The Lunatic at Large

The Lunatic at Large
by J. Storer Clouston, 1899
205pp
Read: 3/30 - 04/06

This is a Late Victorian comic novel, which if you don't know, is what happens when a dapper gent is mistaken for a cad. I sometimes conceive syllabi in my mind--or at least whole Roman numeraled sections of syllabi--for high school or undergrad lit classes. Reading this book, I had the idea that assigning it would be a fun reward for a class of teenage boys who'd just slogged through Austen. Actually, a comedy depends on its context, and I probably received 90% of my understanding of the Victorian mores at play here through a high school reading of Pride & Prejudice.

The plot is as follows: a man with no recollection of his past finds himself as a patient at Clankwood Asylum, "home of the best-bred lunatics in England." Employing subterfuge and charm, he affects a daring escape. Again with the subterfuge & charm, he ingratiates himself to one Baron Rudolf von Bliztenberg. Lives lavishly at the Baron's expense, then alienates him. Returns to London, where he rediscovers his own true identity.

Now re-read the above paragraph, being careful to insert "hilarity ensues," after every sentence.

The premise is a funny one, the situations are humorous, and the dialogue is occasionally rather witty & Wildean. (The intro speaks of Clouston as being a kind of link between Wilde & Wodehouse in the English Comic Tradition. I think it'd be fair to say the dialogue owes a debt to Wilde, whereas the social lampooning anticipates Wodehouse.(NOTE: I have never read any Wodehouse whatsoever, though I am thoroughly acquainted with the proper pronunciation of his name.)) I don't have much to say beyond that: it's a funny book. It's not much else, although it may be the origin of the word "bonkers." If you find it amusing when people impersonate English priests & German nobles--particularly when hilarity proceeds to ensue--you'll enjoy this book.

A book's chapter lengths can be one of its greatest strengths. There's that quality "readability" that has nothing to do whatsoever with "literary merit." This is a highly readable book, largely because the chapters are so perfectly apportioned. Some of my favorite authors write in dense, enormous chapters. This is a book of short chapters, quickly read. Not that I hold "readable" books as superior to "good" books (many people do, often out of ignorance), but there are plenty of times when what I want is a readable book, not necessarily a good one.


This is Volume 5 of McSweeney's "Collins Library," a series of handsome clothbound editions of books that have been too long out of my print. This book was last published in the US in 1926. That this book would so fall out of publication surprises me, not because of the book's merits so much as because the book was once pretty popular: it was made into a silent film on three separate occasions. No copies of any of those films is known to survive today. It's as though some force were actively trying to suppress knowledge of the book. I have to wonder whether later editions would have been published had copies of the movie survived. There's an alternate universe where the film stock did not decay, the book stayed in publication, and Chevy Chase starred in a 1980 remake.