The Franchise is a house outside of the village, the home of a single woman and her mother who inherited the property a few years earlier. By the standards of the village, this still makes them newcomers and outsiders, so when the pair are accused of a serious crime, the locals are all too eager to believe ill of them.
With all the resources of Scotland Yard and Inspector Alan Grant arrayed against him, Robert Blair rallies to cast off quotidien affairs, call in favors, and discover resources he never knew he possessed to prove Mrs. and Miss Sharpe innocent.
The book is relentlessly relevant to today's media cycle, with the damage that a mere accusation can wreak painted in vivid detail. Tey is merciless against do-gooders with various progressive "causes." Unfortunately, there is also a very ugly eugenicist streak on display in her writing, particularly the revelation that the accuser is adopted and the natural daughter not of a respectable middle-class woman (in which case her veracity could not be questioned) but of an unfaithful lower-class wife (in which case she could clearly be nothing but a criminal and liar).
While truth eventually triumphs, Tey is unsentimental about the power of legal vindication to eradicate the effects of prejudice. (As Mark Twain is rumored to have said, "A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on," and the fact that Twain almost assuredly didn't say it but is still credited with the quotation only proves the point.) The ending is hopeful, if not traditionally happily-ever-after, and everyone involved with the Franchise affair becomes a better person due to their involvement.
No comments:
Post a Comment