Israel Rank

by Roy Horniman

'There is an old saying, 'Murder will out.' I am really unable to see why this should be so...' Israel The Autobiography of a Criminal (1907) inspired the classic Ealing film Kind Hearts and Coronets . But though both works are comedies about a serial murderer, they are different creatures. The eponymous narrator of Roy Horniman's novel, son of a Jewish commercial traveller, offers his memoirs from the condemned cell, having murdered six people who stood between him and an earldom he hoped to inherit. Through Israel's story Horniman explores and parodies the anti-Semitic attitudes of Edwardian England. 'A superb thriller, but also a disturbing study in human nature. The narrative pace never slackens, thanks to the spareness and elegance of Horniman's prose... it is a book of its time, quite faithful to it, and (despite its 400 pages) over all too quickly.' Simon Heffer, in his Preface

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Classics, British Literature, Crime, Mystery, Novels

420 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

Roy Horniman (1874–1930) was a British writer.

He was the owner of The Ladies Review for some years and was a member of the British Committee of The Indian National Congress. As well as acting he became tenant and manager of the Criterion Theatre and wrote many plays as well as adaptations of his own and others’ novels. In his later years he wrote and adapted for the screen. Amongst his notable works were Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal (1907) which was republished by Faber Finds in 2008, on which the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets was based, as well as the 2013 Broadway musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. He also wrote The Sin of Atlantis in 1900 and Lord Cammarleigh’s Secret: A Fairy Story of To-Day in 1907.

Roy Horniman served in the Artists Rifles during the First World War.

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure about the kind hearts…

This is the book on which the famous film Kind Hearts and Coronets was based so the story will be familiar to anyone who has seen it, although apparently the film had some significant differences to the book. Basically, the narrator in the book, Israel Rank, is the son of a Jewish father and a mother who is distantly related to Earl Gascoyne. Israel finds out that there are eight people in the line of succession between him and the Earldom, and sets out to bump them off one by one. It’s a long time since I watched the film but my recollection is it’s mainly played for laughs. The book attempts black humour too, but for me it didn’t really come off. As well as being a multiple murderer, Israel is a snob, completely convinced of his own superiority, and spends far too much time telling us his lustful thoughts about the various women with whom he gets involved. I found the murders too cruel to be humorous – there is real grief on the part of the victims’ relatives. There is also an insistence on Jewish stereotyping, with Israel frequently referring to the ‘traits’ of ‘his people’ while trotting out some hackneyed anti-Semitic trope. Martin Edwards suggests, based on what is known of Horniman’s life, that the book is probably intended “as a condemnation of anti-Semitism, rather than some form of endorsement of it” but, while I’m happy to accept that he’s probably right, I’m afraid that’s not how it comes over. I found Israel too unpleasant to like, and certainly had no desire to see him succeed in his aims.

However, all of that I could probably have tolerated – again, it’s of its time – but I fear I also found it rather dull and massively overlong. I gave up about halfway through and jumped to the end to see if he succeeded. I won’t tell you if he did, but I found the ending unsatisfying enough that I was glad I hadn’t ploughed through the second half waiting for it.

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[Jessica Azrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit difficult to complete due to the frequent antisemitic remarks (especially being Jewish myself) but I’m ultimately glad that I finished it because it showed me the roots and original story for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (also: Kind Hearts and Coronets). I’m no literary scholar, so I can’t verify the claims of the antisemitism in this book being satire, but at the very least they show some of the nasty rumors about Jewish people that have died with the times- thank goodness. It makes me feel a little grateful that I hadn’t heard some of these stereotypes in modern times, if nothing else, despite the more recent rise in antisemitism. That being said, the tone of the writing was just the right level of dark and cheery, unfeeling and overthinking, and almost silly the way each grisly murder was planned in the same way as one might plan a picnic. The musical really exaggerated that tone in a beautiful way, so it’s nice to see where that unique way of writing originated. The plot and some of the characters are different in parts (which keeps it interesting since readers aren’t reading a story they already know by heart), but it’s similar enough to be recognizable and to see where the musical got each of its details. I would definitely recommend this to people in love with Gentleman’s Guide who want to know how such a convoluted story, with endearing yet cruel characters, came about. I might also recommend it to those wanting to learn more about attitudes of this particular time period, because I certainly learned quite a bit from reading this.

[Mariano Hortal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro no aparecerá en los “blogs especializados” de novela negra y policíaca, ni aparecerá en ninguno de los múltiples festivales de novela negra… pero cualquier buen lector no debería perdérselo por: una premisa inmejorable, un desarrollo colosal, fina ironía y un final cargado de mala leche. Debe aparecer en mi selección del año.

[V. Briceland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roy Horniman's 1907 novel Israel Rank is better known as the inspiration for the 1949 Alec Guinness film Kind Hearts & Coronets, as well as the 2013 Best Musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder. All three entertainments share the similar high concept, in which a low-ranking aspirant to a high-profile estate and title faces the gallows after concocting a series of comic murders designed to make him the sole inheritor.

Black comedy, indeed. What might be interesting to modern readers, however, is how much more thoroughly dark and nasty the novel is in comparison to the giddier pleasures of the film and musical. Horniman's creation is hornier as well, for while the heirs in the adaptations both juggle the sexual attentions of two women, Israel Rank manages to keep on the hook no less than three. Also, Horniman's titular hero is as unreliable and criminally self-deluded a character as his literary serial-murderer cousin, the narrator of James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner—and the results are undeniably comic. Still, the murders in Kind Hearts and Gentleman's Guide both tend to be bloodless—and Israel Rank never lets the reader forget that murder is a dirty, foul business with actual consequences.

In Israel Rank the main character's mother is expelled from the noble Gascoyne family for marrying a Jew; its adaptations graciously avoid the sticky issue and rather genteelly look down upon their protagonist's late father for being . . . shudder! . . . a musician. Horniman's approach, however, is a more aggressive means of challenging not only the gentry's abundant prejudices, but as well the assumptions of his contemporary readers as well. While it's not as lightweight a confection as either Kind Hearts or Gentleman's Guide, for lovers of visceral, dark period literature, this little-known novel might prove a gem.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book after having first become familiar with the story through the film (Kind Hearts and Coronets) and the musical (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder). As such, I knew the basic plot ahead of time, but that didn't stop my enjoyment of this book, as the prose style was fun and kept me wanting to read throughout, even though I already knew the outcome. Israel is an engaging narrator who really gets the reader on his side despite all his actions, and, as the blurb mentions, it is also a commentary on Edwardian anti-Semitic attitudes. This book is hard to come by these days, but I was luckily able to find a copy to read online via HathiTrust. It is because I could only read a few pages at a time on the PC that it took me so long to get through this book; otherwise I would have devoured it in just a few days. It gets 4.5 stars from me.

[K.J. Charles]

I love the film of Kind Hearts and Coronets--pitch black vicious comedy--so I was excited to read the book. But, wow, this is one of the nastiest things I've ever read. Turns out the film really tones down the cruelty and callousness. The narrator is a sexually abusive misogynist as well as a murderer, who ingratiates himself in the vilest way with perfectly nice people whose loved ones he murdered, and I can't see any satire in this, just nastiness. And it's absolutely seething with antisemitism (internalised on the part of the half Jewish narrator who is constantly talking about the instincts of his race ugh ugh). A genuinely unpleasant reading experience, from which I was relieved to bail out.

[Dave Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book on which Kind Hearts & Coronets was based. It's nicely written, with a beguiling narrator - he's no Humbert Humbert, but we can't helping rooting for him as he bumps off the aristocrats standing in the way of his title. The author has put a lot of work into the way a murderer might think, creates some vivid characters and set-piece moments, and shakes a mean cocktail of sex and death. My quibble, which stops the book from getting 4 stars, is that Israel doesn't have to try very hard. Towards the end, when he suffers a catastrophic setback, the story gets very tense indeed. I would have liked a few more moments like that. Still, it feels a lot more agreeable to spend time in Israel Rank's company than that of Hannibal or Dexter.

Incidentally I was very interested in this comment by Dr G Hamilton on Amazon: "[The novel has] a drily epigrammatic and Wildean flavour about it. I suspect that Roy Horniman was much influenced by Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. There are many parallels between the two books. Israel Rank's close friend in Horniman's novel is Graham Hallward,whereas Dorian's great friend is Basil Hallward. Israel falls for Sibella as Dorian does for Sybil.The governess who appears in the Horniman Book and plays a key part in the plot is called 'Gray' and finally Wilde's wife and family adopted the name 'Holland', the same as a major character in 'Israel Rank'. In many respects the script of 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'' adapted from the novel by Robert Hamer and Michael Dighton is a major achievement in its own right,full of droll witticisms and clever asides. The climactic ending though the same in both book and film is better in the film as Sibella attempts to blackmail Louis to avoid execution. The book's ending is less believable and doesn't have quite the same sting in the tail...but reading the one adds to the delight of viewing the other."

[Estott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read- very much so. It crackles with wit & is full of aphorisms - but it really isn't comic, and the main character goes from being compromised but interesting to being self-centered & unlikable, paying for his crimes by living in a comfortably appointed little hell of his own creation which he is dimly aware of.
The book takes its time, and the Gascoyne family members are actually a rather decent lot- Israel likes all of his victims, even as he ticks off their various qualities of hypocrisy or degeneracy. He greatly oversteps the line in dispatching an infant by carefully infecting him with Scarlet Fever. Israel's treatment of the three women in his life is (at the very least) caddish. I'm not even going to go into the Jewish aspect of this book, and if it is antisemitic or not.

There are a LOT of issues in this book- but it is still a brilliant piece of work- more like cut glass than a precious stone: plenty of sparkle, but cold at the heart.

[Mcruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ratos Agatha Christie, a ratos Edith Wharton y a ratos Jane Austen, he disfrutado bastante estas Memorias. Muy recomendable para aficionados al crimen a los que no les importe leer de vez en cuando algún comentario machista propio de la época.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rated Horniman's "Kind Hearts and Coronets" the highest because it was clever, yet I had a hard time reading this story about such a psychopath. I would cringe with each murder and lack of consciousness! I find this story antisemitic, because of the Jewish negative aspect, the main character's name is Israel Rank. Every psychopathic action coupled with the name Israel, was reinforcing that sentiment. Israel comments about his race prejudicial and ridiculous.

Story in short- Israel Rank looks to gain the Gascoyne earldom.

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Israel Rank has many advantages and qualities which should enable an ordinary man to get through life quite successfully. But he’s not content to be an ordinary man. He’s a distant heir
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to the Gascoyne earldom, and he will not rest until he inherits it, lock, stock and barrel. One tiny problem: he must kill everyone in line before him, without getting caught. The result is an evergreen classic of blackly comic crime fiction. First published in 1907 as ‘Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal’, the novel is probably best known as inspiration for the classic Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, frequently voted one of the greatest British
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films ever. The novel itself remains a remarkably fresh satire that reverses conventional morality ��� a sympathetic comedy about a serial killer.


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Before the first year of my life was over, my doting parents had gone through many an agony of suspense, and my father had more than once slackened his steps on returning home after
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his day’s work, fearing to enter the house lest my mother should meet him and weeping inform him that the tiny thread of life, by which I was alone prevented from flying away and becoming a little angel, had snapped. But by dint of the greatest care from a mother, who, whatever may have been her coldness to the outside world, possessed a burning affection for her husband and child, I was brought safely to my first birthday.
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Sitting here during the last few unpleasant days with nothing to entertain me but the faces of ever-changing warders—whose personalities seem all to have been supplied from one pattern—I have had time to think over many things, and I have more than once reflected whether I would not rather my mother had been less careful and had allowed the before mentioned tiny thread to snap

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My intellect, however, which has always shone brightly through the murk of my emotions, tells me—and supports the information with irrefutable logic—that I am an ignoble fool to think anything of the kind. I question whether Napoleon would have foregone his triumphant career to escape St. Helena. The principle involved in his case and my own is the same. I have had a great career; I am
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paying for it—only fortunately the public are asking an absurdly low price. It is only when I have smoked too many cigarettes that I feel nervous about Monday’s ceremony.

❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert

Israel was a psychopath and I was disappointed in him not paying for his crimes. Esther Lane committing suicide was very sad, I wish she had not confessed to the crime of killing Lord Gascoyne, since she was only covering up for this serial murderer and false accusations on the dead Lord. It seems he would not kill again but I am not sure if someone stood in his way that he would not kill again, and it was through her that he escaped punishment. I was wondering if he had indeed killed his mother's boarder and even his mother herself when she had other plans for them. His not wanting to hurt animals, yet he could poison and kill family that was friendly to him. He had actually killed a dog experimenting with poison. I felt sick with every murder and especially the young boy and the son of his uncle, Gascoyne. How he could marry the sister of the cousin he had killed? That is why I had such a hard time reading this egotistical monster and I had no pity but felt that for all his friends. The nerve is unbelievable! I think his parents could have grounded him better but that probably would not have changed much. I wonder if the youngest son, who favors his father, will end up doing away with his eldest brother.

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My mother had married beneath her. Her father had been a solicitor in a fair way of business, blessed with one son and one daughter. They were not rich but they were gentlefolk, and by descent something more. In fact, only nine lives stood between my mother’s brother and one of the most ancient peerages in the United Kingdom.
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“Perhaps I was sentimental and foolish,” my mother would say, with that quiet, unemotional voice of hers which caused strangers to doubt whether she could ever be either, “but he had such beautiful eyes and played in such an unaffected, dreamy way. And he was so good,” she would add,
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as if this were the quality which in the end had impressed her most. “He might have been much better off than he was, only he never could do anything underhand or mean. I don’t think such things ever even tempted him. He was simply above them.” My father became a great favourite with the household till he committed the intolerable impertinence of falling in love with Miss Gascoyne. From the position of an ever welcome guest he descended to that of a “presuming little Jewish quill-driver,” as my uncle—whose friendship for him had always been of a somewhat patronising order—described him. In fact, my uncle was considerably more bitter in denouncing his presumption than my grandfather, who, his first irritation over, went so far as to suggest that the best should be made of a bad job, and that they should turn him into a lawyer, urging his nationality as a plea that his
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admission into the firm was not likely to do any harm.

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My father and mother were forbidden to meet, and so one Sunday morning—Sunday being the only day on which my father could devote the whole day to so
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important an event—my mother stole out of the house and they were married before morning service, on a prospective income of a hundred a year. As mad a piece of sentimental folly as was ever perpetrated by a pair of foolish lovers. The strange thing was that they were happy. They loved one another devotedly, and my grandfather—though quite under the thumb of my uncle—surreptitiously paid the rent of the small house where they spent the
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whole of their married life, and which after a time, still unknown to my uncle, he bought for them.
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My mother’s unequal marriage caused him to make all haste in choosing a wife. He might not have betrayed nearly so much antipathy to my father as a brother-in-law had not the Gascoyne earldom been one of the few peerages capable of descending through
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the female line. Thus, till he should have an heir of his own, his sister and any child of hers stood next in succession. He chose his wife with circumspection. She was the daughter of a baronet, not so reduced as to have ceased to be respectable; and the main point was that the match would look well on the family tree. To his infinite chagrin his first child died an hour after birth, and Mrs. Gascoyne suffered so severely that a consolation was impossible. It thus
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became inevitable that should the unexpected happen the title would pass after himself to his sister and her children. He drew some comfort from the fact that so far my father and mother had no child.
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Through the death of my grandfather he became the head of the
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firm. He left the suburbs where he had been born, and he and his wife set up house in the West End, where they moved in a very expensive set, so expensive, in fact, that in less than five years my uncle, to avoid criminal proceedings—which must have ensued as the result of a protracted juggling with clients’ money—put a bullet through his brains. He was much mourned by my father and mother, who had both loved him.
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I was christened Israel Gascoyne Rank. From my earliest years, however, I cannot remember being called anything but Israel, and in my childhood if I were asked my name I was sure to answer “Israel Rank,” and equally sure to supplement the information by adding, “and my other name is Gascoyne—Israel Gascoyne Rank.”

[Creolecat]

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

[Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Glad to finally have that over with. It is without a doubt that the movie and musical are much better. They took the foundations of this novel and built a comical story out of it. The way the Gascoynes are portrayed in the adaptations are light hearted. Played by the same person and usually killed in hilarious circumstances it is easy to root for the hero. And if everything is done to music and song, then that just happens to make things better.

This novel is meant to be satirical, but it feels so serious. I know that it is supposed to be a commentary on anti-Semitism at the time, but it seems to have little real play for his motivations for killing his way to the earldom. The fact that people judge him and undervalue him because he has Jewish blood comes up often. I suppose the reason his mother was originally cast out of the family was due to her marrying a Jew, a musical Jew at that. He gets so set in his sites for vengeance, I think he forgets his true motivations along the way. There's a point where he's seems happy with his position and new family connections. You want to scream at him to stop! Or at least wait a while before killing off the next in line. Enjoy life a little, but he is a determined man.

It took me a loooooong time to finish this novel. Absurdly long. I think it has to do with it being written in 1908. The language is quieter, longer, more flowery, making it hard to me to concentrate on what is being said. It takes half the book before he really starts killing off his family.
While the details are different than the adaptation, the soul of the story and the main plot points are the same. I say skip this book and enjoy the other two.

[Steven Shook · Rating 5 out of 5]

As other reviewers have mentioned Roy Horniman's Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal provided the foundation for the motion picture Kind Hearts and Coronets and the musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder - which won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Musical. As an avid reader, it baffles me that Horniman's novel is not considered a literary classic. The author deftly wraps contemptuous observation, ego-driven self-reflection, sardonic wit, and sarcasm into a rollicking tale of love (in a sort of Robert Burnsish fashion) and well-plotted murder. Horniman added a touch of sensationalized dime novel elements to the story, but I suspect it was more to mock that genre of literature (which was extremely popular at the time the book was published) rather than to embrace it. This is a brilliant, funny story that is difficult to put down, and one of only a few that I have rated as five stars.

Note that the plot of Kind Hearts and Coronets is considerably different with regard to the Israel Rank's pathway to earldom, but the novel's plot is just as ironic and humorous as the motion picture's. Find the book. Read it. Laugh!

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but disturbing. I'm not sure this work can hide far behind satire in merely being a morbid curiosity.

This is a satire of the rags-to-riches paperbacks of the period, i.e. what if social hierarchy and status is all a joke, and people can get what they want through the shortcut of murder. It’s funny in that it’s shocking. I’m thinking in the way that Taken was different than other hostage movies in that he doesn’t negotiate, he just kills everyone. Taken is obviously not a comedy, but it has the same sense of cutting through the conventions. The novel was also ahead of its time in its study of a calm and charismatic psychopath. The novel is more terrifying than its adaptations, “Kind Hearts and Coronets”, which adds dark comedy to its droll narration, and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”, which makes makes the story lighter and more ridiculous through music, to great effect.

In a broad way, the most obvious and striking difference from the novel and its adaptations is that the protagonist’s mother is shunned for marrying a jew, rather than an Italian singer, or Castilian musician. The plot device of antisemitism hasn’t aged well, though defenders of the book claim that the novel itself is not anti-semitic, but the family’s attitude toward his jewish heritage is meant to further turn the reader off to them. In reading, it seems clear to me that the racial bent of the novel is disturbingly pervasive, as Israel seems if anything, more prejudiced and self-loathing towards his heritage than those around him. Whether or not the author (as opposed to the narrator) finds this a damnanable characteristic is unclear. Though contextually different, the passage about the government marking those who had committed crimes, rather than punishing them reminded me starkly of governments marking other societal undesirables in the decades to come. It seems to me that Israel’s thoughts are voicing the entire thinking of a time, and with hindsight we see where racial eugenics and post-moral thinking were to lead. It is chilling in a way that the author couldn’t possibly have intended, whether or not he intended any of it as satire, or just a morbid fascination with a psychopathic thinking.

[Simon S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, I did enjoy that.

It wasn’t as tight and smart as Kind Hearts and Coronets, the film which it inspired, but it was if anything darker and more carnal - quite unexpected in a novel from 1907.

Edwardian England. The protagonist, the eponymous Israel Rank, son of an aristocratic Englishwoman, disowned by her family for marrying a Jewish commoner, sets his sights on avenging her by killing everyone who stands between him and his inheritance of the Gascoyne Earldom.

The book is written in the lovely, rich, and witty Edwardian style you’ll know if you are familiar with the work of Jerome K. Jerome, Oscar Wilde, or George and Weedon Grossmith.

“There are few who would be willing to risk the fury of mankind by giving an accurate description of their lives and actions.”

“Yes, I am afraid we men are very selfish, that is, until we have wives and daughters of our own. The possession of sisters does not seem to instil the same sense of responsibility to woman-kind.”

Rank is by turns a winning and disturbing presence, witty and clever but also manipulative, cold and dissembling. He’s a narcissist who can always find some sophisticated justification for his horrific scheme, making great claims about his finer qualities and capacity for advanced thought.

It is of its time, for sure, so it pays to be aware that the racial and social profiling can make for uncomfortable reading these days, but I have to say that - by imbuing such a horrible character with these views - it appears that Horniman is satirising rather than endorsing these attitudes.

[Tim Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which Alec Guinness so memorably plays eight members of the D'Ascoyne family (at one point six of them in a single frame) has always been one of my favourite films, but I had never read this 1907 novel on which it was (loosely) based.
Our narrator, the half-Jewish Israel Rank, a descendant on his mother's side of the aristocratic Gascoynes, recounts how he murders his way to the earldom to become Lord Gascoyne. One immediate difference between book and film is that by 1949 antisemitism had become distinctly taboo, and Dennis Price's antihero becomes the half-Italian Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, and it has to be said that, though presumably intended satirically, the constant harping on Israel's Jewishness is hard to take. If you can get past that, though, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read, though much darker than the film. Israel is a delightfully cynical narrator, fond of making Wildean-like epigrams, and it's hard not to root for him as he bumps off the Gascoynes in a variety of ingenious ways.

[Elise Gibney · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best word I can find to describe this book is unsettling. I probably should have expected this, since it’s a first-person narrative about a series of murders, but somehow I was not expecting the narrator to have no redeeming qualities at all. The callousness and manipulation with which he treats everyone in his life, particularly the three women he claims to be in love with simultaneously, is so off-putting that I almost set the book aside without finishing it. I was dissatisfied with the ending as well. The writing style itself is enjoyable, although there are points at which almost the same phrasing of the same thought is repeated a couple of paragraphs apart, but I failed to find anything comedic in it. Overall I would recommend that people stick to the musical, which made enough alterations to the characters and plot to allow the audience to laugh at the events rather than simply being disturbed.

[Nikolay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy-going, reasonably fast-paced fun story set in late 19ᵗʰ century Britain.

✅ For you if you like:
- Black humor and irony.
- Lively language (not going to P. G. Wodehouse extremes).
- Subtle ridicule of aristocracy and snobbery.
- Consistent, strong, and detailed main character.

🚫Do not expect:
- An elaborate or thrilling criminal story.
- An elaborate or emotional love story.
- An elaborate development of a character.

The quote that sums up the main character and the premise the best:

In looking back at the development of my character, I am not conscious of a natural wickedness staining and perverting all my actions. My career has been simply the result of an immense desire to be somebody of importance.

[Antonis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book in contravention of my own maxim: Never assume that, because a movie is interesting or funny or touching, the book it was based on would be equally good; it almost never is. Case in point: “Israel Rank” by Roy Horniman. Kudos to director Robert Hamer and screen writers John Dighton and Nancy Mitford at the Ealing Studios who turned this ponderous, pontificating, humorless and overlong book into the delightful comedy “Kind Hearts and Coronets” that generations of film fans love and enjoy.

[Matt Kelland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main difference between this and Kind Hearts is that while the movie is almost an absurdist farce, the novel is a dark satire. It doesn't just attack class prejudice and the whole concept of inherited rank and wealth, but also anti-Semitism.

In 1905, it must have been quite a shocking book. For me, however, the constant references to the protagonist's Jewishness rapidly became tiresome and labored. I persevered to the finish, but only to find out if the book and film had the same ending.

[Vaughan Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tale in the first person (hey, it’s an autobiography) about an incredibly ambitious, charming and ruthless young half-Jewish man who is distantly related (six or seventh in line) to an earl and hatches a plan to systematically murder those in the way so he can inherit the title. This is a portrait of a psychopath or sociopath, probably before the terms were coined. Seduces several women along the way. Entertaining and well written. Dark.

[Jayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was mentioned in another book,How to kill your family,and I thought hmm that sounds good.Very dark and thoroughly brutal and honest.A total psychopath with an utter sense of entitlement. Just the way he manipulated everyone to his own end was fascinating. And the way he carried out the murders,ruthless. Didn't matter how old or what gender. It was thoroughly enjoyable!!!!

[Regan K. Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1907, this is quite a delightful read, once one becomes used to the form of writing. The movie, Kind Hearts and Coronets, has always been one of my favorite movies. I'm delighted to finally read the source document.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read novel for anyone interested in the history of the crime novel. Other reviewers allude to its influences but no-one has mentioned Henry Wade's Heir Presumptive of 1935 which has an even more spectacular twist ending-and is the better book.

[J Grimsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very surprising book. You tend to side with the murderer and there is an element of racial and cultural stereotyping which if written now would be totally unacceptable. It is better than the plot of the film Kind Hearts and Coronets as this film was censored by the views of its day.

[Deborah]

This is a book I never thought I would enjoy. The cold descriptions of murder are not my favorite, but the writing is very good and pacing steady and I found that I really enjoyed it. It is set in England many years ago, and I am an Anglophile, so that worked for me too. Great ending as well!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose to read this book after seeing the musical and movie based on it. I was pleasantly surprised by how similar they all were and how the slight differences kept it interesting.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reads like it was written in 2017 and not 1907.

[David Allen White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. This novel is the source of the movie Kind Hearts and Coronets, and the musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Now I have experienced all three formats.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly compelling- but the black-hearted narrator is a step too far for love. For that you must see Kind Hearts and Coronets, the great film which is based on this story.