Not grammar. Diction.
Anyone who knows me will know why I loved this passage from Rex Stout’s Method Three for Murder, quoted in Steven Brust’s livejournal.
“I demand an explanation. I intend to hold you to account for alienating the affection of my wife.”
“Affections,” Wolfe said.
“What?”
“Affections. In that context the plural is used.” He lifted the glass and drank, and licked his lips.
Kearns stared at him. “I didn’t come here,” he said, “to have my grammar corrected.”
“Not grammar. Diction.”
I have to check out some Nero Wolfe novels some time. I think I’d like them.
=v= Mere bits away from my Futurama timeline is a chronologically-arranged bibliographpy of Rex Stout's novels featuring Nero Wolfe.
Posted by Jym![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mememachinego.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 19 2007 15:54
If you liked that quotatation, you'll love Nero Wolfe. Please do try a book or two.
His officicial Literary Society (the Wolfe Pack)has a site at www.nerowolfe.org with pages and pages of information.
Regards,
Carol
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December 20 2007 04:27
The Wolfe novels and stories are re-read repeatedly at this house by Cathy and me. Over the years, we managed to snag mostly used copies of just about all the books. Stout's other detective fiction seems to be worth reading once, but the urge to re-read isn't there.
Posted by Kip W![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mememachinego.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 21 2007 05:56
Some are, unsurprisingly, better than others, but I enjoyed all the Wolfe/Archie stories (by Stout) when I was a teen. Nero Wolfe versus J. Edgar Hoover in The Doorbell Rang was particularly amusing, but it might be best -- though hardly crucial -- to read the stories in orderm, starting with Fer-de-Lance.
Be prepared to take notes on the meals.
"Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth." -- The Red Box
"Subtlety chases the obvious in a never-ending spiral and never quite catches it." -- The Silent Speaker
Stout, incidentally, on continuing series after the author's death: "I don't know whether to call them vampires or cannibals...let them roll their own."
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January 2 2008 12:40