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Bulldog Drummond #omnibus 1-4
Bulldog Drummond: The Carl Peterson Quartet
Bull Dog Drummond is a First World War veteran, brutalised by his experiences in the trenches and bored with his post-war lifestyle. He publishes an advertisement looking for adventure, and soon finds himself embroiled in a series of exploits, many of which involve Carl Peterson — who becomes his nemesis — and Peterson's mistress, the femme fatale Irma. After his first adventure, Drummond marries his client, Phyllis Benton. In later episodes, Benton becomes involved in Drummond's exploits, often as the victim of kidnapping by Drummond's enemies.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
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95 people want to read
About the author
Sapper
266 books37 followersSapper was the pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile, whose father was Malcolm McNeile, a Captain in the Royal Navy and, at who was at the time, governor of the naval prison at Bodmin, the town where Herman was born.
McNeile was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1907. He went to France in 1914 when World War I broke out and he saw action at both the First and the Second Battle of Ypres where he displayed considerable bravery, was awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned in dispatches.
His first known published work was a series of short war stories based on his own experiences, and published under the name 'Sapper' in the Daily Mail and in the magazine 'The War Illustrated'.
These stories were immediately successful and later sold over 200,000 copies within a year when subsequently republished in book-form. His realistic writing proved most popular at a time of great stress and Lord Northcliff, the owner of the Daily Mail who recognised his talent, was so impressed by that he attempted, but failed, to have McNeile released from the army so he could work as a war correspondent.
After the War was over, in 1919, McNeile resigned from the army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and became a full-time author, publishing his first novel, Mufti, in that year.
In 1922, he moved to Sussex and lived there for the rest of his life, having married Peggy Baird-Douglas with whom he had two sons.
He began the series for which he now best remembered, that of Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond in 1920 and thereafter he wrote 10 novels featuring his eponymous hero. The public took to Drummond and McNeile had great financial success.
The first book was adapted for the stage and produced, to great success, at Wyndham's Theatre during the 1921-1922 season with Gerald du Maurier playing the main character. Films followed and the first talkie BullDog Drummond film in 1922 was reputed to have earned McNeile the vast sum of $750,000. There were 26 films made of his books.
As well as Drummond, he wrote about Ronald Standish but the majority of his work was short stories that were published in various popular monthly magazines and continued to earn him good money. Indeed, in addition to his novels, many of his books were short story collections.
He was reputedly an unremittingly hearty man, who even his good friend and collaborator Gerard Fairlie, who continued the Drummond series after McNeile's death with seven further books, described as "not everybody's cup of tea". He died on August 14, 1937 at his home in Pulborough, West Sussex.
His funeral, with full military honours, took place at Woking crematorium.
Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2010
McNeile was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1907. He went to France in 1914 when World War I broke out and he saw action at both the First and the Second Battle of Ypres where he displayed considerable bravery, was awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned in dispatches.
His first known published work was a series of short war stories based on his own experiences, and published under the name 'Sapper' in the Daily Mail and in the magazine 'The War Illustrated'.
These stories were immediately successful and later sold over 200,000 copies within a year when subsequently republished in book-form. His realistic writing proved most popular at a time of great stress and Lord Northcliff, the owner of the Daily Mail who recognised his talent, was so impressed by that he attempted, but failed, to have McNeile released from the army so he could work as a war correspondent.
After the War was over, in 1919, McNeile resigned from the army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and became a full-time author, publishing his first novel, Mufti, in that year.
In 1922, he moved to Sussex and lived there for the rest of his life, having married Peggy Baird-Douglas with whom he had two sons.
He began the series for which he now best remembered, that of Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond in 1920 and thereafter he wrote 10 novels featuring his eponymous hero. The public took to Drummond and McNeile had great financial success.
The first book was adapted for the stage and produced, to great success, at Wyndham's Theatre during the 1921-1922 season with Gerald du Maurier playing the main character. Films followed and the first talkie BullDog Drummond film in 1922 was reputed to have earned McNeile the vast sum of $750,000. There were 26 films made of his books.
As well as Drummond, he wrote about Ronald Standish but the majority of his work was short stories that were published in various popular monthly magazines and continued to earn him good money. Indeed, in addition to his novels, many of his books were short story collections.
He was reputedly an unremittingly hearty man, who even his good friend and collaborator Gerard Fairlie, who continued the Drummond series after McNeile's death with seven further books, described as "not everybody's cup of tea". He died on August 14, 1937 at his home in Pulborough, West Sussex.
His funeral, with full military honours, took place at Woking crematorium.
Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2010
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 26, 2011
Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond, conceived in 1920, was the original daredevil adventurer and a prototype for all the slick sleuths which followed. McNeile himself having served in the Royal Engineers in the war, as well as being awarded the Military Cross, envisioned Drummond as a demobilized officer, who in the first novel gives an ad in the papers where he "welcomes diversion", because he's "finding peace incredibly tedious". There is only one condition: excitement essential!
This sets in motion a chain of events which will mark Drummond's life for ever, as well as earn him the wrath of an international arch villain known as Carl Peterson. As the title suggests, this Wordsworth Editions volume, containing a hefty count of 768 pages, collects the first four novels in the Drummond series which deal with Peterson's story arc.
Each novel is a direct sequel to the previous, although they can be read stand-alone as well, but then you'll miss the established relationships between the characters. Hugh Drummond, as a character, is larger than life. He lacks academic brains, but is endowed with uncanny street smarts and life wisdom borne out of experience, as well as unparalleled power of observation. Add to this his massive bulk, strength to best five men and skills sharpened to perfection during his service, and you've got an unstoppable beast.
Such a her needs a fitting villain, and is given one in Carl Peterson. However, this was only one of his uncountable disguises, but Drummond first came to know him by this name, and therefore refers to him always as "Carl Peterson". Peterson's is a scheming criminal mastermind on a grand scale, his plots often spanning internationally. Beside brains, he's got physical prowess as well, and is a master of disguise - to such an extent that even Drummond is unable to recognize him by looking at him. His backdrop is never stated explicitly, but it is hinted that he is of Italian nationality. With him is always his faithful mistress, the beautiful chain-smoking, dark-haired seductress Irma.
Sapper's storytelling is very tongue in cheek, even though it deals with serious storylines. Drummond is a jester at heart, his nature comic-bookish and his appearance theatrical. As the introduction aptly states:
Or, in other words, Hugh Drummond is manly as fuck! No wonder he served as an inspiration for the character of James Bond.
Sapper's writing style is exciting, flowing at a high pace. He paints good imagery, but is not bogged down by over-descriptiveness. His dialogues are often very sarcastic and filled with street and period jargon, and his political stances are not so subtly present during the whole volume. His attitude towards foreigners, especially Jews, Soviets and Germans would nowadays bring the PC police on red alert! Of all the nationalities present in the four volumes - the British and the Americans are staunch patriots, embodying all that is good in the human race. The others are reduced to filthy grunting and gibbering brutes, almost savages.
However, PC aside, there's a lot of truth in Sapper "outrageous" political views, especially concerning the so-called multiculturalism issue. To quote an extract from the novel:
If you want to read the Drummond novels for deep characterization and/or thought provoking plots, you may as well skip it. Sapper's characters always lean towards caricatures, and his stories tend to rise completely over the top, often crossing the threshold of disbelief. Sapper was, admittedly, not the greatest writer in the literary sense - his characters too often rely on pure luck, and the deus ex machine is over-used. But due to the overall humorous nature of the works, this can be forgiven.
You would want to read the Drummond novels if you're looking for "entertaining, racy, thud and blunder thrillers."
Rating: 7/10
This sets in motion a chain of events which will mark Drummond's life for ever, as well as earn him the wrath of an international arch villain known as Carl Peterson. As the title suggests, this Wordsworth Editions volume, containing a hefty count of 768 pages, collects the first four novels in the Drummond series which deal with Peterson's story arc.
Each novel is a direct sequel to the previous, although they can be read stand-alone as well, but then you'll miss the established relationships between the characters. Hugh Drummond, as a character, is larger than life. He lacks academic brains, but is endowed with uncanny street smarts and life wisdom borne out of experience, as well as unparalleled power of observation. Add to this his massive bulk, strength to best five men and skills sharpened to perfection during his service, and you've got an unstoppable beast.
Such a her needs a fitting villain, and is given one in Carl Peterson. However, this was only one of his uncountable disguises, but Drummond first came to know him by this name, and therefore refers to him always as "Carl Peterson". Peterson's is a scheming criminal mastermind on a grand scale, his plots often spanning internationally. Beside brains, he's got physical prowess as well, and is a master of disguise - to such an extent that even Drummond is unable to recognize him by looking at him. His backdrop is never stated explicitly, but it is hinted that he is of Italian nationality. With him is always his faithful mistress, the beautiful chain-smoking, dark-haired seductress Irma.
Sapper's storytelling is very tongue in cheek, even though it deals with serious storylines. Drummond is a jester at heart, his nature comic-bookish and his appearance theatrical. As the introduction aptly states:
"Drummond is a man's man in an era when that was what a man was supposed to be. He has all the virtues and the vices of his class and time. He is scrupoulously honest, trustworthy, fearless and loves good fight; but he is also a casual and good-natured bigot."
Or, in other words, Hugh Drummond is manly as fuck! No wonder he served as an inspiration for the character of James Bond.
Sapper's writing style is exciting, flowing at a high pace. He paints good imagery, but is not bogged down by over-descriptiveness. His dialogues are often very sarcastic and filled with street and period jargon, and his political stances are not so subtly present during the whole volume. His attitude towards foreigners, especially Jews, Soviets and Germans would nowadays bring the PC police on red alert! Of all the nationalities present in the four volumes - the British and the Americans are staunch patriots, embodying all that is good in the human race. The others are reduced to filthy grunting and gibbering brutes, almost savages.
However, PC aside, there's a lot of truth in Sapper "outrageous" political views, especially concerning the so-called multiculturalism issue. To quote an extract from the novel:
"We're a free country, Sir John; but the time is coming when freedom as we understood it in the past will have to cease. We can't go on as the cesspit of Europe, sheltering microbes who infect us as soon as they are here. We want disinfecting: we want it badly."
If you want to read the Drummond novels for deep characterization and/or thought provoking plots, you may as well skip it. Sapper's characters always lean towards caricatures, and his stories tend to rise completely over the top, often crossing the threshold of disbelief. Sapper was, admittedly, not the greatest writer in the literary sense - his characters too often rely on pure luck, and the deus ex machine is over-used. But due to the overall humorous nature of the works, this can be forgiven.
You would want to read the Drummond novels if you're looking for "entertaining, racy, thud and blunder thrillers."
Rating: 7/10
January 27, 2015
What girl could fail to fall hopelessly in love with the manly style and utter heroism of Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond? What man could fail to wish that he had been born with any number of Drummond’s remarkable personal qualities and skills: a quick-witted strategist, stylish, loyal, honourable, fun, dependable, solid muscle, who doesn’t make a fuss, just gets on with the job in hand. British to the core; and proud of it. Alas. as the reader discovers very early on, he’s already very happily married. However, as Phyllis is so very nice, capable, clearly greatly in love with her husband (as he is with her), and is in general such a thoroughly good sort that I really had no option but to forgive her instantly, and take her side.
Drummond’s Boys-Own type loyal gang of friends are likewise thoroughly ‘good eggs’, loyal, brave and true to a man. At first I was fleetingly put in mind of the legendary Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men vying against the Moriarty-ish master criminal Carl Peterson in the split role of Prince John / the Sherriff of Nottingham. By the time I’d finished these four books, It had dawned on me that the cool, calm, collected, astute thinking fictional character of Hugh Drummond possesses far, far, more than the fictional character of Robin Hood. Drummond’s character falls, I suppose, somewhere between Sherlock Holmes (as created and written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Richard Hannay (as created & written by John Buchan), The Saint (as created and written by Leslie Charteris), and James Bond (as created and written by Ian Fleming, who publically acknowledged his debt to Sapper).
This omnibus volume, four books in one, held me in a trance of utter delight, even though the pace and intensity of Sapper’s writing demanded that I avoid over-satiation (as a cat high on catnip) by taking a short rest between reading each of these four books. Quite literally breath-taking; towards the end of “The Final Count” I had to several times remind myself to breathe.
I simply loved the plotlines (which I shall not despoil by revealing here), the style of writing, and the ‘boys own’ type action: all of which are now, of course, terribly ‘period’. It would be utterly wrong not to be aware that ‘Sapper’ (WW1 slang for men serving in the Royal Engineers of the British Army) writes unapologetically according to the style and mores of his day (these four books were first published in 1920, 1922, 1924, & 1926), so it would reveal a callous ignorance on the part of the reader should he or she take offence at the occasional words and phrases that have fallen out of general usage today. Think of this as nothing more than the similar natural principle which likewise comes into play when reading Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare or Jane Austen.
Sapper employed the high-tech of his day. The high drama (quite literally) of the Fourth Round (“The Final Count”) takes place on an airship. That is nothing if not topical; remember that Sapper was writing shortly after the First World War, when German Zeppelins had mounted terrifyingly successful bombing operations over England.
Look out also for the wonderful, wonderful dry sense of humour: “ “Hugh”, he spluttered, “there’s only one stipulation. An armistice must be declared during Ascot week” ” (The First Round, “Bull-dog Drummond” p.101). How excellent it is to read that the good guys know their priorities aright!
Pulling the whole reading experience together, I look back to a post I made earlier this year: “The Third Round: Perfect escapism for the quiet post-Christmas & New Year period. Will the diamond markets be destroyed by the Professor’s complex recipe for nature-identical synthetic diamonds? Explosions, imprisonment, the feigning of madness, yachting pursuits at night on the Solent, & now it’s heading to a final denouement in Switzerland …."
Indulge yourself: don’t miss these four life-enhancing books; and don’t let your children, nephews, nieces, great-nephews, great-nieces, grandchildren, great-grandchildren miss them either.
Drummond’s Boys-Own type loyal gang of friends are likewise thoroughly ‘good eggs’, loyal, brave and true to a man. At first I was fleetingly put in mind of the legendary Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men vying against the Moriarty-ish master criminal Carl Peterson in the split role of Prince John / the Sherriff of Nottingham. By the time I’d finished these four books, It had dawned on me that the cool, calm, collected, astute thinking fictional character of Hugh Drummond possesses far, far, more than the fictional character of Robin Hood. Drummond’s character falls, I suppose, somewhere between Sherlock Holmes (as created and written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Richard Hannay (as created & written by John Buchan), The Saint (as created and written by Leslie Charteris), and James Bond (as created and written by Ian Fleming, who publically acknowledged his debt to Sapper).
This omnibus volume, four books in one, held me in a trance of utter delight, even though the pace and intensity of Sapper’s writing demanded that I avoid over-satiation (as a cat high on catnip) by taking a short rest between reading each of these four books. Quite literally breath-taking; towards the end of “The Final Count” I had to several times remind myself to breathe.
I simply loved the plotlines (which I shall not despoil by revealing here), the style of writing, and the ‘boys own’ type action: all of which are now, of course, terribly ‘period’. It would be utterly wrong not to be aware that ‘Sapper’ (WW1 slang for men serving in the Royal Engineers of the British Army) writes unapologetically according to the style and mores of his day (these four books were first published in 1920, 1922, 1924, & 1926), so it would reveal a callous ignorance on the part of the reader should he or she take offence at the occasional words and phrases that have fallen out of general usage today. Think of this as nothing more than the similar natural principle which likewise comes into play when reading Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare or Jane Austen.
Sapper employed the high-tech of his day. The high drama (quite literally) of the Fourth Round (“The Final Count”) takes place on an airship. That is nothing if not topical; remember that Sapper was writing shortly after the First World War, when German Zeppelins had mounted terrifyingly successful bombing operations over England.
Look out also for the wonderful, wonderful dry sense of humour: “ “Hugh”, he spluttered, “there’s only one stipulation. An armistice must be declared during Ascot week” ” (The First Round, “Bull-dog Drummond” p.101). How excellent it is to read that the good guys know their priorities aright!
Pulling the whole reading experience together, I look back to a post I made earlier this year: “The Third Round: Perfect escapism for the quiet post-Christmas & New Year period. Will the diamond markets be destroyed by the Professor’s complex recipe for nature-identical synthetic diamonds? Explosions, imprisonment, the feigning of madness, yachting pursuits at night on the Solent, & now it’s heading to a final denouement in Switzerland …."
Indulge yourself: don’t miss these four life-enhancing books; and don’t let your children, nephews, nieces, great-nephews, great-nieces, grandchildren, great-grandchildren miss them either.
January 17, 2019
A Wonderfully Good Man Has Gotten Himself Written About
BD is as fine a character as the first part of the Twentieth Century could have hoped to produce. If I could not have hoped to be a cowboy or some such other type of hero, BD would have been my next fixation. I Was a nervy kid, and wanted always to do the world some good before I left it. As it was, I took up up a career in the Army. By-the-by, though you may not know you've heard before about Bulldog, the Coasters sang a line of him, in 'Searchin' '. He and his fellow soldiers from the First World War were awfully good heroes to us kids. The slang is dated, but the stories are well-written, and the characters are well-developed, and the pace is quick. Please enjoy these historic stories: they happened!
BD is as fine a character as the first part of the Twentieth Century could have hoped to produce. If I could not have hoped to be a cowboy or some such other type of hero, BD would have been my next fixation. I Was a nervy kid, and wanted always to do the world some good before I left it. As it was, I took up up a career in the Army. By-the-by, though you may not know you've heard before about Bulldog, the Coasters sang a line of him, in 'Searchin' '. He and his fellow soldiers from the First World War were awfully good heroes to us kids. The slang is dated, but the stories are well-written, and the characters are well-developed, and the pace is quick. Please enjoy these historic stories: they happened!
July 30, 2016
review of
Sapper's Bulldog Drummond - The Carl Peterson Quartet
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 23, 2014
Yes, surprise, surprise, once again I've been verbose. Read my full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/... 'cause this little bugger is truncated:
If I had any 'guilty pleasures', reading Bulldog Drummond might be one of them.. but I don't, so it isn't. Many yrs ago, but probably w/in the last decade, I read Mickey Spillane's One Lonely Night. I thought I reviewed it on Goodreads. Apparently, I haven't. IF I HAD I'd be directing the reader of this review to my pan of the Spillane bk - but I didn't even bother to pan it. Spillane wrote hard-boiled anti-Communist propaganda crime fiction in the 1940s & 1950s. No doubt they were very popular. The lurid cover of One Lonely Night has a naked 'white' woman hanging from her wrists from a rope hanging from a ceiling. In the story, she's being brutally interrogated by some commies. We all know that commies love torturing pretty 'white' women - I mean it's not like they fought against nazis or anything, they're just low criminals & all that talk of economic justice & fairness & suchlike is just a smokescreen to cover up their natural sordidness. Thank GOD for detective Mike Hammer.
Well, as the reader can no doubt tell, I don't have much respect for Mickey Spillane. I always wondered at John Zorn's choosing him to name an album after. The record's great but why Spillane? Why not Hammett? Why not Chandler? Why not Highsmith? Why not Ellroy? They're all much more interesting writers, more realistic, less politically insidious, even more 'hard-boiled'. It's hard not to conclude that Zorn isn't very literate. And if I didn't already think Spillane was a hack, now that I've read Sapper Spillane strikes me as an unoriginal hack (is it possible to be an original one?) b/c Sapper's Bulldog Drummond is a strong candidate for flagrant precursor to Spillane's Mike Hammer.
I got interested in the Drummond character b/c I picked up 3 DVDs on sale for a buck apiece or thereabouts from a local bkstore. All hail obsolescence, right?! Thanks to it, I can pick up copies of all the stuff that's beneath the purchasing habits of all those people who're being led by the noses to keep up w/ the iJoeses [sic]. I checked out Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937, 55 minutes), Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937, 67 minutes), & Bulldog Drummond's Bride (1939, 57 minutes). I found them fast-moving & funny & I was entertained. What I didn't find in them was the anti-Semitism & anti-Communism of the bks.
"Jack Buchanan, the debonair song-and-dance man, played Bulldog Drummond in The Third Round (1925), but he was not the first screen Drummond. This distinction goes to English matinée idol Carlyle Blackwell who played the character in the 1922 movie, Bulldog Drummond. However, it wasn't until the advent of the talking cinema that the screen incarnation of Hugh Bulldog Drummond took off, and for about a decade from 1929 there was a spate of Drummond movies.
"In 1929 Ronald Colman, perhaps the best screen Drummond, took the role in Bulldog Drummond, based on the first novel. Colman returned in 1934 in Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back.
"During the Thirties old Bulldog was played on screen by Kenneth MacKenna, Ray Milland and John Howard, John Lodge and Ralph Richardson. In general the movies were lighter in tone than the novels and tended to use original plots, although Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937), with Milland, was a reworking of the original novel, and Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938), with Howard, was based on The Third Round. Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1938), again with Howard, was based on The Final Count." - p XIII
I find 22 Bulldog Drummond movies listed on Wikipedia dating from 1922 to 1969 starring 14 different actors in the lead role. This tendency for the movie studios to make multiple movies based around the same detective character over a period of decades yielded a shitload of Charlie Chan movies & witnessing the Drummond movies led to my revisiting Chan wch, in turn, led to my making a movie called "CHAN(geling)" about actor Warner Oland & yellowface.
SO, yeah, Sapper's Drummond is a 'man's man' - a boxer/ex-soldier who plunges right in & exposes the world-takeover schemes of the fiendish murderer/thief Carl Peterson. Peterson, a man of exquisite taste & no scruples, is a great organizer of both capitalists & commies alike. They work together, hand-in-hand, to bring the Brits to their knees thru sabotage & chaos. To be fair, the anti-Semitism is a side-note in contrast to the full-blown anti-Communism. Ironically, Sapper is a WWI vet whose feelings are strongly anti-"Boche" (a pejorative term for Germans) but whose politics cd've easily paved the way for nazism.
SO, when I was reading David Stuart Davies's intro I was wondering if I cd even get thru the damned thing:
"Drummond is a man's man in an era when that was what a man was supposed to be. He has all the virtues and vices of his class and time. He is scrupulously honest, trustworthy, fearless and loves a good fight; but he is also a casual and good-natured bigot. His attitude to foreigners and Jews would today have the political correctness brigade blowing a collective gasket." - p VIII
"The Bulldog Drummond stories serve not only as entertaining, racy, thud and blunder thrillers but also as an interesting, if not palatable, historical reflection of upper-class attitudes to foreigners and Jews at the time. It is interesting to note that this seam of xenophobia and anti-Semitism fades significantly after the first two books in the series as memories of the war begin to fade." - p IX
'thud and blunder"! Blood and thunder indeed.
"It is in Bulldog Drummond (1920) that our hero first encounters Carl Peterson when the villain is involved in a plot to deliver England into the hands of the evil Communists - purely for financial gain, of course, for Peterson is above politics. The story features the archetypal damsel-in-distress scenario and introduces Drummond to his future wife. / In The Black Gang (1922) the Communist revolutionaries return and receive even harsher treatment from Drummond & Co.". - p XI
Silent weapons must've been all the rage in the 20s & 30s b/c Drummond & Chan & Mr. Moto stories all have their versions:
"He lingered for an instant, peering into the darkness and recovering his breath, when with a vicious phut something buried itself into the tree beside him. Drummond lingered no more; long years of experience left no doubt in his mind as to what that something was. / 'Compressed-air rifle — or electric,' he muttered to himself" - p 42
Bulldog does have a good sense of humor, there's alotof tricksterism here, & that's one of the saving graces of the stories that help counterbalance the aristocratic taking-for-granted-of-privilege & other such socio-political naiveties. He fools arch-criminal Peterson into kidnapping a man disguised as the intended victim & then presents him w/ a bill for the trouble he's gone to. It's wonderful as poetic justice:
"'What's this —— jest?' he howled furiously. 'And this damned bandage all covered with red ink?'
"'You must ask our friend here, Mullings,' said Hugh. 'He's got a peculiar sense of humour. Anyway, he's got the bill in his hand.'
"In silence they watched Peterson open the paper and read the contents, while the girl leant over his shoulder.
"To Mr Peterson, The Elms, Godalming.
.................................................£...s...d.
"To hire of one demobilised soldier.............................................5...0...0
To making him drunk (in this item present
strength and cost of drink and said soldier's
capacity must be allowed for)................................................5...0...0
To bottle of red ink.................................................0...0...1
To shock to system..............................................10...0...1
"Total..............................................£20...0...1" - p 59
&, of course, Drummond has daring - but then it's easy to have daring when you're a fictional character - the author doesn't necessarily have to have daring in 'real' life. However, it seems to me that the author must have a sense of humor in 'real' life in order for his character to have it.
"In the days when Drummond had been a platoon commander, he had done many dangerous things. The ordinary joys of the infantry subaltern's life — such as going over the top, and carrying out raids — had not proved sufficient for his appetite. He had specialized in peculiar stunts of his own: stunts over which his men formed their own conclusions, and worshipped him accordingly." - p 65
But then we get back to his commie-demonizing:
"'I know not what this young man has done: I care less. In Russia such trifles matter not. He has the appearance of a bourgeois, therefore he must die. Did we not kill thousands — aye, tens of thousands of his kidney, before we obtained the great freedom? Are we not going to do the same in this accursed country?' His voice rose to the shrill, strident note of the typical tub-thumper. 'What is this wretched man,' he continued, waving a hand wildly at Hugh, 'that he should interrupt the great work for one brief second? Kill him now — throw him in a corner, and let us proceed.'
"He sat down again, amidst a further murmur of approval, in which Hugh joined heartily.
"'Splendid,' he murmured. 'A Magnificent peroration. Am I right, sir, in assuming that you are what is vulgarly known as a Bolshevist?'
"The man turned his sunken eyes, glowing with the burning fires of fanaticism, on Drummond.
"'I am one of those who are fighting for the freedom of the world,' he cried harshly,' for the right to live of the proletariat, The workers were the bottom dogs in Russia till they killed the rulers. Now — they rule, and the money they earn goes into their own pockets, not those of incompetent snobs.'" - p 108
Strangely, having "sunken eyes" seems to be some sort of indicator of insanity - &, of course, as a "Bolshevist" the man is a 'fanatic'. What I wonder is: why isn't Drummond also a fanatic? He certainly meets the criteria as much as any of the other characters.
"'Have you ever seen a woman skinned alive?' he howled wildly, thrusting his face forward at Hugh. 'Have you ever seen men killed with the knotted rope; burned almost to death and then set free, charred and mutilated wrecks? but what does it matter provided only freedom comes, as it has in Russia. Tomorrow it will be England; in a week the world . . . Even if we have to wade through rivers of blood up to our throats, nevertheless it will come. And in the end we shall have a new earth.'
"Hugh lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
"'It seems a most alluring programme,' he murmured. 'And I shall have much pleasure in recommending you as manager of a babies' crèche. I feel certain the little ones would take to you instinctively.'" - p 109
Let's keep in mind this is fiction. Is there any historical record whatsoever of a Bolshevik speech in wch the sufferings of humans are treated so cavalierly? Perhaps there are, I wdn't know, I'm certainly not enuf of an historian on the subject. &, of course, this is supposedly what Bolsheviks were saying behind-the-scenes, not necessarily for public record. If there is such an historical record, I'd be grateful if any reader were to call my attn to it in a comment here but I want specifics not some vague generalizations that 'we all know is true'. Keep in mind that there is historical record of big business's uncaring attitude for human life: take the famous Ford Pinto "Cost Benefit Analysis" in wch it was decided that it was more cost-effective to leave a dangerous gas tank in the design of the Pinto than it was to fix it:
"One of the tools that Ford used to argue for the delay [in changes to the Pinto gas tank design] was a "cost-benefit analysis" of altering the fuel tanks. According to Ford's estimates, the unsafe tanks would cause 180 burn deaths, 180 serious burn injuries, and 2,100 burned vehicles each year. It calculated that it would have to pay $200,000 per death, $67,000 per injury, and $700 per vehicle, for a total of $49.5 million. However, the cost of saving lives and injuries ran even higher: alterations would cost $11 per car or truck, which added up to $137 million per year. Essentially, Ford argued before the government that it would be cheaper just to let their customers burn!" - http://www.engineering.com/Library/Ar...
That's pretty fucking callous if you ask me.
My inclination is to think that "Sapper", an aristocrat/officer despite the lower-ranking implication of his pen-name, is expressing the anxiety of his class about the 'threat' of the arrival of economic justice in England. Bulldog Drummond is a man of independent means - in other words, he's rich, he can buy & command at a significantly high level in the established hierarchy, he doesn't work for a living, he goes to his club to eat, he has an expensive car (certainly not the equivalent of a Pinto), he has servants who're duly obedient & respectful, etc, etc..
In other words, he's the perfect person to be terrified of a revolution: what if he had to work? What if the work he did was low-paying, health-destroying, demeaning? What if he cdn't support his family, if his wife were an addict & a prostitute, if he were completely criminalized just for trying to survive? These are the niceties that "Sapper" completely ignores - in Drummond-world, there's no reason whatsoever, apparently, for any working class person to be disaffected - being a servant for Drummond, eg, comes natural to people of lesser abilities & intelligence & spunk & anyone rebelling against the status quo that supported the author & his alter-ego the Bulldog is obviously a naive dupe, greedy, a criminal, whatever - anything but a person w/ sincere insights into the destruction wrought in most people's lives by the established order.
The arch-criminal, Carl Peterson, is the only one who's given much respect b/c he manipulates people in much the same way the aristocratic elites do - just as a 'bad guy' instead of as the supposed 'good guys' that the aristocrats are represented as being. &, yet, what examination of British aristocratic wealth (or any other such wealth) isn't going to dig up a history of wealth built on slavery, overthrow of existing social structures, etc, etc?! There's more than a little self-delusion & hypocrisy going on in "Sapper"'s depiction of his hero. &, of course, anarchists get lumped into the enemy camp:
"[']You say he was with a crowd of revolutionaries last night. What do you mean exactly?'
"'Bolshevists, Anarchists, members of the Do-no-work-and-have-all-the-money Brigade,' answered Hugh. 'But excuse me a moment. Waiter.'
"A man who had been hovering round came up promptly." - p 139
This is where the subtext of "Sapper"'s adventures in La-La Land come to the fore for the attentive critical reader: "Anarchists, members of the Do-no-work-and-have-all-the-money Brigade"?!: here we have a 'hero' who certainly does-no-work-and-has-all-the-money but that's completely unacknowledged - & all his cronies are able to drop whatever they're doing to rush off into adventure at a moment's notice. I'm an anarchist & I think I can claim w/ substantial historical accuracy that many, if not most, anarchists are people who work, that in the 40 yrs preceding the writing of these Bulldog stories many or most of these anarchists wd've not only worked but wd've worked in factories from age 6 or so on precisely to support the completely luxurious lifestyles of the Bulldog Drummonds of the world. & if these anarchists wd've taken off work to rush off to adventure they'd know for sure that they'd lose their jobs & have to survive somehow in a way that they wdn't have to resort to if they were being pd a living wage & treated decently by their truly greedy bosses.
Somehow, tho, in the highly delusional world of these stories, the aristocrats aren't capitalists - what this means is that all the dirty work is far behind them in their PR-touched-up histories & that their nasty shit is done by armies that they control ('good) instead of insurrections that they don't ('bad'). A visiting American sums it up nicely for the aristocratic PR POV:
"[']One gigantic syndicalist strike all over your country — that's what Peterson's playing for, I'll stake my bottom dollar. How he's doing it is another matter. But he's in with the big financiers: and he's using the tub-thumping Bolshies as tools. Gad! It's a big scheme' — he puffed twice at his cigar — 'a durned big scheme. Your little old country, Captain, is, saving one, the finest on God's earth; but she's a little bit sicker than a good many people think. But I reckon Peterson's cure won't do any manner of good, excepting to himself and those blamed capitalists who are putting up the dollars.'" - pp 140-141
In Bulldog propaganda a "syndicalist strike" can only happen as a result of the machinations of a criminal mastermind - not as a result of workers actually trying to improve their debased conditions - & if there are any capitalists who stand to benefit by this destabilization they're certainly not the aristocrats AND any 'sickness' of the English socio-political conditions isn't a result of failures & greed on the part of the ruling elites!! 'Heaven' forbid that such an accusing analysis be turned toward Drummond & his ilk. Phrasing things in this way is a strategy for convincing the reader that if they're dissatisfied w/ the capitalists that're suppressing their wages or whatnot that they're actually in league w/ the Blosheviks instead of in opposition to them - as wd make the most sense.
In other words, let the aristocratic superhero, Bulldog Drummond, take care of the problem - don't be joining in solidarity w/ yr fellow workers & trying to take control - after all, Drummond's 'just like you': he speaks like the common man, he's not an intellectual, blah, blah.. This is a message that persists to this day in movies like The East, even tho that's more sympathetic to anarchist critiques, where in the end the anarchists shd leave everything well enuf alone & leave the cleaning up to the rogue superhero law enforcement types (who wdn't actually do shit or even be aware of what's going on w/o the anarchists).
Sapper's Bulldog Drummond - The Carl Peterson Quartet
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 23, 2014
Yes, surprise, surprise, once again I've been verbose. Read my full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/... 'cause this little bugger is truncated:
If I had any 'guilty pleasures', reading Bulldog Drummond might be one of them.. but I don't, so it isn't. Many yrs ago, but probably w/in the last decade, I read Mickey Spillane's One Lonely Night. I thought I reviewed it on Goodreads. Apparently, I haven't. IF I HAD I'd be directing the reader of this review to my pan of the Spillane bk - but I didn't even bother to pan it. Spillane wrote hard-boiled anti-Communist propaganda crime fiction in the 1940s & 1950s. No doubt they were very popular. The lurid cover of One Lonely Night has a naked 'white' woman hanging from her wrists from a rope hanging from a ceiling. In the story, she's being brutally interrogated by some commies. We all know that commies love torturing pretty 'white' women - I mean it's not like they fought against nazis or anything, they're just low criminals & all that talk of economic justice & fairness & suchlike is just a smokescreen to cover up their natural sordidness. Thank GOD for detective Mike Hammer.
Well, as the reader can no doubt tell, I don't have much respect for Mickey Spillane. I always wondered at John Zorn's choosing him to name an album after. The record's great but why Spillane? Why not Hammett? Why not Chandler? Why not Highsmith? Why not Ellroy? They're all much more interesting writers, more realistic, less politically insidious, even more 'hard-boiled'. It's hard not to conclude that Zorn isn't very literate. And if I didn't already think Spillane was a hack, now that I've read Sapper Spillane strikes me as an unoriginal hack (is it possible to be an original one?) b/c Sapper's Bulldog Drummond is a strong candidate for flagrant precursor to Spillane's Mike Hammer.
I got interested in the Drummond character b/c I picked up 3 DVDs on sale for a buck apiece or thereabouts from a local bkstore. All hail obsolescence, right?! Thanks to it, I can pick up copies of all the stuff that's beneath the purchasing habits of all those people who're being led by the noses to keep up w/ the iJoeses [sic]. I checked out Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937, 55 minutes), Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937, 67 minutes), & Bulldog Drummond's Bride (1939, 57 minutes). I found them fast-moving & funny & I was entertained. What I didn't find in them was the anti-Semitism & anti-Communism of the bks.
"Jack Buchanan, the debonair song-and-dance man, played Bulldog Drummond in The Third Round (1925), but he was not the first screen Drummond. This distinction goes to English matinée idol Carlyle Blackwell who played the character in the 1922 movie, Bulldog Drummond. However, it wasn't until the advent of the talking cinema that the screen incarnation of Hugh Bulldog Drummond took off, and for about a decade from 1929 there was a spate of Drummond movies.
"In 1929 Ronald Colman, perhaps the best screen Drummond, took the role in Bulldog Drummond, based on the first novel. Colman returned in 1934 in Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back.
"During the Thirties old Bulldog was played on screen by Kenneth MacKenna, Ray Milland and John Howard, John Lodge and Ralph Richardson. In general the movies were lighter in tone than the novels and tended to use original plots, although Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937), with Milland, was a reworking of the original novel, and Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938), with Howard, was based on The Third Round. Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1938), again with Howard, was based on The Final Count." - p XIII
I find 22 Bulldog Drummond movies listed on Wikipedia dating from 1922 to 1969 starring 14 different actors in the lead role. This tendency for the movie studios to make multiple movies based around the same detective character over a period of decades yielded a shitload of Charlie Chan movies & witnessing the Drummond movies led to my revisiting Chan wch, in turn, led to my making a movie called "CHAN(geling)" about actor Warner Oland & yellowface.
SO, yeah, Sapper's Drummond is a 'man's man' - a boxer/ex-soldier who plunges right in & exposes the world-takeover schemes of the fiendish murderer/thief Carl Peterson. Peterson, a man of exquisite taste & no scruples, is a great organizer of both capitalists & commies alike. They work together, hand-in-hand, to bring the Brits to their knees thru sabotage & chaos. To be fair, the anti-Semitism is a side-note in contrast to the full-blown anti-Communism. Ironically, Sapper is a WWI vet whose feelings are strongly anti-"Boche" (a pejorative term for Germans) but whose politics cd've easily paved the way for nazism.
SO, when I was reading David Stuart Davies's intro I was wondering if I cd even get thru the damned thing:
"Drummond is a man's man in an era when that was what a man was supposed to be. He has all the virtues and vices of his class and time. He is scrupulously honest, trustworthy, fearless and loves a good fight; but he is also a casual and good-natured bigot. His attitude to foreigners and Jews would today have the political correctness brigade blowing a collective gasket." - p VIII
"The Bulldog Drummond stories serve not only as entertaining, racy, thud and blunder thrillers but also as an interesting, if not palatable, historical reflection of upper-class attitudes to foreigners and Jews at the time. It is interesting to note that this seam of xenophobia and anti-Semitism fades significantly after the first two books in the series as memories of the war begin to fade." - p IX
'thud and blunder"! Blood and thunder indeed.
"It is in Bulldog Drummond (1920) that our hero first encounters Carl Peterson when the villain is involved in a plot to deliver England into the hands of the evil Communists - purely for financial gain, of course, for Peterson is above politics. The story features the archetypal damsel-in-distress scenario and introduces Drummond to his future wife. / In The Black Gang (1922) the Communist revolutionaries return and receive even harsher treatment from Drummond & Co.". - p XI
Silent weapons must've been all the rage in the 20s & 30s b/c Drummond & Chan & Mr. Moto stories all have their versions:
"He lingered for an instant, peering into the darkness and recovering his breath, when with a vicious phut something buried itself into the tree beside him. Drummond lingered no more; long years of experience left no doubt in his mind as to what that something was. / 'Compressed-air rifle — or electric,' he muttered to himself" - p 42
Bulldog does have a good sense of humor, there's alotof tricksterism here, & that's one of the saving graces of the stories that help counterbalance the aristocratic taking-for-granted-of-privilege & other such socio-political naiveties. He fools arch-criminal Peterson into kidnapping a man disguised as the intended victim & then presents him w/ a bill for the trouble he's gone to. It's wonderful as poetic justice:
"'What's this —— jest?' he howled furiously. 'And this damned bandage all covered with red ink?'
"'You must ask our friend here, Mullings,' said Hugh. 'He's got a peculiar sense of humour. Anyway, he's got the bill in his hand.'
"In silence they watched Peterson open the paper and read the contents, while the girl leant over his shoulder.
"To Mr Peterson, The Elms, Godalming.
.................................................£...s...d.
"To hire of one demobilised soldier.............................................5...0...0
To making him drunk (in this item present
strength and cost of drink and said soldier's
capacity must be allowed for)................................................5...0...0
To bottle of red ink.................................................0...0...1
To shock to system..............................................10...0...1
"Total..............................................£20...0...1" - p 59
&, of course, Drummond has daring - but then it's easy to have daring when you're a fictional character - the author doesn't necessarily have to have daring in 'real' life. However, it seems to me that the author must have a sense of humor in 'real' life in order for his character to have it.
"In the days when Drummond had been a platoon commander, he had done many dangerous things. The ordinary joys of the infantry subaltern's life — such as going over the top, and carrying out raids — had not proved sufficient for his appetite. He had specialized in peculiar stunts of his own: stunts over which his men formed their own conclusions, and worshipped him accordingly." - p 65
But then we get back to his commie-demonizing:
"'I know not what this young man has done: I care less. In Russia such trifles matter not. He has the appearance of a bourgeois, therefore he must die. Did we not kill thousands — aye, tens of thousands of his kidney, before we obtained the great freedom? Are we not going to do the same in this accursed country?' His voice rose to the shrill, strident note of the typical tub-thumper. 'What is this wretched man,' he continued, waving a hand wildly at Hugh, 'that he should interrupt the great work for one brief second? Kill him now — throw him in a corner, and let us proceed.'
"He sat down again, amidst a further murmur of approval, in which Hugh joined heartily.
"'Splendid,' he murmured. 'A Magnificent peroration. Am I right, sir, in assuming that you are what is vulgarly known as a Bolshevist?'
"The man turned his sunken eyes, glowing with the burning fires of fanaticism, on Drummond.
"'I am one of those who are fighting for the freedom of the world,' he cried harshly,' for the right to live of the proletariat, The workers were the bottom dogs in Russia till they killed the rulers. Now — they rule, and the money they earn goes into their own pockets, not those of incompetent snobs.'" - p 108
Strangely, having "sunken eyes" seems to be some sort of indicator of insanity - &, of course, as a "Bolshevist" the man is a 'fanatic'. What I wonder is: why isn't Drummond also a fanatic? He certainly meets the criteria as much as any of the other characters.
"'Have you ever seen a woman skinned alive?' he howled wildly, thrusting his face forward at Hugh. 'Have you ever seen men killed with the knotted rope; burned almost to death and then set free, charred and mutilated wrecks? but what does it matter provided only freedom comes, as it has in Russia. Tomorrow it will be England; in a week the world . . . Even if we have to wade through rivers of blood up to our throats, nevertheless it will come. And in the end we shall have a new earth.'
"Hugh lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
"'It seems a most alluring programme,' he murmured. 'And I shall have much pleasure in recommending you as manager of a babies' crèche. I feel certain the little ones would take to you instinctively.'" - p 109
Let's keep in mind this is fiction. Is there any historical record whatsoever of a Bolshevik speech in wch the sufferings of humans are treated so cavalierly? Perhaps there are, I wdn't know, I'm certainly not enuf of an historian on the subject. &, of course, this is supposedly what Bolsheviks were saying behind-the-scenes, not necessarily for public record. If there is such an historical record, I'd be grateful if any reader were to call my attn to it in a comment here but I want specifics not some vague generalizations that 'we all know is true'. Keep in mind that there is historical record of big business's uncaring attitude for human life: take the famous Ford Pinto "Cost Benefit Analysis" in wch it was decided that it was more cost-effective to leave a dangerous gas tank in the design of the Pinto than it was to fix it:
"One of the tools that Ford used to argue for the delay [in changes to the Pinto gas tank design] was a "cost-benefit analysis" of altering the fuel tanks. According to Ford's estimates, the unsafe tanks would cause 180 burn deaths, 180 serious burn injuries, and 2,100 burned vehicles each year. It calculated that it would have to pay $200,000 per death, $67,000 per injury, and $700 per vehicle, for a total of $49.5 million. However, the cost of saving lives and injuries ran even higher: alterations would cost $11 per car or truck, which added up to $137 million per year. Essentially, Ford argued before the government that it would be cheaper just to let their customers burn!" - http://www.engineering.com/Library/Ar...
That's pretty fucking callous if you ask me.
My inclination is to think that "Sapper", an aristocrat/officer despite the lower-ranking implication of his pen-name, is expressing the anxiety of his class about the 'threat' of the arrival of economic justice in England. Bulldog Drummond is a man of independent means - in other words, he's rich, he can buy & command at a significantly high level in the established hierarchy, he doesn't work for a living, he goes to his club to eat, he has an expensive car (certainly not the equivalent of a Pinto), he has servants who're duly obedient & respectful, etc, etc..
In other words, he's the perfect person to be terrified of a revolution: what if he had to work? What if the work he did was low-paying, health-destroying, demeaning? What if he cdn't support his family, if his wife were an addict & a prostitute, if he were completely criminalized just for trying to survive? These are the niceties that "Sapper" completely ignores - in Drummond-world, there's no reason whatsoever, apparently, for any working class person to be disaffected - being a servant for Drummond, eg, comes natural to people of lesser abilities & intelligence & spunk & anyone rebelling against the status quo that supported the author & his alter-ego the Bulldog is obviously a naive dupe, greedy, a criminal, whatever - anything but a person w/ sincere insights into the destruction wrought in most people's lives by the established order.
The arch-criminal, Carl Peterson, is the only one who's given much respect b/c he manipulates people in much the same way the aristocratic elites do - just as a 'bad guy' instead of as the supposed 'good guys' that the aristocrats are represented as being. &, yet, what examination of British aristocratic wealth (or any other such wealth) isn't going to dig up a history of wealth built on slavery, overthrow of existing social structures, etc, etc?! There's more than a little self-delusion & hypocrisy going on in "Sapper"'s depiction of his hero. &, of course, anarchists get lumped into the enemy camp:
"[']You say he was with a crowd of revolutionaries last night. What do you mean exactly?'
"'Bolshevists, Anarchists, members of the Do-no-work-and-have-all-the-money Brigade,' answered Hugh. 'But excuse me a moment. Waiter.'
"A man who had been hovering round came up promptly." - p 139
This is where the subtext of "Sapper"'s adventures in La-La Land come to the fore for the attentive critical reader: "Anarchists, members of the Do-no-work-and-have-all-the-money Brigade"?!: here we have a 'hero' who certainly does-no-work-and-has-all-the-money but that's completely unacknowledged - & all his cronies are able to drop whatever they're doing to rush off into adventure at a moment's notice. I'm an anarchist & I think I can claim w/ substantial historical accuracy that many, if not most, anarchists are people who work, that in the 40 yrs preceding the writing of these Bulldog stories many or most of these anarchists wd've not only worked but wd've worked in factories from age 6 or so on precisely to support the completely luxurious lifestyles of the Bulldog Drummonds of the world. & if these anarchists wd've taken off work to rush off to adventure they'd know for sure that they'd lose their jobs & have to survive somehow in a way that they wdn't have to resort to if they were being pd a living wage & treated decently by their truly greedy bosses.
Somehow, tho, in the highly delusional world of these stories, the aristocrats aren't capitalists - what this means is that all the dirty work is far behind them in their PR-touched-up histories & that their nasty shit is done by armies that they control ('good) instead of insurrections that they don't ('bad'). A visiting American sums it up nicely for the aristocratic PR POV:
"[']One gigantic syndicalist strike all over your country — that's what Peterson's playing for, I'll stake my bottom dollar. How he's doing it is another matter. But he's in with the big financiers: and he's using the tub-thumping Bolshies as tools. Gad! It's a big scheme' — he puffed twice at his cigar — 'a durned big scheme. Your little old country, Captain, is, saving one, the finest on God's earth; but she's a little bit sicker than a good many people think. But I reckon Peterson's cure won't do any manner of good, excepting to himself and those blamed capitalists who are putting up the dollars.'" - pp 140-141
In Bulldog propaganda a "syndicalist strike" can only happen as a result of the machinations of a criminal mastermind - not as a result of workers actually trying to improve their debased conditions - & if there are any capitalists who stand to benefit by this destabilization they're certainly not the aristocrats AND any 'sickness' of the English socio-political conditions isn't a result of failures & greed on the part of the ruling elites!! 'Heaven' forbid that such an accusing analysis be turned toward Drummond & his ilk. Phrasing things in this way is a strategy for convincing the reader that if they're dissatisfied w/ the capitalists that're suppressing their wages or whatnot that they're actually in league w/ the Blosheviks instead of in opposition to them - as wd make the most sense.
In other words, let the aristocratic superhero, Bulldog Drummond, take care of the problem - don't be joining in solidarity w/ yr fellow workers & trying to take control - after all, Drummond's 'just like you': he speaks like the common man, he's not an intellectual, blah, blah.. This is a message that persists to this day in movies like The East, even tho that's more sympathetic to anarchist critiques, where in the end the anarchists shd leave everything well enuf alone & leave the cleaning up to the rogue superhero law enforcement types (who wdn't actually do shit or even be aware of what's going on w/o the anarchists).
November 15, 2025
This is a ripsnorter of a read!
Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drumond fights the menace of 1920's Communism, in the person of many European who have their various conspiracies to thwart the forces of goodness in a world where the police are still a threat and have the capacity to prosecute these evildoers. Drummond and his 'Black Gang' of friends he fought the Kaiser with in WWI have to fight evil while still avoiding the forces of the law.
These stories are famous for Drummond's hair's breadth escapes from the forces of evil, so I avoided them for a long while because I didn't want to read a continuous string of 'With a single bound, Hugh was free'. Fortunately, they aren't like that. Hugh Drummond escapes, but not with a single bound.
The only negayib, if there is one, is that Bulldog's banter is a little off. But so is Lord Peter Wimsey's, so, you know…
I don't know if this volume is the complete collection—I suspect not—so I'm going to be hunting for more. In the meantime, it a delight to see simple, clear plots clearly written, in a way that looks effortless, but (for me, anyway) certainly isn't to write.
Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drumond fights the menace of 1920's Communism, in the person of many European who have their various conspiracies to thwart the forces of goodness in a world where the police are still a threat and have the capacity to prosecute these evildoers. Drummond and his 'Black Gang' of friends he fought the Kaiser with in WWI have to fight evil while still avoiding the forces of the law.
These stories are famous for Drummond's hair's breadth escapes from the forces of evil, so I avoided them for a long while because I didn't want to read a continuous string of 'With a single bound, Hugh was free'. Fortunately, they aren't like that. Hugh Drummond escapes, but not with a single bound.
The only negayib, if there is one, is that Bulldog's banter is a little off. But so is Lord Peter Wimsey's, so, you know…
I don't know if this volume is the complete collection—I suspect not—so I'm going to be hunting for more. In the meantime, it a delight to see simple, clear plots clearly written, in a way that looks effortless, but (for me, anyway) certainly isn't to write.
October 23, 2014
A Drummond abecedary:
Advertisement – The classified notice that starts the adventures: “Demobilised officer, finding peace incredibly tedious would welcome diversion. Legitimate if possible; but crime, of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential.”
Bulldog Drummond - Our hero: big, strong, loyal, brave, but not handsome; the stolid nature he presents to the world belies his clear and penetrating understanding of people and events.
Carl Peterson - The criminal mastermind who is Drummond’s nemesis in the four novels, descendant of Moriarty, ancestor of Blofeld.
Disguises- Though Drummond is no slouch at hiding his identity when necessary, Peterson is the master of disguise and his ability to turn up at any time as any type of person is perhaps his most diabolical characteristic.
Entertainment – These are some of the most entertaining books I’ve read in a long time; the plots clip along at a fast pace, with movie serial type perils occurring at regular intervals.
Fans - of James Bond should not hesitate to become acquainted with Bulldog Drummond.
Germany – The once and future foe; it’s likely that nothing good will come out of this defeated but still defiant country. Chapter title: “In which the Hun nation decreases by one”.
Hugh – Drummond’s Christian name, used by his close friends; he’s “Captain Drummond” to others.
Irma – Carl Peterson’s beautiful, cruel “daughter” and travelling companion who, though she shares Peterson’s hatred of Drummond, cannot help also feeling sexually attracted to him.
Jews – A strain of anti-Semitism runs through the novels; if a character’s Jewishness is mentioned, you can be sure that he is up to no good.
Ku Klux Klan – Though their activities are directed against political rather than racial minorities (perhaps – see “Jews” above), the titular Black Gang of the second novel with their masks, black clothing, and nighttime raids, may have been partly inspired by the vigilantes of Dixon or Griffith, if not by actual Klansmen. That big fellow who’s their leader, though, is really Drummond, so their motives are undoubtedly pure.
Lakington – The most sophisticated of Peterson’s accomplices, an Englishman of taste who appreciates and steals the finer things in life, including the woman Drummond intends to marry.
MacIver – Drummond’s Lestrade, the police inspector who is always two steps behind the villain and one step behind Drummond.
Nom de Plume – The decision to write under the no-nonsense name of Sapper equates the experiences of author and character; the reader feels confident that the views expressed by Drummond largely reflect those of his creator, Herman Cyril McNeile.
Omnibus – Though I usually make my way through omnibus editions slowly, one title every few months, in this case I had to force myself to read no more than one of these novels per week, so addictive did I find these adventures.
Phyllis – Damsel-in-Distress in the first novel, Drummond’s wife and occasional D-in-D in subsequent adventures.
Queer – When events, places or people strike a disinterested observer as “queer” it is a sure sign of the involvement of Carl Peterson.
Russians – The first two novels concern Peterson’s efforts, with the help of various foreigners and British politicians of the “useful idiot” sort, to bring England to its knees by fomenting a Bolshevist revolution in Great Britain.
Science Fiction – The second pair of novels take a mild turn toward SF, with a cheap method of synthesizing diamonds in “The Third Round” and a poison spray that kills instantly on contact with the skin in “The Final Count” providing the motivations for Peterson’s misdeeds.
Turkish on this side, Virginian on that – The arrangement of Drummond’s cigarette case, as explained whenever a smoke is being offered; his version of “shaken, not stirred”.
United States – Drummond’s Felix Leiter is Jerome K. Green, the American detective and experienced safecracker who aids Drummond in the first novel; a decent sort of chap, distinguished by his “drawling” rather than saying things as well as by his incessant gum chewing.
Violence – In his introduction, David Stuart Davies notes the graphic violence of the stories, but I imagine that Sapper’s target audience consisted to a large extent of Great War veterans who would not have found his scenes of sudden violent death and injury excessive.
Wisecracks – One of the main things that makes Drummond an attractive hero is his ability, like the cinematic James Bond, to make jokes at times of great danger. In “The Black Gang” after narrowly escaping a drowning attempt by Peterson’s henchmen, Drummond is again captured by Peterson, now in the guise of Reverend Theodosius Longmoor:
Xenophobia – Foreigners as a rule just can’t be trusted; there’s something un-British about the lot of them.
Yacht – Like all supervillains, Peterson lives a fairly luxurious lifestyle and the climax of “The Third Round” takes place on his yacht, upon which Drummond and Professor Cooper, the synthesizer of diamonds, are abducted, intended for a watery grave.
Zeppelin – A luxury airship in which the crème de la crème of society dine on gourmet meals as they float above London doubles as Carl Peterson’s poison-spraying vessel of air piracy, giving “The Final Count” a slight flavor of steampunk.
Advertisement – The classified notice that starts the adventures: “Demobilised officer, finding peace incredibly tedious would welcome diversion. Legitimate if possible; but crime, of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential.”
Bulldog Drummond - Our hero: big, strong, loyal, brave, but not handsome; the stolid nature he presents to the world belies his clear and penetrating understanding of people and events.
Carl Peterson - The criminal mastermind who is Drummond’s nemesis in the four novels, descendant of Moriarty, ancestor of Blofeld.
Disguises- Though Drummond is no slouch at hiding his identity when necessary, Peterson is the master of disguise and his ability to turn up at any time as any type of person is perhaps his most diabolical characteristic.
Entertainment – These are some of the most entertaining books I’ve read in a long time; the plots clip along at a fast pace, with movie serial type perils occurring at regular intervals.
Fans - of James Bond should not hesitate to become acquainted with Bulldog Drummond.
Germany – The once and future foe; it’s likely that nothing good will come out of this defeated but still defiant country. Chapter title: “In which the Hun nation decreases by one”.
Hugh – Drummond’s Christian name, used by his close friends; he’s “Captain Drummond” to others.
Irma – Carl Peterson’s beautiful, cruel “daughter” and travelling companion who, though she shares Peterson’s hatred of Drummond, cannot help also feeling sexually attracted to him.
Jews – A strain of anti-Semitism runs through the novels; if a character’s Jewishness is mentioned, you can be sure that he is up to no good.
Ku Klux Klan – Though their activities are directed against political rather than racial minorities (perhaps – see “Jews” above), the titular Black Gang of the second novel with their masks, black clothing, and nighttime raids, may have been partly inspired by the vigilantes of Dixon or Griffith, if not by actual Klansmen. That big fellow who’s their leader, though, is really Drummond, so their motives are undoubtedly pure.
Lakington – The most sophisticated of Peterson’s accomplices, an Englishman of taste who appreciates and steals the finer things in life, including the woman Drummond intends to marry.
MacIver – Drummond’s Lestrade, the police inspector who is always two steps behind the villain and one step behind Drummond.
Nom de Plume – The decision to write under the no-nonsense name of Sapper equates the experiences of author and character; the reader feels confident that the views expressed by Drummond largely reflect those of his creator, Herman Cyril McNeile.
Omnibus – Though I usually make my way through omnibus editions slowly, one title every few months, in this case I had to force myself to read no more than one of these novels per week, so addictive did I find these adventures.
Phyllis – Damsel-in-Distress in the first novel, Drummond’s wife and occasional D-in-D in subsequent adventures.
Queer – When events, places or people strike a disinterested observer as “queer” it is a sure sign of the involvement of Carl Peterson.
Russians – The first two novels concern Peterson’s efforts, with the help of various foreigners and British politicians of the “useful idiot” sort, to bring England to its knees by fomenting a Bolshevist revolution in Great Britain.
Science Fiction – The second pair of novels take a mild turn toward SF, with a cheap method of synthesizing diamonds in “The Third Round” and a poison spray that kills instantly on contact with the skin in “The Final Count” providing the motivations for Peterson’s misdeeds.
Turkish on this side, Virginian on that – The arrangement of Drummond’s cigarette case, as explained whenever a smoke is being offered; his version of “shaken, not stirred”.
United States – Drummond’s Felix Leiter is Jerome K. Green, the American detective and experienced safecracker who aids Drummond in the first novel; a decent sort of chap, distinguished by his “drawling” rather than saying things as well as by his incessant gum chewing.
Violence – In his introduction, David Stuart Davies notes the graphic violence of the stories, but I imagine that Sapper’s target audience consisted to a large extent of Great War veterans who would not have found his scenes of sudden violent death and injury excessive.
Wisecracks – One of the main things that makes Drummond an attractive hero is his ability, like the cinematic James Bond, to make jokes at times of great danger. In “The Black Gang” after narrowly escaping a drowning attempt by Peterson’s henchmen, Drummond is again captured by Peterson, now in the guise of Reverend Theodosius Longmoor:
’You appear to have a wonderful faculty for remaining alive, my young friend,’ remarked Peterson, … gazing benevolently at Drummond over his clerical collar.
’Principally, Theo, my pet, because you’ve got such a wonderful faculty for making bloomers,’ answered Drummond affably.
Xenophobia – Foreigners as a rule just can’t be trusted; there’s something un-British about the lot of them.
Yacht – Like all supervillains, Peterson lives a fairly luxurious lifestyle and the climax of “The Third Round” takes place on his yacht, upon which Drummond and Professor Cooper, the synthesizer of diamonds, are abducted, intended for a watery grave.
Zeppelin – A luxury airship in which the crème de la crème of society dine on gourmet meals as they float above London doubles as Carl Peterson’s poison-spraying vessel of air piracy, giving “The Final Count” a slight flavor of steampunk.
August 20, 2023
Think Saturday morning cartoons, the 3 stooges, and perils of Pauline movie serials. Think Sax Rohmer, Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Think pulp fiction, English style, with all the period racism, esprit de corps, humor, and derring do that that implies. Think of reading 1000 pages covering the first four novels of an endless series ( movies, radio, comics). Think of recommending only the 3rd story as worth your time. Think of this as a cultural artifact: action comics without the graphics. Stop thinking. It gets in the way of the fun.
June 26, 2013
I workied my way through this omnibus volume and reviewed each part separately as I came to it.
1. Bulldog Drummond (Read from Feb 27 to March 3, 2013)****
What great fun, I don't know why it took me so long to get around to starting the Bulldog Drummond series, in so many ways it's a natural for me!
An ad appears in a newspaper "Demobilised officer,finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential. Would be prepared to consider permanent job if suitably impressed by applicant for his services. Reply at once Box X10." and we're off...
Drummond is a wonderful creation, solving crime and here getting mixed up in a plot to turn Britain into a communist state, but Drummond is no mastermind like Sherlock Holmes, instead he blunders into every situation with fists swinging. There is as much humour as thrills in the book and Drummond talks a delightful brand of rot almost Wodehouse-ian in nature, in fact his pal Algy Longworth seems to be on day release from a Wodehouse novel. Drummond is very much of his time, there's much jingoism and talk of "the boche" etc. but it's all so delightfully innocent that it only adds to the book's charm.
2. The Black Gang (Read from Mar 18 to 22, 2013)****
What ho! Those dastardly foreigners want to turn jolly old England into a commie state and that bounder Carl Peterson has reared his ugly head again, good job those mysterious fellows "the black gang" seem to have everything in hand, especially that big chappy their leader, good old Drummond!
Drummond here has found his calling in life and has got things more organised than in the first book, where he blundered about more, but he is still very much the same character and once again the story provides as many laughs as thrills.
3. The Third Round (Read From Apr 29 to May 3, 2013) ****
A bit of a change from the two earlier books, Peterson's plans are all spelled out and the book spends at least as much time with him as with Drummond, Drummond himself has also changed a bit he talks less Wodehouse-ian rot and rather than blundering into situations with fists flying he seems to be using at least a little more brain power. All this said though it's still a rattling good old-fashioned adventure.
4. The Final Count (Read From June 21 to 26, 2013) ****
A change in this one, in that the book is written in the first person by a new member of Drummond's gang rather than in the third person. Peterson finally gets his just deserts in this one while attempting to bring off his most audacious plan. Taken as a good old fashioned thriller this is probably the best of the first four Drummond novels, with the action never letting up for an instant.
1. Bulldog Drummond (Read from Feb 27 to March 3, 2013)****
What great fun, I don't know why it took me so long to get around to starting the Bulldog Drummond series, in so many ways it's a natural for me!
An ad appears in a newspaper "Demobilised officer,finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential. Would be prepared to consider permanent job if suitably impressed by applicant for his services. Reply at once Box X10." and we're off...
Drummond is a wonderful creation, solving crime and here getting mixed up in a plot to turn Britain into a communist state, but Drummond is no mastermind like Sherlock Holmes, instead he blunders into every situation with fists swinging. There is as much humour as thrills in the book and Drummond talks a delightful brand of rot almost Wodehouse-ian in nature, in fact his pal Algy Longworth seems to be on day release from a Wodehouse novel. Drummond is very much of his time, there's much jingoism and talk of "the boche" etc. but it's all so delightfully innocent that it only adds to the book's charm.
2. The Black Gang (Read from Mar 18 to 22, 2013)****
What ho! Those dastardly foreigners want to turn jolly old England into a commie state and that bounder Carl Peterson has reared his ugly head again, good job those mysterious fellows "the black gang" seem to have everything in hand, especially that big chappy their leader, good old Drummond!
Drummond here has found his calling in life and has got things more organised than in the first book, where he blundered about more, but he is still very much the same character and once again the story provides as many laughs as thrills.
3. The Third Round (Read From Apr 29 to May 3, 2013) ****
A bit of a change from the two earlier books, Peterson's plans are all spelled out and the book spends at least as much time with him as with Drummond, Drummond himself has also changed a bit he talks less Wodehouse-ian rot and rather than blundering into situations with fists flying he seems to be using at least a little more brain power. All this said though it's still a rattling good old-fashioned adventure.
4. The Final Count (Read From June 21 to 26, 2013) ****
A change in this one, in that the book is written in the first person by a new member of Drummond's gang rather than in the third person. Peterson finally gets his just deserts in this one while attempting to bring off his most audacious plan. Taken as a good old fashioned thriller this is probably the best of the first four Drummond novels, with the action never letting up for an instant.
Want to read
October 19, 2011Cambria Will Not Yield gave a good review of the Bulldog Drummond books here: http://cambriawillnotyield.blogspot.c...
I'm very fond of Sapper's (H. C. McNeile) character, Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond. I like Drummond because he stands in opposition to the intellectual detective heroes such as Sherlock Holmes. Although far from an imbecile, Drummond doesn't conquer through superior intellect; he conquers through sheer British pluck and bulldog tenacity.
Sapper always poked fun at his own and his hero's intellectual capabilities, but he very astutely delineated the metaphysic at work undermining the Western world in general and England in particular in his novels. Drummond is always up against some capitalist who uses the radical dregs of society, letting them think they are accomplishing their purposes, to destroy the old order. Of course, the two-fisted, ale-drinking Drummond always defeats the capitalist-radical coalitions. But somewhere along the line Drummond must have left us, because the sinister coalition has triumphed throughout the Western world. Infinitely more than we need Joe DiMaggio, we need Bulldog Drummond. So put out an S. O. S., calling Bulldog Drummond.
The 'Bulldog Drummond' books:
1. Bulldog Drummond
2. The Black Gang
3. The Third Round
4. The Final Count
5. The Female of the Species
6. Temple Tower
7. The Return of Bulldog Drummond
8. Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
9. Bulldog Drummond at Bay
10. Challenge
The first four books all deal with Drummond's battles against the evil genius Carl Peterson. The fifth, my favorite, deals with Drummond's battle against the black widow mistress of Carl Peterson, Irma. This book features the most politically incorrect ending in all of literature. The first five books should be read in order; the other books need not be.
After McNeile's death in 1937, his friend Gerard Fairlie kept the Drummond character going, but I have not read the Fairlie books, so I cannot say whether or not they are up to the original ones.
I'm very fond of Sapper's (H. C. McNeile) character, Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond. I like Drummond because he stands in opposition to the intellectual detective heroes such as Sherlock Holmes. Although far from an imbecile, Drummond doesn't conquer through superior intellect; he conquers through sheer British pluck and bulldog tenacity.
Sapper always poked fun at his own and his hero's intellectual capabilities, but he very astutely delineated the metaphysic at work undermining the Western world in general and England in particular in his novels. Drummond is always up against some capitalist who uses the radical dregs of society, letting them think they are accomplishing their purposes, to destroy the old order. Of course, the two-fisted, ale-drinking Drummond always defeats the capitalist-radical coalitions. But somewhere along the line Drummond must have left us, because the sinister coalition has triumphed throughout the Western world. Infinitely more than we need Joe DiMaggio, we need Bulldog Drummond. So put out an S. O. S., calling Bulldog Drummond.
The 'Bulldog Drummond' books:
1. Bulldog Drummond
2. The Black Gang
3. The Third Round
4. The Final Count
5. The Female of the Species
6. Temple Tower
7. The Return of Bulldog Drummond
8. Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
9. Bulldog Drummond at Bay
10. Challenge
The first four books all deal with Drummond's battles against the evil genius Carl Peterson. The fifth, my favorite, deals with Drummond's battle against the black widow mistress of Carl Peterson, Irma. This book features the most politically incorrect ending in all of literature. The first five books should be read in order; the other books need not be.
After McNeile's death in 1937, his friend Gerard Fairlie kept the Drummond character going, but I have not read the Fairlie books, so I cannot say whether or not they are up to the original ones.
August 13, 2012
A really good read. After reading a couple I had to vary my reading diet a bit before coming back to the last two. However, they are great fun and well written. A sort of post WW1 James Bond. The books are anti-German and anti-Jewish, typical of the time, this does not spoil a very good, rollicking adventure stories.
June 1, 2011
I am enjoying this series. However, it is dated in both language and mores. It has some racial slurs and the women are definitely peripheral and only marginally involved and it is anti socialist/communist.
October 9, 2008
Drummond just killed a gorilla with his bare hands.
August 10, 2013
A good example of British pulp before the cultural rot of the 30s. Archaic, but entertaining. You can see why the character took hold in the public's imagination.
May 17, 2015
8,5/10
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