SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE FLORENTINE DANTE

 
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the 

Florentine Dante" by Fergus Hume (from Hagar of the Pawn-shop.  The Gypsy Detective, 1898; any earlier magazine publication unknown; reprinted in The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Detective Stories, edited by Marie Smith, 1994)

Let's first go back to 1887, a historic year for mystery fans.  This was the year that saw publication of Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, surely one of the most famous detective novels of all time.  Yet sales of this Sherlockian masterpiece were weak.  The best-selling mystery novel of that year, and, indeed, the best-selling mystery novel of the Victorian Era was The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume, a first novel.  Fergus who?  Britisher Hume (1859-1932) began writiung plays, but his first play was actually stolen by an uinscrupulous character who staged it and presented it as his own.  At the ytime Hume was reading and inmpressed by the detective novels of Emile Gaboriau and felt he could write a book of the same type.  The result was Hansom Cab.  Conan Doyue read that book and was inspired to write Study, which introduced the world to Sherlock Holmes.  (Doyle once remarked, "Hansom Cab was a slight tale; sold many by 'puffing.' "  Nonetheless Hume's book made a lot of money, while Doyle had to wait for Holme's popularity to catch up with him.  (A similar case happened in the horror field.  Bram Stoker's Dracula was published about the same time as Richard Marsh published The Beetle; Marsh's book was far more popular than Stoker's, a situation eventually corrected by the passage of time; few people read Richard Marsh today.)  Hume went on to write over 130 novels -- most of them mysteries and thrillers -- and well as several short story collections.  None achieved the overwhelming success of his first novel.  As with Marsh, few people read Fergus Hume today.

One of Hume's short story collections was Hagar of the Pawn-shop.  The Gypsy Detective, featuring an unusual sleuth.  Hagar Stanley was a young woman, twenty years old, and a Gypsy, yet she was noted for  "her strict sense of duty, her upright nature, and her determination to act honestly, even when her own interests were at stake."  Mike Grost lists Hagar Stanley as a "suipernatural detrective," although there is no sign of this in "The Florentine Dante," her first of ten cases.  I'll have to read further in the book to see if this holds true.

Jacob Dix owned a pawn-shop in Carby's Crescent, Lambeth.  Dix is old, sick, miserly, and generally unlikable.  His pure-bred Romany wife Hagar is dead, and their only son has cut off all ties with the man and his whereabouts are unknown, yet Dix is determined to leave his estate to his son Jimmy.  Dix's only friend (if that words can apply) is the lawyer Vark, a man even more venal than the pawn-broker.  Vark hopes to eventually gain Dix's wealth.  Enter young Hagar Stanley, the hitherto unknown niece of Dix's dead wife.  Hagar is one the run from a villain who would have forced her to marry him.  Having learned of Dix and that he was old and not well, she has come to volunter to take care of the old man if he would shelter her and teach her his trade.  A bargain was made and Dix soon came to cherish young Hagar and rely on her.  Over the following year Vark fell in love with Hagar and asked her to marry him.  He would, he vowed, convince Dix to alter his will in favor of Hagar and they could then enjoy nhis wealth.  Hagar refused him, knowing him to be a scoundrel.  Vark continued and tried to convince Dix that his estranged son was trying to kill him.  Believing this, Dix was ready to give his estate top Hager, but she smelled a rat and convinced Dix that his son was innocent.  Eventually Dix died, and Hagar took charge of the pawn-shop in the absence of the rightful heir, working solely for the benefit of Dix's missing son.

Now to "The Florentine Dante," which was been slightly abridged from the original book to present it as a stand-alone story in The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Detective Stories.  Appearing at the pawn-shop is Eustace Lorn, a young man nin haggard condition with thread-bare attire.  He wishes to pawn a rare book from the fourteenth century -- a second edition of Dante's La Divina Comedia, easily worth over a hundred pounds.  Lorn does not want to sell the book; it is too precious to him, but he needs money.  Pawning the book allows him to eventually get it back by paying off the loan plus six percent interest.   Hagar haggles and the pair agree to a price of four pounds.  Hagar retains the book and Lorn leaves with the pawn ticket.

A week l;ater, a man enters the shop with the pawn ticket and wants to redeem the book.  The man is "short, stourt, elderly, and vulgar."  Hagar takes an immediate dislike to him and suspects that he obtained the pawn ticket through less than proper means.  She refuses to honor the ticket and said that Lorn himself must redeem it.  The customer, named Jabez Treadle, threatened to go to the polcie and left in anger.  After he left, Hagar sent a message to Lorn.

Lorn arrived and told Hagar the story about the book.  It had been owned by his uncle, Benjamin Gurth, who had diede six months before.  Gurth had come home ten years ago with a forune from the West Indies.  Despite having the fortune, Gurth was a miser, hoarding his money and refusing to help his siter (Lorn's mother) who was very poor.  When Gurth died, his only bequest to Lorn was the Florentine Dante; all his other property was taken by creditors.  The book, however, was said to hold the secret to where Gurth had hidden his massive wealth, determined hy the old man's will to belong to whoever could find it.  A thorough search of the book yielded no clues to the secret and Lorn felt defeated.  Jabez Treadle, had spent years trying to befriend Gurth trying to befriend him and gain the secret to the treasure, lso to no avail.  Gurth had asked Lorn for the book; if he were to find the secret within, he would share the wealth with Lorn, so Lorn had given him the pawn ticket.  Hagar did not trust Treadle and promised to help Lorn.  The two then examined the book carefully but could find no hint of a secret.

Then  Hagar had the idea that the secret might have been written nin invisible ink -- a plot device that was rather unusual for the time.  She devised a way to heat the pages of the book without destroying it by fire and Lo and Behold! she found a hidden message.  The message however made no sense and it was up do Hagar to figure ut how to decode the message and retrieve the treasure.  How she did it and what they found makes upo the rest of the story, which ends in a surprising twist.

Once we pass this story and the rest of Hagar's adventures, we can go to the epilog of the book to discover that Hagar and Lorn fall in love and marry, entering into a life of bliss and effectively ending Hagar's unofficial career as a detective.  Can we expect anything different from a late-nineteenth century popular novel?

Hagar of the Pawn-shop.  The Gypsy Detective is availble to read online.  Judging from "The Florentine Dante," I'd say the book might be worth your time.