The Nebuly Coat

A young and relatively poor young architect arrives in a remote town in Dorset to do work on the local cathedral, sadly in need of restoration work. There are references to the church’s bells, the great tower housing the bells, and the superstition that it is unlucky to break off in the middle of a peal. The elderly Lord Blandamer has not lived up to his local responsibilities but has recently passed away. No one knows the man who is to inherit. The entire community is off kilter. Faced with his own professional concerns, young Westray finds lodgings in a house owned by the financially-strapped Miss Joliffe and her quiet niece. His near neighbor is the Cathedral organist who has moments of uncertain temper, even madness.

This is more show more of a suspense novel than a traditional mystery. Although there are suspicions and deadly consequences, the point is not to identify a murderer. The pacing is slow initially, but as pieces of the puzzle are introduced, the reader (like Westray) becomes acclimated to the environment and curious about these people. The relationships are the point. They present certain obligations but it’s not always clear the direction in which one should move. Who should you as a reader be rooting for? There are questions of ethics and responsibility. Life isn’t fair. There is unhappiness. There is foreshadowing of long-delayed consequences, but readers may be very surprised in how it plays out. Human flaws and fallible behaviors drive this plot.

There are some very funny bits. In the very first chapter, we meet the Cathedral Canon whose obsequiousness rivals that of Mr. Collins In Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. There are also whiffs of Thomas Hardy in some of the prose descriptions. “It has a magic of its own—the bedroom fire. Not such a one as night by night warms hothouse bedrooms of the rich, but that which burns but once or twice a year. How the coals glow between the bars, how the red light shimmers on the black-lead bricks, how the posset steams upon the hob! Milk or tea, cocoa or coffee, poor commonplace liquids, are they not transmuted in the alembic of a bedroom fire, till they become nepenthe for a heartache or a philtre for romance?”

The pay-off however is in the final four chapters when all the pieces come together.. The reader knows there’s disaster to come. but the author manages to surprise us even in what we’ve recognized as being inevitable. show less

A perfectly Victorian novel

This book is many things: a dark gothic story, a story of a place and its people, a mystery. It flows gently, it flows very slowly. The mystery is not important in ways it would be in a more “conventional” detective story. We are looking at the impact it has on lives and destinies.

Mr Westray is an architect who comes to the sleepy town of Cullerne to supervise the restoration of a great ancient church. There is a vividness to the town and its inhabitants. They are all living under the author’s magnifying glass, which is at times sarcastic, but always humane.

A local noble family, the Blandamers has a tragic history and a possibly missing heir. Other families harbour their own secrets. There is even an show more enigmatic painting! (This reader says thank you.) The mystery is not very mysterious, and the ending is an expected one, a piece of a puzzle that seals the tragedy just so. The last few chapters are very emotional. It would not be a surprise if I say that this is a “journey, not the destination” kind of story, something to curl up with on a winter evening.

Another lovely thing was how this book and The Nine Tailors were talking to each other across decades - a small place, an ancient church, church bells that play an important role in the story... I am very happy that I have read both of them in the same year.

Quotes:

”He had something of the thin, unsympathetic traits of the professional water-drinker in his face, and spoke as if he regarded smoking as a crime for himself, and an offence for those of less lofty principles than his own.”

”She had that shallow and ungenerous mind which shrinks instinctively from admitting any beauty or intellect in others…”

”If he had been the hero of a novel his brow would have been black as night; as it was he only looked rather sulky.” show less

A mystery novel, perhaps tending to Gothic in its structure, that maintains a strong momentum throughout. It is full of ecclesiastical, architectural, classical, literary and biblical references which are thankfully foot-noted.
The story has such well-drawn characters and each one of them displays an underlying unease. These troubling backgrounds permeate the novel and give the story piquancy. No character is more disturbed by fear and doubt than the ill-fated organist, who is brilliantly drawn by Falkner.
The ending leaves the reader making assumptions about who the villain is; not only that, but the acquiescence of the architect who is overwhelmed by the inward looking culture of the community into which he has come to work, is a show more surprising twist.
A real classic and so worth while. show less

Originally published in 1903, The Nubuly Coat is a rare book—yet it influenced the novels of so many other writers of Gothic fiction. The story opens when a young architect named Westray comes to the village of Cullerne to oversee the restoration of the old Norman church. The town itself is populated by an interesting array of characters: Mr. Sharnall the organist, who believes that a hidden specter with a hammer is out to kill him; the Rector and his wife, who seem as though they stepped out of an episode of Keeping Up Appearances.

There are also Miss Joliffe, the landlady; and her teenage niece, Anastasia, who seems surprisingly mature for her age. We’re also introduced to, although not at firsthand, Martin Joliffe, who for many show more years before his death believed that he was the rightful heir of the Blandamer family fortune. There’s also Lord Blandamer, the mysteries local squire, who keeps his distance from the rest of the town, though his family insignia, the “nebuly coat” of the title, covers everything in Cullerne. The townspeople are both in awe and contemptuous of him.

It’s hard to characterize this novel. Mystery? Thriller? There’s a murder here, but the mystery never gets solved. But there’s definitely a suggestion of a solution. I was a little disappointed in that, but the atmosphere of the tale was sufficiently chilling enough that I really got into it. It’s not an “easy” read, and it took about 20 pages for the story to get going, but Gothic fiction is really my thing. It’s easy to see why this novel influenced writers such as Dorothy Sayers and her The Nine Tailors.

There’s a lot here about church music and church politics, but it doesn’t burden the story. Falkner’s strength was characterization; he’s a master of using even the finest of brushstrokes to depict his characters, and he’s at his best when describing people at their best… and worst. He’s also very, very funny in places. This novel’s been on my TBR list for a long time, and it puzzles me as to why this book isn’t more widely available; it’s a classic. show less

I had heard that this was an undiscovered masterpiece in the lines of The Woman in White, and Falkner another Collins, but this is an inaccurate assessment. The build-up of mysterious tension and personal relationships in the book are completely at odds with the (very quickly portrayed) ending. The protagonist's complete change of feeling toward his lifelong enemy is incongruous, and not justified by the plot. And if anyone can tell me what the relationship between him and his love interest is at the end, please include a review. I'm sorry, but what a disappointment!

Of its time, but I found it more interesting and humourous than I expected. I think I know who did what and why although the author hasn't spelled exactly what happened and left things unresolved.