The Blotting Book

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Pages: 99

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About this book

Behind the polished comforts of Mrs. Assheton’s Brighton house, E. F. Benson sets a mystery in a world shaped by money, reputation and social manners. Her son Morris has recently finished four years at Cambridge and returned to live with her. At his birthday dinner, he proudly discusses his new motor car while Mr. Taynton, a solicitor approaching sixty, enjoys the wine and thinks longingly of retirement. The opening gives close attention to household routines, conversation and the ease that wealth can provide.

As the story develops, Morris’s peace gives way to exhaustion and distress. A vivid dream returns him to the road near Falmer Park after learning who has damaged his good name. These scenes bring private anxiety into a carefully observed social setting. Readers interested in British mystery fiction will find a story that links questions of character and reputation with the unsettling force of memory and dreams.

About the author

E. F. Benson

E. F. Benson was a novelist, biographer, memoirist, and ghost-story writer whose range extended from mythology to exquisitely observed social comedy. The Valkyries appeared in 1903 as his prose rendering of the libretto for Richard Wagner's Die Walküre.