in the midst of it all, the main character simply stays as she is and ever was. Even the other characters, like the policemen Randal March and Inspector Lamb, do age and their children grow up and are described. Frank Abbot, Miss Silver’s favorite, seems to stay timeless as she does, and never marries during the series.

Could you write her in the modern era? I don’t know. The gentle, wise spinster whose profession consists of being able to talk to anyone - of any class - no longer has a role in society. Nor for that matter does this lady appear in modern media portrayals. I recently watched a few seasons of Miss Marple and the later productions play fast and loose with her plots to the extent where I was startled and dismayed at the introduction of modern mores and just… sometimes, only the character names remained. It made me give it up. As characters, Marple is more well-developed and while she does not have a growth arc through the series any more than Miss Silver, she isn’t quite so static over the years. However, I find the Miss Silver books enjoyable and overall, will likely re-read most of them, there being a few stinkers in the 30 books which is not a bad percentage, really!