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The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

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The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
First edition
AuthorDorothy L. Sayers
LanguageEnglish
SeriesLord Peter Wimsey
GenreMystery novel
PublisherErnest Benn[1]
Publication date
1928[1]
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint
Pages287[1]
Preceded byUnnatural Death 
Followed byStrong Poison 

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is a 1928 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her fourth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Much of the novel is set in the Bellona Club, a fictional London club for war veterans (Bellona being a Roman goddess of war).

This novel entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.[2]

Plot

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On the afternoon of 10 November, ninety-year-old General Fentiman is called to the deathbed of his estranged sister, Lady Dormer, and learns that under the terms of her will he stands to inherit most of her substantial fortune – money sorely needed by his grandsons Robert and George Fentiman. However, should the General die first, nearly everything will go to Lady Dormer's companion, Ann Dorland.

Lady Dormer dies the next morning, Armistice Day, and that afternoon the General is found dead in his armchair at the Bellona Club. Dr Penberthy, a club member and the General's personal physician, certifies death by natural causes, but is unable to state whether the General died before or after Lady Dormer. As the estate would amply provide for all three claimants, the Fentiman brothers suggest a negotiated settlement, but Anne Dorland absolutely refuses. Wimsey is asked to investigate.

Oddly enough, nobody saw the General arrive at the club at his usual time of 10 am. His manservant reports that the General did not return home after visiting Lady Dormer the day before. An unknown man by the name of Mr Oliver telephoned to say that the General would be spending the night with him. Robert Fentiman says that he knows of Oliver, and much time is spent chasing the elusive individual through several countries before Robert admits that he does not actually exist.

Wimsey discovers that General Fentiman began to feel unwell while visiting his sister, and left to visit Dr Penberthy. The General then travelled to the club, meeting with George Fentiman en route. At the club, the General informed Robert of the terms of the will; Robert later found his grandfather dead in the club library, apparently of natural causes. Annoyed at losing his inheritance, Robert concealed the body overnight, and invented Oliver to cover up the death. The next day, while the club members had stepped outside to observe the usual two minutes' silence at 11 am, Robert moved the body to the armchair.

Wimsey believes the General's death is too convenient to be natural, and has the body exhumed. An autopsy proves the General was poisoned by an overdose of the heart medication digitalis. When it becomes known that the body will be exhumed, Ann Dorland, who has an obvious motive, suddenly and suspiciously agrees to the proposed compromise with the Fentimans.

Wimsey finds Ann Dorland distressed by the callous and humiliating behaviour of Dr Penberthy, to whom she had been secretly engaged. It was he, with an eye on her expected inheritance, who had insisted she should refuse the compromise and fight for the whole estate. When it became known that the General would be exhumed, Penberthy broke the engagement off, giving highly insulting reasons. He had hoped that Anne would be embarrassed into silence, but Wimsey manages to get the truth from her.

Wimsey works out what had happened. When the General had consulted Dr Penberthy after seeing his sister, he had mentioned the will. Penberthy, realising that his fiancée Anne Dorland would not inherit unless the General died first, gave the General a massive dose of digitalis, to be taken later that evening when Penberthy would not be in attendance. He was, however, present when the body was discovered; in spite of Robert's intervention, which confused the time, Penberthy had certified a natural death without initially arousing suspicion.

Penberthy writes a confession publicly exonerating Ann Dorland, then shoots himself in the club library. In an epilogue, it is revealed that the three original claimants to the estate have divided it equitably, and that Robert is now courting Ann.

Characters

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  • Lord Peter Wimsey – aristocratic amateur detective; Bellona Club member
  • Detective-Inspector Charles Parker – Wimsey's friend
  • Mervyn Bunter – Wimsey's manservant
  • Mr Murbles – solicitor to the Wimsey and Fentiman families
  • General Fentiman (deceased) – elderly retired soldier; Bellona Club member
  • Lady Dormer (deceased) – General Fentiman's wealthy widowed sister
  • Major Robert Fentiman – General Fentiman's older grandson; Bellona Club member
  • Captain George Fentiman – General Fentiman's younger grandson; Bellona Club member
  • Sheila Fentiman – wife of George Fentiman
  • Ann Dorland – distant relative of and companion to Lady Dormer
  • Dr Penberthy – impecunious physician; Bellona Club member
  • Marjorie Phelps – artist friend of Wimsey and of Ann Dorland
  • Salcombe Hardy – journalist writing for the Daily Yell
  • Captain Culyer – Bellona Club secretary
  • Colonel Marchbanks – Bellona Club member
  • Mr. Wetheridge – Bellona Club member
  • Dick Challoner – Bellona Club member

Literary significance and criticism

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Writing in 1990, Katherine Kenny described the book as the most successful of Sayers' early fiction, coupling a slick detective plot with vivid details of post-war English life. "The book is a tightly constructed little drama based upon the old joke about an Englishman's club so stuffy that its dead members cannot be differentiated from the living – a pertinent comment upon the society so described".[3]

Adaptations

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In 1973 the novel was the subject of a BBC TV mini-series starring Ian Carmichael as Wimsey.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "British Library Item details". primocat.bl.uk. Retrieved 20 December 2017.[dead link]
  2. ^ Kenny, Katherine (1990). The Remarkable Case of Dorothy L. Sayers. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. p. 45. ISBN 0-87338-410-5. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  3. ^ "The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club". IMDb. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
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