Francis Iles’ 1932 novel Before the Fact is best known today as the book on which Alfred Hitchcock’s classic movie 1941 Suspicion was based. As most fans of the movie are aware, the endings of the novel and the movie differ very significantly, and which you prefer is largely a matter of taste.Anthony Berkeley Cox (1893-1971) was born in England and wrote detective stories under several names, including Anthony Berkeley, A. Monmouth Platts and Francis Iles.Before the Fact, like another of his Francis Iles novels, Malice Aforethought, can be considered to be one of those crime novels that try to be more than just a straight detective novel. As literary critics would rather pompously put the matter, they are an attempt to transcend the limitations of the genre. In both cases there is no doubt whatever of the murderer’s identity (in both cases his identity is revealed on the very first page) - both are psychological studies of murderers (and in the case of Before the Fact of potential murder victims).Before the Fact is told from the point of view of Lina Aysgarth (née McLaidlaw). Lina has always considered herself to be strong-willed and as a woman who will have to rely on brains rather than beauty if she is to find a husband. And at the age of twenty-eight Lina has decided that she very much wants to find a husband. The man she chooses is Johnnie Aysgarth. This does not please her father, General McLaidlaw. He is convinced that Johnnie is simply after her money (she already has five hundred a year and will come into £50,000 on her father’s death, a very large sum of money at the time). The general believes that Johnnie, like all the Aysgarths, is no good. But Lina has made her choice.She soon realises that Johnnie is not a terribly good catch. He spent a great deal of money on her on her honeymoon but then she discovers that it was all borrowed money. Johnnie does not have a penny to his name. Lina tells him that he will have to get a job, a suggestion that shocks him deeply. Work is something he has never contemplated. Lina insists, and Johnnie relents to the extent of taking a position as an estate manager. But there are more unpleasant discoveries to follow. Johnnie is a hopeless (and notably unsuccessful) gambler. He has huge debts. And he is as irresponsible as a child. Oddly enough, this is what makes Lina love him so much. She is convinced that he could not live without her.Johnnie’s gambling continues to be a problem, and then a fortunate accident happens (fortunate indeed for Johnnie) - the general dies and Lina is now a wealthy woman.As their marriage progresses Johnnie’s irresponsibility becomes if anything even worse. He takes to forgery. And then Lina makes an unnerving discovery. Her father’s death may not have been due to natural causes, Or rather, the natural causes (a heart condition) may have been given a helping hand by Johnnie. Whether Johnnie is actually, in strictly legal terms, a murderer is open to doubt. Worse is to follow. There will be other deaths, and other revelations about Johnnie. Lina’s suspicions will continue to grow and drive her almost to breaking point.The second half of the book differs substantially from the film and the ending differs even more dramatically. Interestingly enough Hitchcock originally intended to go with the ending of the book. I don’t propose even to hint at either ending, but they do represent a considerable change in the tone of the story. I personally prefer the ending of the film but the ending of the book certainly has its virtues.Both book and film are concerned mostly with the effect of Lina’s suspicions on her own peace of mind, and indeed her sanity. Both are also fascinating case studies of a charming, even loveable, man who really is, as Lina’s father warned her, no good. The book, even more than the film, is also concerned in an almost gothic manner with the heritability of evil. All the Aysgarths are charming, and none of them is any good. Are Johnnie’s weaknesses of his own making, or are they simply the inevitable results of heredity?Compared to the movie the book is perhaps a trifle over-long, with a lengthy sub-plot which Hitchcock quite wisely dropped from the movie. Nonetheless the novel is an intriguing early example of the psychological crime novel, and in 1932 (at the height of the so-called golden age of the detective story as intellectual puzzle) was certainly ahead of its time. It can also be seen as a very bizarre love story. The psychological crime novel is not a favourite sub-genre of mine but this is a very good example of the breed and can certainly be recommended.
"Some women give birth to murderers, some go to bedwith them, and some marry them." First line of a whopperdark comedy that Christopher Morley tabbed in 1932 as"a masterpiece of cruelty and wit." Rich, late 20s-something-virgin Lina succumbs to Johnnieon the spot and elsewhere. She divines that he's a forger,thief and an embezzler. Written decades pre-PC, but does itmatter? It'll make you gasp w literary pleasure if there'san honest bone - any bone, it doesn't matter - in yer body."According to Johnnie," Lina reflected, "all men had some bias toward abnormality. Johnnie had tried occasionally to hint to her of his own, but Lina would never let him." Then theauthor adds: "She knew very little about the subject." Lina,now married to Johnnie, resisted the idea of having her faceslapped with his dick, we assume.The ultimate masochist, Lina of pale blue eyes waits for Johnnieto kill her cos she suspects Too Much. He obliges mit de poisonedmilk shake. Sipping her nightcap, 230 sublime pages later, theauthor says of Lina, "A tear trickled slowly down her cheekonto the pillow. She would have liked so much to live." Geni filmmaker Hitchcock turned this into "Suspicion" w CaryGrant-Joan Fontaine (Queen of M's). It went into productionwithout an Ending. Audiences, the moguls sighed, wouldnt accept Cary as Killer. What to do?? Hey, make milady - beyond an M - a neurotica whose "suspicions" are just sexio fantasies !"Food and drink and love and bodies, the raw meat of life,"these things concern us, advises the author, "not itscivilized complexities." ~~ The novel is a humdinger.
Do You like book Before The Fact (1999)?
While this novel is the basis of a classic Alfred Hitchcock movie, Suspicion, this novel really is maddening in a way that Hitchcock never portrayed in his film. This novel is tale of a wife's suspicion of her husband -- infidelity, thievery, embezzlement, and murder. Yet despite all this, she loved this man and was actually sorry for him. Frankly after a while, it became almost unreal how enabling she was of her husband and the horrible way he took advantage of her. There was simply no redeeming quality about him and by the end of the story, her either. I can't recommend this book, but I will say it's different, but still that difference didn't make up for the fact that the main characters really were must unlikable.
—Kelley
At times I wanted to shake Lina for staying with Johnny but the more I read the more I became intrigued. Although Lina appears to be a strong woman, she isn't. Her love for Johnny over-rides everything else in her life and she ultimately forgives him for everything including his many affairs.She does leave him after she find out about his affairs etc but when Johnny asks her to take him back, she does. I couldn't believe when he told her he had sent the telegram to Joyce, to get her out of the w
—Carmelina
Lina McLaidlaw was always acknowledged by her family and friends as being extremely clever but unfortunately not very pretty but her blue eyes and her pale cheeks did give her some sort of allure in the beauty stakes.Johnnie Aysgarth was a man about town who would flirt with any young lady and expect her to immediately fall for him. But when he met Lina his friends told him that he would not make any headway with her, 'She'll be flirting with me before tea-time' was his view of the situation. However, he was to be disappointed as Lina took no interest in him whatsoever.Aysgarth did not want to give up so when they met again 10 days later he tried again and this time his charm worked and Lina did indeed fall for him. Her father was not impressed with her choice of man friend and tried to dissuade her but, as is often the case in such situations, Lina became even more determined to cement their relationship.And eventually they married only for, after an idyllic beginning, Lina beginning to suspect that her husband was lying to her. But, always very gullible, she tried to convince herself that she was perhaps imagining her misgivings. This was helped by Johnnie being the most smooth-talking individual and his excuses always seemed to persuade Lina that there was nothing wrong. And she was so much in love with him that she let herself believe him.The marriage deteriorated as Lina became more suspicious and only Johnnie's desperate pleas kept Lina by his side. The edge-of-the-seat drama escalates and Lina eventually tells Johnnie to leave and, even against her better instincts, she finds herself another paramour. But she eventually finds that she has only one love - Johnnie - and her second lover is abandoned.So he returns but events transpire to put him in a bad light and Lina suspects that he might even be a murderer. Two deaths are in suspicious circumstances and then Lina believes that Johnnie is determined to kill her as well. She even longs for death to settle the issue but underneath it all she still (unbelievably) loves Johnnie, even though she strongly suspects that he is out to murder her.And in an ending that leaves the reader wondering, Johnnie departs as Lina remains lying with her head on her pillow weeping - but will she survive even though Johnnie is leaving?No wonder Alfred Hitchcock made this novel into the film 'Suspicion' as the tension builds throughout and the reader is always on tenterhooks wondering what is going to happen.
—Gerry
