After reading other’s comments about the beginning of the story, I thought I would be in for another dreadful reading, if you will; however, Ngaio Marsh’s Surfeit of Lampreys was a complete breath of fresh air from G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown stories and Dorothy L. Sayers’s Gaudy Night, although those stories still made for an amazing learning experience! From start to finish, I enjoyed Surfeit of Lampreys; I might be a little biased because the apple of my eye is named Roderick, just like Marsh’s detective, Roderick Alleyn.I thought Ngaio Marsh’s name sounded familiar to me and it did; I have heard many people discuss Marsh’s A Man Lay Dead, and I want to say it was on an important statewide reading comprehension test. It’s fuzzy, but it is definitely a book I will be reading soon.
What was most interesting to me about Ngaio Marsh was her theater experience, which definitely showed in her writing. In the very beginning of my edition of Surfeit of Lampreys, there was a list of characters and their descriptions, sort of like that at the beginning of a play. I actually wondered whether or not Surfeit of Lampreys was a play because of that reason; that would have been a fairly interesting, different read. Although I personally try to refrain from using Wikipedia, it definitely has a positive of being a good starting source, and I found it very interesting to learn that Marsh has a theater named in her honor in New Zealand (“Ngaio Marsh Theatre.).
I researched a little about Marsh’s life because I wanted to find out what made her name her detective Roderick. While in London, I passed a posh shoe shop, if you will, for men, and it was called Roderick Charles.
Image Source: I took this picture myself outside of the Roderick Charles store in England.
Was “Roderick” an elite name in Britain at some point? Although I did not find out anything about the name in relation to Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn, I came across a website about Ngaio Marsh that was equally intriguing. Below is a picture of her childhood home. An interesting fact I learned about Marsh from the website was that she was a painter: “A relatively unknown aspect of her life was her interest in painting. The house contains several examples which illustrate her talent” (“NGAIO MARSH HOUSE & HERITAGE TRUST.” ).
Image Source: http://www.ngaio-marsh.org.nz/index-about.html
Works Cited (with links):
Note: If the links do not automatically direct you to the site, copy and paste the link in your address bar. Also, images’ sources are below the image itself. Copy and paste the address if you would like to visit the website containing the image.
“NGAIO MARSH HOUSE & HERITAGE TRUST.” About. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 July 2014.
“Ngaio Marsh Theatre.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 19 July 2014.
MsStopYourCrime 