The Man Who Killed Himself

Last updated

The Man Who Killed Himself
The Man Who Killed Himself.jpg
First edition (UK)
Author Julian Symons
Country United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreCrime
Publisher Collins Crime Club (UK)
Harper & Row (US)
Publication date
1967
Media typePrint

The Man Who Killed Himself is a 1967 comedy crime novel by the British writer Julian Symons. [1]

Contents

Synopsis

Sick of his life with his wealthy but domineering wife, Arthur Brownjohn creates a flamboyant alter ego for himself and enjoys life with his second identity. Pushed too far one day he decides to murder his wife in the disguise of his other personae.

Film adaptation

In 1969 it was adapted into the film Arthur? Arthur! directed by Samuel Gallu and starring Shelley Winters, Donald Pleasence and Terry-Thomas.

Related Research Articles

Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1929 by American crime fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and the name of their main fictional character, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murders. Dannay and Lee wrote most of the more than thirty novels and several short story collections in which Ellery Queen appeared as a character, and their books were among the most popular of American mysteries published between 1929 and 1971. In addition to the fiction featuring their eponymous brilliant amateur detective, the two men acted as editors: as Ellery Queen they edited more than thirty anthologies of crime fiction and true crime, and Dannay founded and for many decades edited Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which has been published continuously from 1941 to the present. From 1961, Dannay and Lee also commissioned other authors to write crime thrillers using the Ellery Queen nom de plume, but not featuring Ellery Queen as a character; several juvenile novels were credited to Ellery Queen, Jr. Finally, the prolific duo wrote four mysteries under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross.

Julian Barnes English writer

Julian Patrick Barnes is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending, having been shortlisted three times previously with Flaubert's Parrot, England, England, and Arthur & George. Barnes has also written crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh. In addition to novels, Barnes has published collections of essays and short stories.

Michael Francis Gilbert was an English solicitor and author of crime fiction.

Detection Club

The Detection Club was formed in 1930 by a group of British mystery writers, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Arthur Morrison, Hugh Walpole, John Rhode, Jessie Rickard, Baroness Emma Orczy, R. Austin Freeman, G. D. H. Cole, Margaret Cole, E. C. Bentley, Henry Wade, Constance Lindsay Taylor and H. C. Bailey. Anthony Berkeley was instrumental in setting up the club, and the first president was G. K. Chesterton. There was a fanciful initiation ritual with an oath written by Sayers, and the club held regular dinner meetings in London.

Julian Gustave Symons was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was born in Clapham, London, and died in Walmer, Kent.

Alphonse James AlbertSymons (pronounced SIMM-ons; was an English writer and bibliographer.

<i>The Notting Hill Mystery</i> 1862 English detective novel

The Notting Hill Mystery (1862–1863) is an English-language detective novel written under the pseudonym Charles Felix, with illustrations by George du Maurier. The author's identity was never revealed, but several critics have suggested posthumously Charles Warren Adams (1833–1903), a lawyer known to have written other novels under pseudonyms. It is seen as one of the first detective novels in the English language, if not the first.

H. R. F. Keating English crime fiction writer

Henry Reymond Fitzwalter Keating was an English crime fiction writer most notable for his series of novels featuring Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID.

<i>Arthur & George</i>

Arthur & George (2005) is the tenth novel by English author Julian Barnes which takes as its basis the true story of the "Great Wyrley Outrages".

The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s.

<i>The Casino Murder Case</i> 1934 novel by S.S. Van Dine

The Casino Murder Case is a 1934 novel written by S. S. Van Dine in the series about fictional detective Philo Vance. In this outing, a murder investigation is connected with a private casino on New York's Upper West Side, and the wealthy and unorthodox family that operates it. It was adapted into a film in 1935.

<i>The False Inspector Dew</i>

The False Inspector Dew is a humorous crime novel by Peter Lovesey. It won the Gold Dagger award by the Crime Writers' Association in 1982 and has featured on many "Best of" lists since.

<i>The Kentish Manor Murders</i> 1988 novel

The Kentish Manor Murders is a 1988 mystery detective novel by the British writer Julian Symons. A pastiche of the traditional Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, it is a sequel to the 1975 novel A Three-Pipe Problem.

<i>The Colour of Murder</i> 1957 novel by Julian Symons

The Colour of Murder is a 1957 crime novel by the British writer Julian Symons. It was awarded the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association for that year. It was republished by British Library Publishing in 2018 along with another Symons novel The Belting Inheritance.

<i>Sweet Adelaide</i> 1980 novel

Sweet Adelaide is a 1980 historical crime novel by the British writer Julian Symons. It is based on the real-life 1886 Pimlico Mystery concerning the possible murder Thomas Bartlett by his wife Adelaide. Symons had already enjoyed success with another Victorian-set mystery The Blackheath Poisonings.

<i>A Man Called Jones</i> 1947 novel

A Man Called Jones is a 1947 mystery detective novel by British writer Julian Symons. It is the second novel in his trilogy featuring the Scotland Yard detective Chief Inspector Bland. Symons was critical of the "Great Detective" that features in so many novels during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and demonstrates this in the climatic scene where Bland assembles all the suspects to explain his theory, only to first send them to sleep and then be confronted by the late arrival of a previously unknown character on which the whole puzzle hinges.

<i>The 31st of February</i> (novel) 1950 novel

The 31st of February is a 1950 mystery crime novel by British writer Julian Symons. It was his fourth published novel following a trilogy featuring Chief Inspector Bland. It further continued the author's toying with the Great Detective type of the classic model during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The investigating officer in a potential murder case, Inspector Cresse, is far from flattering portrayed.

<i>The Paper Chase</i> (Symons novel) 1956 novel

The Paper Chase is a 1956 mystery crime novel by the British writer Julian Symons. It was published in America the following year by Harper & Brothers under the alternative title of Bogue's Fortune. It was reviewed by fellow writers Milward Kennedy in The Guardian and Philip John Stead in the Times Literary Supplement.

<i>The Plot Against Roger Rider</i> 1973 novel

The Plot Against Roger Rider is a 1973 mystery thriller novel by the British writer Julian Symons. The novel takes place both in England and Francoist Spain. It was published in the United States by Harper.

<i>The Stoat</i> 1940 novel

The Stoat is a 1940 mystery detective novel by the Irish-born writer Lynn Brock. It was the seventh and last novel in his series featuring the character of the Golden Age detective Colonel Wyckham Gore. It was also his last published work before his death three years later. It marked a return for Gore, who hadn't appeared in a novel since 1930.

References

  1. Reymond & Keating p.133

Bibliography