"I Submit That Mr. Zangwill Has Provided Us with a Problem in Criminology Worthy of the Sagacity of Mr. Sherlock Holmes"

"A Novel of the Week."

A review of Israel Zangwill's The Grey Wig; Stories and Novelettes.

By Anonymous.

First appearance: T. P.'s Weekly, March 20, 1903.

Article (1 page).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE) and below.

     "Are people ever tired of stories of mystery?"

In his review of Israel Zangwill's collection, the reviewer really emphasizes "The Big Bow Mystery" while giving short shrift to the other, more or less conventional, stories, not because they're bad but because . . .

  ". . . I think it is significant of Mr. Zangwill to find in a detective story from his pen the qualities of reflective power, of humorous observation, and a complete absence of sentimentality, which seem utterly alien from this class of fiction."

Contents of the book:

  "The Grey Wig"

  "Chassé-croisé"

  "The Woman Beater"

  "The Eternal Feminine"

  "The Silent Sisters"

  "The Big Bow Mystery"

  "Merely Mary Ann"

  "The Serio-comic Governess"

References and resources:

- The reviewer makes oblique references to several well-known (at the time) fiction authors and one politician:

  ~ Eugène Sue (Wikipedia HERE)

  ~ Émile Gaboriau (Wikipedia HERE)

  ~ Fortuné du Boisgobey (Mike Grost HERE)

  ~ Edgar Allan Poe (Mike Grost HERE)

  ~ William Ewart Gladstone (Wikipedia HERE).

- The Grey Wig; Stories and Novelettes is online at Project Gutenberg (HERE) and Archive.org (HERE); "The Big Bow Mystery" flies solo at Project Gutenberg (HERE).

- Other ONTOS articles touching on Zangwill's mystery novel:

  ~ "The First Genuine Locked-Room Mystery" (HERE)

  ~ "I Have Always Had a Suppressed Desire to See a Grave Opened" (HERE)

  ~ A Tongue-in-Cheek Assessment of THE BIG BOW MYSTERY by the Author Himself (HERE)

  ~ The Locked Room Mystery in the Mid-Twentieth Century (with One from the Twenty-first) (HERE).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~