"Nothing in This Modern Life of Ours Is More Remarkable Than the Way in Which the Mystery Novel Has Gripped the Public."

THE MULLINERS have had more than their share of adventures in an unsuspecting society, but for the sheer number of thrills, chills, and boudoir incursions none of them can top . . .

"Strychnine in the Soup."

By P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and WARNING! SPOILERS! the IMDb HERE). 

First appearance: The American Magazine, December 1931, as "The Missing Mystery" (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

Reprinted in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, February 1952 (today's text).

Filmed for TV in 1976 (IMDb HERE).

Other reprints:

  The Strand Magazine, March 1932

  Mulliner Nights, 1933

  The Best of Wodehouse, 1949

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (Australia) #58, April 1952

  The World of Mr. Mulliner, 1972

  Wodehouse on Crime, 1981 (about which HERE)

  Murder at Teatime, 1996.

Short story (16 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 81).

   "Your true enthusiast, deprived of his favorite reading, will stop at nothing in order to get it. He is like a victim of the drug habit when withheld from cocaine."

. . . and with this pronouncement Mr. Mulliner prefaces the thrilling account of how his nephew Cyril crossed swords with his true love's mother not only over a copy of the latest detective thriller but also over his unquenchable desire to marry her daughter; and of how, despite tremendous odds, the two situations coincided . . . no, make that collided . . .

Main characters:

~ The Draught Stout, Mr. Mulliner, the Small Lager, Cyril Mulliner, Amelia Bassett, Lady Bassett, Sir Mortimer and Lady Wingham, the Simpson couple, Lester Mapledurham, and the butler (who didn't do it).

References:

- "Strychnine" (Wikipedia HERE).

- "She reminded Cyril of Wallace Beery":

  A great actor who went amazingly far in movies without possessing the requisite leading man looks. (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the chief of the lower Isisi":

  No particular tribe that we can locate.

- "he had once met Dorothy L. Sayers" (Wikipedia HERE) and (ONTOS HERE).

- "this isn't the Victorian Age" (Wikipedia HERE and HERE):

  "In Great Britain, elsewhere in Europe, and in the United States, the notion that marriage should be based on romantic love and companionship rather than convenience, money, or other strategic considerations grew in popularity during the Victorian period."

- "patent medicines":

  "The term is sometimes still used to describe quack remedies of unproven effectiveness and questionable safety sold especially by peddlers in past centuries, who often also called them elixirs, tonics, or liniments. Current examples of quack remedies are sometimes called nostrums or panaceas, but easier-to-understand terms like scam cure-all, or pseudoscience are more common." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a distinct suggestion of Victor McLaglen":

  "His film career spanned from the early 1920s through the 1950s, initially as a leading man, though he was better known for his character acting." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "to put on any dog":

  An expression that's quickly fading away. (Wiktionary HERE.)

- "playing This Little Pig Went to Market":

  "It was the eighth most popular nursery rhyme in a 2009 survey in the United Kingdom." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "books of Ba-ha-ism":

  "Baháʼís regard the world's major religions as fundamentally unified in their purpose, but divergent in their social practices and interpretations." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Lesser Iguanodon":

  Wodehouse almost certainly knew that this lizard only existed in fossil rocks.

  "Iguanodon was a large, bulky herbivore, measuring up to 9–11 metres (30–36 ft) in length and 4.5 metric tons (5.0 short tons) in body mass. Distinctive features include large thumb spikes, which were possibly used for defense against predators, combined with long prehensile fifth fingers able to forage for food." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Lower Zambezi":

  "The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a charging rhinoceros":

  "Rhinoceroses are among the largest living land animals, with living species ranging in average weight from 775 kilograms (1,709 lb) in the Sumatran rhinoceros, to 2,300 kilograms (5,100 lb) in the white rhinoceros." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a distinct look of George Bancroft":

  "George Bancroft (1882-1956) was an American film actor, whose career spanned seventeen years from 1925 to 1942. A star of pre-Code Hollywood, he is best known as the tough guy lead in four Josef von Sternberg films . . ." (Wikipedia HERE.) 

- "a crouching zebu":

  "Zebu, as well as many Sanga cattle, have humps on the shoulders, large dewlaps and droopy ears. Compared to taurine cattle, the zebu is well adapted to the hot tropical savanna climate and steppe environments. These adaptations result in higher tolerance for drought, heat and sunlight exposure." (Wikipedia HERE.)

Resources:

- We encountered P. G. Wodehouse several times early on in this weblog (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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