Force and Fraud Read Online Free

only a national preoccupation, but also the experience of the first editor, George Arthur Walstab, a former policeman.
    That Force and Fraud opened this new venture indicates that Ellen Davitt was a staff and star writer. Consequently the AJ worked her into the ground. The novel was followed by two more, and a novella, all published in the first year of the journal. This formidable output meant quantity over quality. Only the debut is republishable, as a work which she had the time to craft, and even probably revise. One serial, Black Sheep , was so hastily written that the main character had two different names. Continuity errors can occur in serials, where early drafts get published without the chance of revision. Indeed, Force and Fraud ’s lawyer Argueville first appeared as Arqueille. 32
    Force and Fraud ’s narrative begins with a murder, and ends with the solution – plus a romance added to the plot. Modern readers will note that it lacks a hero-investigator, but at the time that narrative mode had not gained genre dominance. An alternative model equally existed, splitting the role of detective among various characters. It can be seen in works such as Wilkie Collins’ 1860 The Woman in White ; and even as late as Fergus Hume’s 1886 The Mystery of a Hansom Cab , the best-selling detective novel of the 1800s.
    In Force and Fraud , the investigators include a lawyer, the feisty heroine Flora, and a Scottish shepherd. But there is equally a cast of those seeking to obstruct justice and impede the investigation, as with Frances Trollope’s Hargrave .
    Ellen Davitt used her knowledge of art in the depiction of hero Herbert Lindsey. Much of her Australian experience is reflected in Force and Fraud . She had closely observed country townships, and bush homesteads. Her depictions are vividly realistic, adding to the novel’s credibility. One scene, a charity bazaar held at the Melbourne Exhibition Building, was drawn from life. In 1856 such a bazaar was held, and Ellen Davitt presided over the stall of the Commissioners of National Education. 33 Not many writers would have used such a domestic, indeed female scene in a crime novel, nor used it to introduce a vital if rather unprepossessing clue. Moreover, the dramatic near-shipwreck on Kerguelen’s land had actually happened to the Davitts.
    Anthony Trollope was not a fan of literary puzzles, unlike his mother. “I abhor a mystery,” he wrote, adding that he had “no ambition to surprise” the reader. He refused to construct his plots in great detail before actually writing his novels. In this attitude, he differed from his sister-in-law.
    Force and Fraud , a novel whose title is explained in the final sentence, was clearly plotted intricately beforehand. Ellen Davitt understood the importance of clues, of mining the text with details, initially insignificant, that later become vital. She was also adept at red herrings. 34
    Her other efforts for the AJ tend towards melodrama, although her last serial The Wreck of the Atalanta (1867) had mystery elements. The AJ described it as “certainly the happiest effort of MRS. DAVITT’S pen, and we promise our readers a rich treat in its perusal”.
    To a modern reader, though, the serial is interesting largely for its sympathetic portrayal of a battered wife. It is otherwise flawed, its mystery plot lacking the finesse of Force and Fraud . 35
    Subsequently, Ellen’s name began to disappear from the magazine. She had always proudly signed her works ‘Mrs. Arthur Davitt’, ignoring the Victorian convention that women should publish anonymously. Her contemporary on the AJ, the remarkable police procedural writer Mary Fortune, always used a pseudonym. Ellen’s stories now gained the byline “by the author of Edith Travers, etc.”
    Such happened with ‘The Highlander’s Revenge’ ( AJ , 31 August 1867). This story is included in this edition as a