Scan barcode
spotsoftime's review against another edition
1.0
Too much racism and misogyny in this; the times it was written in is no excuse given other authors' work at the same time. "What you need my girl is a good rape" - err no thanks, and what has to be the worst marriage proposal since Mr Collins and Lizzie!
saroz162's review against another edition
2.0
Well, that was...different.
Having read all of the Campion books up to this point, in order, I find myself wondering just what Allingham set out to do with The Fashion in Shrouds. It's not a particularly smooth novel. In fact, although I don't have any evidence for the theory, it reads like a book that may not have been originally intended for Campion at all. He's a brooding presence, far from the faux-Harold Lloyd figure affected in the earlier novels, and he only really shines in a few interactions with Lugg, his manservant, and Amanda, his fiance. Otherwise, his function is largely a mechanical one as the investigator - he is almost always called Mr Campion, not Albert, as if to increase audience disaffection - and his overall attitude is more than a little dour.
It's possible, then, that Allingham really didn't want to write about Campion any more, much as Agatha Christie became sick of Hercule Poirot and tried to sideline him in his later novels as much as possible. Shrouds almost reads as if it was envisioned as a romance, not a mystery, with Campion's sister Val and her client Georgia taking most of the spotlight if not the actual lead. Other reviews have chastised the book for its racism (historical but undeniable), but the jaw-dropper really is the anti-feminist rhetoric, which frankly forms most of the narrative voice. It's hard to read today, all the more because without the strange ruminations on women's minds, their flights of emotion, what they could and should give up for a man, and some remarkably biting chauvinistic dialogue, there's not much of a narrative left! This is a melodrama, a late 1930s "B" picture about star-crossed lovers that just happens to have the peculiarly dark cloud of Albert Campion wandering through it and prompting people for exposition. As Allingham certainly penned pure romances, it would be interesting to know if Shrouds was intended as just such a novel - wish-fulfillment stuff for a very different kind of reader - before she realized she needed a new Campion adventure. Campion's infamous line to his sister that she may need "a good cry or a nice rape," in context, is clearly the equivalent of someone saying "You just need to get laid" today, but it still has the awkward, harsh sound of someone speaking in a cheap romance novel, not easygoing, upper-class detective fiction.
Yet, Shrouds isn't particularly easygoing, anyway. The whole book is notably grim compared to earlier Campion novels, too. In Dancers in Mourning, the previous thriller, Allingham started to suggest a certain seediness to the lifestyle of the young and wealthy which the aging Campion found distasteful. Now she is making that very clear, from her overly lush descriptions of the fashion industry and its workers to the macabre details of the murdered bodies. Bright artifice and dark reality are being constantly contrasted, and both Mr Campion and his author seem troubled by everything they see. With World War II on the horizon, it's hard not to wonder if Allingham saw an end to frivolity - and, perhaps, an end to the usefulness of her Harlequin-esque hero entirely. As it is, between 1933 and 1938, Allingham published six Campion novels or collections, the last being Shrouds. She would not return to the character until Traitor's Purse, three years later, and she would never write about him with such frequency again.
What's to enjoy about The Fashion in Shrouds? The novel boasts one of Allingham's best titles, after a run of rather plebeian ones like Mystery Mile and Sweet Danger. It's fun to watch Allingham juggle characters, as usual, although in this case there may simply be too many to really follow. Perhaps most winningly, in the midst of the muddled anti-feminist focus, Allingham has tomboy Amanada define two types of relationship: "cake-love" versus "bread-and-butter love." It's the kind of practical, gentle wit that characterizes so many of the previous Campion novels - and it's sorely felt for its relative absence here.
Having read all of the Campion books up to this point, in order, I find myself wondering just what Allingham set out to do with The Fashion in Shrouds. It's not a particularly smooth novel. In fact, although I don't have any evidence for the theory, it reads like a book that may not have been originally intended for Campion at all. He's a brooding presence, far from the faux-Harold Lloyd figure affected in the earlier novels, and he only really shines in a few interactions with Lugg, his manservant, and Amanda, his fiance. Otherwise, his function is largely a mechanical one as the investigator - he is almost always called Mr Campion, not Albert, as if to increase audience disaffection - and his overall attitude is more than a little dour.
It's possible, then, that Allingham really didn't want to write about Campion any more, much as Agatha Christie became sick of Hercule Poirot and tried to sideline him in his later novels as much as possible. Shrouds almost reads as if it was envisioned as a romance, not a mystery, with Campion's sister Val and her client Georgia taking most of the spotlight if not the actual lead. Other reviews have chastised the book for its racism (historical but undeniable), but the jaw-dropper really is the anti-feminist rhetoric, which frankly forms most of the narrative voice. It's hard to read today, all the more because without the strange ruminations on women's minds, their flights of emotion, what they could and should give up for a man, and some remarkably biting chauvinistic dialogue, there's not much of a narrative left! This is a melodrama, a late 1930s "B" picture about star-crossed lovers that just happens to have the peculiarly dark cloud of Albert Campion wandering through it and prompting people for exposition. As Allingham certainly penned pure romances, it would be interesting to know if Shrouds was intended as just such a novel - wish-fulfillment stuff for a very different kind of reader - before she realized she needed a new Campion adventure. Campion's infamous line to his sister that she may need "a good cry or a nice rape," in context, is clearly the equivalent of someone saying "You just need to get laid" today, but it still has the awkward, harsh sound of someone speaking in a cheap romance novel, not easygoing, upper-class detective fiction.
Yet, Shrouds isn't particularly easygoing, anyway. The whole book is notably grim compared to earlier Campion novels, too. In Dancers in Mourning, the previous thriller, Allingham started to suggest a certain seediness to the lifestyle of the young and wealthy which the aging Campion found distasteful. Now she is making that very clear, from her overly lush descriptions of the fashion industry and its workers to the macabre details of the murdered bodies. Bright artifice and dark reality are being constantly contrasted, and both Mr Campion and his author seem troubled by everything they see. With World War II on the horizon, it's hard not to wonder if Allingham saw an end to frivolity - and, perhaps, an end to the usefulness of her Harlequin-esque hero entirely. As it is, between 1933 and 1938, Allingham published six Campion novels or collections, the last being Shrouds. She would not return to the character until Traitor's Purse, three years later, and she would never write about him with such frequency again.
What's to enjoy about The Fashion in Shrouds? The novel boasts one of Allingham's best titles, after a run of rather plebeian ones like Mystery Mile and Sweet Danger. It's fun to watch Allingham juggle characters, as usual, although in this case there may simply be too many to really follow. Perhaps most winningly, in the midst of the muddled anti-feminist focus, Allingham has tomboy Amanada define two types of relationship: "cake-love" versus "bread-and-butter love." It's the kind of practical, gentle wit that characterizes so many of the previous Campion novels - and it's sorely felt for its relative absence here.
lottepot's review against another edition
4.0
I’m always on the lookout for a golden age mystery writer that I can enjoy as much as Agatha Christie. I’m having more luck with Josephine Tey and ERC Lorac but I think that I’ve been going in to Margery Allingham and Dorothy L Sayers expecting too much. The narratives aren’t as tightly plotted or quick paced which is an adjustment in a way. Although Dorothy L Sayers is seen to be “the best of the genre” and I just wish I enjoyed them more than I do.
However, I did get a bit obsessed with reading The Fashion in the Shrouds. I enjoyed much more than Mystery Mile but I think that the main weakness for me is Albert Campion, whose detective methods don’t really inform his personality and you don’t really find out clearly how he comes to his deductions. He also just doesn’t add up as a three dimensional character in this novel and his depressive episodes are misused.
Towards the end of the book, he throws his friend and fellow detective Amanda, who has been masquerading as his fiancée, into a river for no reason whatsoever and stalks off in a huff. This is explained later but between it happening and the rationalisation the reader is a bit alienated from the main characters that they’re supposed to be viewing the action through.
In another scene, while comforting his lovelorn sister he says, without irony: “What you need old girl, is a good cry or a good rape”. Even bearing in mind that this is written on 1938, it was pretty jaw dropping. He’s just a bit unpleasant and boring at the same time, although probably a pretty accurate characterisation of an aristocrat at the time.
However, I really enjoyed some of Margery Allingham’s descriptive writing and the last couple of chapters were more satisfying on the whole.
michael5000's review against another edition
2.0
To be honest, I barely remember this book I listened to a few months ago. I could barely attend to it at the time, and, unusually, had to occasionally rewind and listen to long chunks where I hadn't paid attention. Well, it's been a difficult time. But I also think that ol' Margery and I are not an author/reader pair made in heaven. I seem to remember this other times I've tried reading her, too: I have a sense that maybe she was a sharper and smarter author at the time than some of her peers whose works, being a little more generic, have aged better -- but that much of the topical content and hipness has become invisible to us latter-day readers.
It's also possible that it just isn't a very great book, but somehow I'm inclined to think there's more here than meets the eye, or at least MY eye.
It's also possible that it just isn't a very great book, but somehow I'm inclined to think there's more here than meets the eye, or at least MY eye.
changeablelandscape's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I loved this -- it is *exactly* of its time (1938) with all of its concerns about womanhood and career and artifice vs. authenticity, and I don't agree with 99% of Allingham's apparently conclusions about these things, but it was a perfect September read.
shellystilger's review against another edition
2.0
Re-read after the rest of Allingham's books have been released on Audible and I'm listening to the series in order. Revised my review downward. I was about *done* with Mopey Campion and it was hard to hang in there for the payoff.
Misogyny in this one is truly breathtaking. A cut above your garden variety, taken-in-context misogyny.
Misogyny in this one is truly breathtaking. A cut above your garden variety, taken-in-context misogyny.
fern17's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
sarahmatthews's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
The Fashion in Shrouds by Margery Allingham
Read on audio
Narrator: Francis Matthews
Pub. 1938, 350 pp
___
“Why it is that a garment which is honestly atractive in, say, 1910, should be honestly ridiculous a few years later, and honestly charming again a few years later still, is one of those things that are not satisfactorily to be explained and are therefore jolly and exciting and an addition to the perennial interest of life.”
This Golden Age mystery revolves around a respected fashion house which is run by Val, who’s brother is Allingham’s famous private detective Albert Campion. Their most celebrated client is Georgia Wells, a self absorbed actress. Albert is drawn into this fashionable crowd when he’s asked to investigate the death of a promising judge who also happened to have been engaged to Georgia. Two further deaths make this a puzzling case that implicates many of the group.
I loved all the period fashion details in this story: "What's that?" she demanded. "A nightgown?"
Val ran a pencil through the design. She looked up, her cheeks red and her eyes laughning…"It should be made in something rather heavy and expensive. Berthe's new corded chine-chine, I think.
"Morbid and silly," said Lady Papendeik. "I like the little bows. What's the pocket for?"
"Indulgences," said Val cheerfully. "They're always in fashion."
I also thought the gossipy tone it had at times was very fitting, and Allingham’s turn of phrase is wonderful: “To the police a corpse is a corpse, and murder is a hanging matter and the whole affair slid out of the shrouding mists of the fashionable world and the gossip of the bridge clubs, and came under the glare of a thousand bull’s eyes and the ruthlessly indelicate curiosity of the press.”
Most of the characters are fairly unlikeable but entertaining, especially Georgia. Amanda, an aeronautics engineer, is the exception and is a great strong female character. The mystery zipped along and built to a satisfying conclusion. I did guess the killer but not from very early on.
As much as I adored this book there’s no getting away from the racism and sexism included which is shocking when read from today’s perspective. It’s worth being aware of before reading. There’s a marriage proposal that is truly baffling to me! It shows that attitudes in 1938 had a long way to go.
naluju's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
jo845's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Colonisation, and Drug use