Dornford Yates' Characters' Interactions

This post will be subject to revision as more books are read or reread.

Simon Beaulieu interacts with the Master in "Simon" in As Other Men Are and again in The Stolen March and then with the Pleydells in The Berry Scene.

Eulalie interacts with the Pleydells in Jonah And Co. and with the Beaulieus in The Stolen March and is mentioned by Boy Pleydell in Adele And Co.

Porus Bureau makes minor appearances in The Stolen March and She Painted Her Face.

Toby Rage appears in:

"Toby" in As Other Men Are;
"Childish Things" in Maiden Stakes;
the Chandos novel, Red In The Morning;
the Berry collection, The Berry Scene.

Richard Falcon appears in:

the collection, Period Stuff;
the Berry novel, The House That Berry Built;
the Chandos novel, Cost Price;
Ne'er-Do-Well, narrated by Chandos.

John Bagot narrates Gale Warning, which features Richard Chandos who narrates nine novels, including Red In The Morning, which features John Bagot.

Jonathan Mansel is:

"Jonah" in the ten Berry books and in "Letters Patent" in Maiden Stakes;
"Mansel" in six of the eight listed Chandos books and in three other novels.

Richard Chandos:

appears in ten novels;
narrates nine, although only eight are listed as "Chandos books";
is mentioned in The Berry Scene where his wife, Jenny, appears.

Anthony Lyveden and Valerie French:

are each the title character of a novel;
marry;
are mentioned by Simon Beaulieu in "Simon";
appear in The Berry Scene.

The criminal nicknamed "Auntie Emma":

appears in The Stolen March;
is defeated by Mansel and the Pleydells in Adele And Co.;
is killed by Chandos in Red In The Morning.

For the sequence of novels featuring the criminal, Punter, see:

The Structure Of A Series: Dornford Yates II

Predictions

HG Wells wrote:

Anticipations;
Mind At The End Of Its Tether.

I thought that a character in a novel by Aldous Huxley published in 1919 said that the next big social crash would come in about twenty years... but I cannot find a novel with that year of publication in Huxley's bibliography.

"'If you ask me,' said Berry, 'we're doomed,'..."
-Dornford Yates, And Berry Came Too (London, 1936), CHAPTER III, p. 94.

"'...my opinion is that, before many years have gone by, this civilization of ours is going to come to an end.'"
-Dornford Yates, The Berry Scene (London, 1947), CHAPTER VIII, p. 223.

"'The end of this civilization is overdue.'"
-Dornford Yates, Ne'er-Do-Well (Cornwall, 2001), p. 9.

Yates and his characters decried the passing away of the kind of society in which they had been happy whereas I disagree with them and applaud many of the social changes that happened in the twentieth century. However, did Yates possess some deeper insight into the nature of the current civilization?

The Berry Scene

I enjoy fiction by authors that I disagree with, like Poul Anderson, but right now Dornford Yates is getting me down:

class-hatred is promoted by self-interested politicians;
Communists are bad people;
the beating up of a Communist is a source of amusement.

As long as it is not too badly affected by climate change, the English countryside remains to be appreciated whether or not society continues to be divided in the way eulogized by Yates.

Dornford's Discrepancies

Dornford Yates' mega-series comprises:

10 Berry Books, narrated by Boy Pleydell;
8 Chandos Books, narrated by Richard Chandos;
maybe 13 other works with overlapping characters.

The Pleydell's cousin, Jonah, and Chandos' friend, Mansel, are the same person;

Chandos appears in ten novels and narrates nine although only eight are listed as "the Chandos Books" because the ninth that he narrates features a different central character;

according to the Chandos Books, Chandos not only narrates but also writes these eight volumes as true accounts of his adventures whereas, according to some installments of the Berry series, Boy Pleydell writes the Chandos Books as works of fiction;

the second Chandos Book, Perishable Goods, makes no sense as a work written and published by Chandos because it reveals the secret affair between Jonathan Mansel and Adele Pleydell and even ends by saying the Jonah and Adele have successfully kept this secret - even though Chandos now publishes it!;

by contrast, the sixth Chandos Book, An Eye For A Tooth, should have been the second but Chandos was unable to write it earlier until a certain (other) lady had died;

Chandos conceals the identity of the villainess of the fifth Chandos Book, She Fell Among Thieves, but does not conceal it very well because we are told that -

her first name is "Vanity";
her nickname is "Vanity Fair";
she was married three times and thus had four surnames;
her husbands were Russian, American and Spanish;
her maiden name was "Blanche";
her second married surname was "Brooch."

Chandos and Mansel have to tell Falcon of Scotland Yard of their adventures even though Chandos has supposedly published his accounts of many of these adventures.

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy From Page To Screen

Scenes are left out, shortened or changed. I am not going to conduct an exhaustive analysis.

In the first book, Blomkvist visits his ex-wife and daughter, then visits his sister and her family, then is rung by Frode at the Millennium office whereas, on TV, the ex-wife and daughter are not mentioned and Blomkvist is rung by Frode while visiting his sister.

A necklace inherited from Anita was introduced on TV as a way of differentiating between Cecilia and Anita in a single photograph. In the book, Blomkvist had seen what he thought was a single woman in many group photos before he found another photo showing two almost identical women side by side. Also, Henrik Vanger had photos of Harriet's window open and closed, showing that someone had been in her room on the day when she disappeared. Then Blomkvist found a third photo with a face in the window. He thought that it was Cecilia although it turned out to be Anita. On TV, Henrik had the photo of the woman in the window and thought that it was Harriet. Then Blomkvist thought that it was Cecilia because the woman was wearing Cecilia's necklace but Cecilia said that she had inherited it from Anita.

In the book, Blomkvist visited Anita in London and traced her call to Harriet in Australia whereas, on TV, Anita was dead and Lisbeth discovered that there were two Anita Vangers, one dead, the other in Australia.

Blomkvist did not find a photo enabling him to identify Martin Vanger but instead broke into the old Nazi, Harald's, house and had to be rescued by Martin.

In the second book, the blond giant:

hallucinates;
runs when he sees Lisbeth resurrected;
is apprehended and tied up by Blomkvist;
but escapes when two cops come to collect him -

- whereas, on TV, he:

dodges when the resurrected Lisbeth fires at him;
runs when Blomkvist's car approaches.

Blomkvist had driven all the way, not gone by train first.

Blomkvist did not see Lisbeth attacked outside her flat and find the bag containing keys that she had dropped. Instead, Lisbeth visited Miriam in hospital and dropped the keys there.

The Structure Of A Series: Dornford Yates IV

See here.

After further reading and rereading, I think that the second group of Chandos and related novels should be reorganized thus:

Safe Custody
Shoal Water
Adele and Co.
Storm Music
Cost Price
Gale Warning
Red In The Morning
Ne'er-Do-Well

The four volumes that feature Falcon of Scotland Yard are:

Period Stuff
Red In The Morning
The House That Berry Built
Ne'er Do Well

Jenny is prominent as Mrs Chandos in:

Cost Price
Gale Warning
Red In The Morning
The Berry Scene
Ne'er Do Well 

See Bibliography.

The Structure Of A Series: Dornford Yates III

Dornford Yates' ten Berry books subdivide not into two fives but into a six and a four.

1914-1936
The Brother Of Daphne (1914), pre-War
The Courts Of Idleness (1920), before, during and after WWI
Berry and Co. (1921)
Jonah and Co. (1922)
Adele and Co. (1931)
And Berry Came Too (1936)

I am currently rereading Yates so might have to revise some of these statements. And Berry Came Too is set during a summer between two chapters of Berry and Co. (or something). The theme is upper class life in the period that we recognize as between the Wars.

1945-1958
The House That Berry Built (1945), War approaches, ancestral home sold
The Berry Scene (1947), a review of the whole period
As Berry And I Were Saying (1952)
B-Berry And I Look Back (1958)

The last two are memoirs which step outside the fictional continuity.