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The Sealed Message
Ferguson Wright Hume was born in Powick, Worcestershire, England, the second son of James C. Hume, a Scot and clerk and steward at the County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum there. When he was three the family emigrated to Dunedin, New Zealand, where he was educated at Otago Boys' High School and studied law at the University of Otago. He was admitted to the New Zealand bar in 1885. Shortly after graduation Hume relocated to Melbourne, Australia, where he obtained a job as a barristers' clerk. He began writing plays, but found it impossible to persuade the managers of Melbourne theatres to accept or even to read them.
286 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1908
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About the author
Fergus Hume
874 books51 followersFergusson Wright Hume (1859–1932), New Zealand lawyer and prolific author particularly renowned for his debut novel, the international best-seller The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886).
Hume was born at Powick, Worcestershire, England, son of Glaswegian Dr. James Collin Hume, a steward at the Worcestershire Pauper Lunatic Asylum and his wife Mary Ferguson.
While Fergus was a very young child, in 1863 the Humes emigrated to New Zealand where James founded the first private mental hospital and Dunedin College. Young Fergus attended the Otago Boys' High School then went on to study law at Otago University. He followed up with articling in the attorney-general's office, called to the New Zealand bar in 1885.
In 1885 Hume moved to Melbourne. While he worked as a solicitors clerk he was bent on becoming a dramatist; but having only written a few short stories he was a virtual unknown. So as to gain the attentions of the theatre directors he asked a local bookseller what style of book he sold most. Emile Gaboriau's detective works were very popular and so Hume bought them all and studied them intently, thus turning his pen to writing his own style of crime novel and mystery.
Hume spent much time in Little Bourke Street to gather material and his first effort was The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), a worthy contibution to the genre. It is full of literary references and quotations; finely crafted complex characters and their sometimes ambiguous seeming interrelationships with the other suspects, deepening the whodunit angle. It is somewhat of an exposé of the then extremes in Melbourne society, which caused some controversy for a time. Hume had it published privately after it had been downright rudely rejected by a number of publishers. "Having completed the book, I tried to get it published, but everyone to whom I offered it refused even to look at the manuscript on the grounds that no Colonial could write anything worth reading." He had sold the publishing rights for £50, but still retained the dramatic rights which he soon profited from by the long Australian and London theatre runs.
Except for short trips to France, Switzerland and Italy, in 1888 Hume settled and stayed in Essex, England where he would remain for the rest of his life. Although he was born, and lived the latter part of his life, in England, he thought of himself as 'a colonial' and identified as a New Zealander, having spent all of his formative years from preschool through to adulthood there. Hume died of cardiac failure at his home on 11 July 1932.
Hume was born at Powick, Worcestershire, England, son of Glaswegian Dr. James Collin Hume, a steward at the Worcestershire Pauper Lunatic Asylum and his wife Mary Ferguson.
While Fergus was a very young child, in 1863 the Humes emigrated to New Zealand where James founded the first private mental hospital and Dunedin College. Young Fergus attended the Otago Boys' High School then went on to study law at Otago University. He followed up with articling in the attorney-general's office, called to the New Zealand bar in 1885.
In 1885 Hume moved to Melbourne. While he worked as a solicitors clerk he was bent on becoming a dramatist; but having only written a few short stories he was a virtual unknown. So as to gain the attentions of the theatre directors he asked a local bookseller what style of book he sold most. Emile Gaboriau's detective works were very popular and so Hume bought them all and studied them intently, thus turning his pen to writing his own style of crime novel and mystery.
Hume spent much time in Little Bourke Street to gather material and his first effort was The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), a worthy contibution to the genre. It is full of literary references and quotations; finely crafted complex characters and their sometimes ambiguous seeming interrelationships with the other suspects, deepening the whodunit angle. It is somewhat of an exposé of the then extremes in Melbourne society, which caused some controversy for a time. Hume had it published privately after it had been downright rudely rejected by a number of publishers. "Having completed the book, I tried to get it published, but everyone to whom I offered it refused even to look at the manuscript on the grounds that no Colonial could write anything worth reading." He had sold the publishing rights for £50, but still retained the dramatic rights which he soon profited from by the long Australian and London theatre runs.
Except for short trips to France, Switzerland and Italy, in 1888 Hume settled and stayed in Essex, England where he would remain for the rest of his life. Although he was born, and lived the latter part of his life, in England, he thought of himself as 'a colonial' and identified as a New Zealander, having spent all of his formative years from preschool through to adulthood there. Hume died of cardiac failure at his home on 11 July 1932.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 22, 2017
Fun cozy mystery.
If you enjoy cozy British mysteries, you will enjoy this tome. However, the editing was atrocious. It was almost impossible to turn a page without discovering a misspelled word. The rating of 3 out of 5 reflects my frustration at having to infer the meaning of countless sentences.
If you enjoy cozy British mysteries, you will enjoy this tome. However, the editing was atrocious. It was almost impossible to turn a page without discovering a misspelled word. The rating of 3 out of 5 reflects my frustration at having to infer the meaning of countless sentences.
February 11, 2018
Witless mystery from a master of the (dubious) form.
Two men out fishing land an unusual catch which leads to an asinine adventure to rescue a young woman kept prisoner in an old house. Rather than finding a message in a bottle, our hero finds a record in a cylinder. You can tell that the author was mightily pleased with the novelty of this:
"Shipwrecked people throw bottles overboard with documents to tell of their danger, as you well know."
"H'm! It's the first time I ever heard of a phonograph record being used to convey news," grunted Tod crossly.
"The person who floated the cylinder is evidently up-to-date."
The message is from beautiful young woman who talks and behaves like she lives in a fairytale. Her legal guardian has kept her imprisoned without constraint by lying to her that it's 'the custom' for girls to be locked away until the age of twenty-one and remain illiterate, a preposterous ruse which our gallant hero nonetheless considered 'both cunning and clever.'
I readily admit to a certain pleasure to be had in reading novels this bad. Where else can you hope to come across dialogue this unwittingly stupid? What is the hero doing here exactly? Is he telling us that he isn't human?:
"So far as I am personally concerned, I don't care two straws for the income----"
"Oh, come now. Human nature----"
"I don't go by human nature," interrupted Haskins sharply; "I go by my own feelings."
To put a cherry on top, in the very next chapter he took to musing on the behaviour of his enemy and put it down to, you guessed it, 'human nature.'
Hume later revealed his own literary standards and shortcomings by quoting Bulwer-Lytton as though this were a good thing.
Two men out fishing land an unusual catch which leads to an asinine adventure to rescue a young woman kept prisoner in an old house. Rather than finding a message in a bottle, our hero finds a record in a cylinder. You can tell that the author was mightily pleased with the novelty of this:
"Shipwrecked people throw bottles overboard with documents to tell of their danger, as you well know."
"H'm! It's the first time I ever heard of a phonograph record being used to convey news," grunted Tod crossly.
"The person who floated the cylinder is evidently up-to-date."
The message is from beautiful young woman who talks and behaves like she lives in a fairytale. Her legal guardian has kept her imprisoned without constraint by lying to her that it's 'the custom' for girls to be locked away until the age of twenty-one and remain illiterate, a preposterous ruse which our gallant hero nonetheless considered 'both cunning and clever.'
I readily admit to a certain pleasure to be had in reading novels this bad. Where else can you hope to come across dialogue this unwittingly stupid? What is the hero doing here exactly? Is he telling us that he isn't human?:
"So far as I am personally concerned, I don't care two straws for the income----"
"Oh, come now. Human nature----"
"I don't go by human nature," interrupted Haskins sharply; "I go by my own feelings."
To put a cherry on top, in the very next chapter he took to musing on the behaviour of his enemy and put it down to, you guessed it, 'human nature.'
Hume later revealed his own literary standards and shortcomings by quoting Bulwer-Lytton as though this were a good thing.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews