Monday, August 22: Spirit of the Law
THE TRICKY ART OF SUSPENSE
by Janice Law
Joseph Cotton as Howard Graham, Everett Sloane as Kopeikin, and Orson Welles as Colonel Haki in the 1943 film version of Journey into Fear
I used to tease some of the less enthusiastic readers in my sophomore level lit course that Jane Austen was one of the great masters of suspense. The women in the class found this amusing; they almost always found her novels funny and surprisingly relevant. The men in the class preferred Ralph Ellison and Charles Dickens and were inclined to reserve judgment on the Divine Jane’s suspense cred.
Clearly, a lack of imagination on their part! But correcting such deficiencies is what the classroom is all about. Consider the stakes, I used to point out: one wrong move and the heroine doesn’t just lose the guy, she loses her future. Think of the obstacles, poverty, disapproving relatives (most seriously those with the cash), and other young women out on the husband hunt. As for them, think lionesses on the veldt and you won’t go far wrong.
Still, a certain skepticism lingered that was not simply due to our 8 a.m. meeting time. Well, we can’t all be working writers, or for that matter, fast, enthusiastic readers, so some of Austen’s skill will go unnoticed. But consider that most of her heroines’ time is spent in chat, in visits, in social gatherings of greater or less boredom; that there were no car (or carriage) chases, no bodies in the basement, no shattering scandals and definitely no zombies, and that her people are, by and large, exceedingly polite, if not always well behaved, and you can see that she had her work cut out for her.
And how well she succeeds. How exquisitely she draws out crucial matters. Will she or won’t she succeed? Will he or won’t he show up? With what imagination she prolongs the resolution of her character’s difficulties, using the minutiae of social life to build a real drama, a drama on which her heroine’s whole future life teeters. On one side, success, a good marriage, a chance for happiness; on the other, disaster, the wrong man, misery, or almost worse yet, no marriage at all and a lifetime of dependency.
Austen had a talent for suspense, that is for prolonging a pleasurable uncertainty about favorite characters, even if she did not write what we’d now label ‘suspense’ novels. These have become a genre of their own, marked by a gargantuan exaggeration of danger ( saving the world—or at least a major city—is de rigueur) and featuring non-stop action, firepower, and high body counts, all within three inch-thick tomes.
It was not always thus. Consider the god of suspense, Eric Ambler. His classic Journey into Fear is a masterpiece that might, by today’s standards, be judged too light on action and too short by half.
The hero, Graham, is returning by ship to the UK from Turkey, where he has been working on an armaments contract. World War II has begun, and the night before embarkation he is almost murdered for his knowledge. Spirited aboard an obscure merchant vessel by the Turkish security forces, he appears to be safe, but after a brief stop in Athens, a new passenger comes aboard, the putative assassin.
Trapped on the boat and sure to be murdered when he leaves—if not before—Graham struggles to hide his fears, deceive the killer, and find a way of evening the odds.
For most of the novel, events are low key, a matter of awkward dinners, tense conversations, and uneasy meetings that have Graham wavering between near panic and nonchalance. Journey into Fear only needs violent action at the climax, because like Austen, Ambler was writing about a shame culture. Austen’s young ladies must watch for any compromising social misstep; Graham operates within a strong culture of courtesy and hierarchy. Unlike our present culture, where shamelessness is almost a requirement for celebrity, gentlemen in Graham’s world have a certain attitude and code of conduct to maintain.
Journey into Fear unfolds within a culture of restraint, privilege, and complacency that brings its own tensions. Graham fears embarrassment as well as death, and one of the features of the novel is the awkwardness of having to evade a killer while avoiding both discourtesy and ‘melodrama’.
Published in 1940, Journey into Fear records the end of one type of life and the erosion of the former security provided its subjects by the British Empire. Graham, neither an imaginative nor a particularly sensitive man, finds that the world he thought he knew is full of pitfalls, that he is not safe, that his death is highly desirable in certain quarters, and that, the Empire and the pound sterling notwithstanding, his British passport is no guarantee of protection.
Ambler traces Graham’s psychological evolution with great skill. He manages to make the duel between the intelligent amateur and the ruthless professional plausible, in part because there are no supermen and superwomen in his novels, only smart, interesting people whose fate we are eager to learn. His novels may no longer fit Suspense Novel category, but Eric Ambler writes suspense.
Janice, what an enjoyable piece. I, too, have learned of the suspense of the hanging engagement question, the dinner invitation that is late arriving, and other such Austean matters. My wife and daughters acted as my instructors,(firm but fair, if somewhat exacting)requiring my attendance and attention during many, many viewings of the ever-proliferating film versions of the Austen classics. They have yet to require my actually reading one, but I fear that this is inevitable, and I have quietly resolved to do so without protest.
In the beginning I was somewhat restive, often wondering aloud, during some viewing or the other, when one might expect a duel to be fought, or perhaps some country uprising that might be violently put down by the ever-idle menfolk…a hanging at the very least. Such musings drew only expressions of incredulity, exasperation, or more sadly, a strained pity. I learned, oh yes, I learned–suspense is not just in the cocked pistol, the sheathed but ready knife, the slowly opening door, but in the withheld greeting, the unarrived visitor, and most importantly, the unasked question.
David, watching a Jane Austen-based movie can’t compare with reading her books, especially when it comes to her wit. She was one of the great stylists of English prose. To have a rapier wit or a razor wit is a cliché, but in her case, it is absolutely on point (if you’ll pardon the expression). If you don’t fall in love with her several heroines with their many but endearing flaws, you have no heart. (Although I did not find Fanny Price in Mansfield Park as engaging as her others).
Start with Pride and Prejudice, the most accessible. My favorite, though, is Persuasion, followed by Emma.
Thanks James; I will follow your advice.
Janice, some other authors of Amber’s type of suspense might be Daphne du Maurier, Graham Greene, and Ruth Rendell (especially writing as Barbara Vine). All skilled, thoughtful writers that manage that certain sense of inevitability with a deft touch.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged…”
From the opening lines of Pride and Prejudice, I was hooked.
The British actress, Emma Thompson’s Golden Globe acceptance speech, for writing the screenplay of Sense and Sensibility, would have made ‘A Lady’ smile.
After David’s comment, it hard to come up with something better. Suffice to say I read The Mask of Dimitrios when I was about 12 or 13 and became hooked on Ambler. I confess I’m not up to par with Jane Austen.
How wonderful to find other Austin and Ambler fans!
David Dean’s other authors are right on too and Josephine Tey’s Brat Farrar is another wonderful subtle suspense about a man who may or may not be an imposter.
I’ve always thought that Josephine Tey was for true connoisseurs. My favorites are The Singing Sands and Miss Pym Disposes.
David, Persuasion contains the only violent scene in all of Austen. A girl (not our heroine) jumps off a stair on seawall expecting to be caught, misses, and sustains a concussion.
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