Trumpets Sound No More

Trumpets Sound No More is one of the masterpieces written by Jon Redfern. This book earned the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. This book tells a story: in 1840, one of the youngest and most successful entrepreneurs in London, Mr. Samuel Cake, was found bludgeoned in his bachelor house with few leads. The London’s theatre world is totally shocked. Inspector Owen Endersby was called to solve this case within one week. As the investigation moves on, Inspector Endersby meets street vendors, downstairs servants, moneylenders and the greatest performers of the London stage. Without the help of fingerprinting, blood analysis, or any other technique of the modern-day detective, Inspector Endersby must root out the villain any way he can—by disguise, break-and-enter, bribery, mail tampering and physical force. With his talent of being a good detective, finally Endersby finds out the suspect and makes him confessed. Finally Endersby returns home with the case of Mr. Cake’s murder solved.

A lot of descriptions and details in Redfern’s Trumpets Sound No More are identical with the previous book we study, Great expectations. In Dickens’s Great Expectation, the story happened from 1810 to 1840. In the book London was a grimy city with strict class system. People are callous and mostly connected by benefit. Property and class position are the only that matters in lots of people’s mind. The main character Pip is one example. He betrayed his best friend after he got huge amount of heritage. In the other hand, in Trumpets Sound No More, the background is also London in 1840. By Redfern’s description, London in 1840 is a brutal city. During Endersby’s investigation, the dark side of London shows up. Endersby faces instances of child abuse, child labor, madness and sexual deviancy. And he had to use some “special” skills to get information form the people involved in the case. So the London in these two books quite match each other.

Variety of characters is one focal point of Trumpets Sound No More. By the investigation, lots of characters’ images are shown clearly. And some of the characters have lots of common points with characters in Great Expsctation. Like Betty and Pip, they are both with great ambition. Betty wishes to join the theatre to be and she is willing to sacrifice everything she has to make it real. After she meets Mr. Cake and knows about his theatre, she feels strongly dissatisfied and abominable about her current life. Pip and Betty both betray their families which loves them and leave. When they go home, they both feel acceptable about their family. But there is something different between Pip and Betty. Unlike Pip who reaches his dream and at last gets his family back, Betty dies in an accident and didn’t make her dream real. Another two characters that are similar are Mr. Wemmick and detective Endersby. They both like live behind two faces. Detective Endersby is a tough guy when he faces criminal. He knows how to find them by using guile and disguises, by tricking them into giving up information and, if necessary, to use an occasional cuff to the ear to jog a recalcitrant recollection. He knows his way around London too. But he also had a soft side since he absolutely devotes to his wife Harriet.

The Grisi brothers and Orlick have something similar, too. In Dickens’s book, Orlick is a very violent person and always revenges on people he thinks treats him bad. And The Grisi brothers also have the characteristic of violence. It appears on their several attacks on Inspector Endersby’s partner, Sergeant Caldwell.

The whole book is written around three major themes. One of these is crime and guilt, which is shared with Great Expectation. Crime appears through the whole story along with Endersby’s investigation. Actually, the whole started with one famous businessman’s murder. Characters in the story revenge and punish on each other for different kinds of reasons. In the process of investigation, some other crimes are also discovered. Like John Loxton, he had broken into Cake’s house with some relatives in order to exact revenge for the injury suffered by his sister – Betty. Love is also one common theme between Trumpets Sound No More and Great Expectations. Lots of characters in the book are in love and some of them did things criminal for love. Like John Loxton, and the murderer who killed Mr. Cake-- William Weston. Weston killed Mr. Cake because he thinks its his fault to make his sister sick. Ambition is one of the major theme in this book. Betty Loxton wants to be become one important member of the theatre so much that she betrayed her family. And Mr. Dupré is so jealous and wants to keep his position from being replaced by Mr. Cake. Ambition is also shown in Great Expectation as an important theme.

Redfern provides a few prominent symbols in the book to develop the plots and themes of the novel. And one important symbol among the them are detective Endersby’s wooden puzzle. The puzzle just represents the process of solving Mr. Cake’s case. Endersby followed the way putting the pieces together to solve the case. The puzzle also shows the love between Endersby and his wife. His wife helped him solve the problem of the puzzle and gave him the feeling of home. The Old Durry is also one of the very important symbol in the novel. At the beginning of the novel, the Old Durry is described as glittering domain of dreams beyond the grime of London. But it also represents the cruelty and injustice in Mr. Cake’s case.

Book Review: The Cop and the Anthem

This book is written by O. Henry, whose real name is William Sydney Porter. This book tells a ridiculous story about one man trying to get arrested. The author uses relaxing and humorous words and surprising plot to tell a deep thought and think over the disadvantage of society.


The author writes this story from the view point of a spectator. The whole story is full with a sense of humour. Firstly, the plot is designed thoughtfully. Soapy wanted to be sent to jail to live through the winter. He did lots of illegal things to attract cop's attention. But he didn't "succeed". And when he changed his mind and tried to turn to the good, he got caught surprisingly. The whole story looks funny and ridiculous apparently. The author made the story more humorous by the choosing the words fit. He used lots of rhetorical devices in this book. For example,

A dead leaf fell in Soapy’s lap. That was Jack Frost’s card. Jack is kind to the regular denizens of Madison Square, and gives fair warning of his annual call. At the corners of four streets he hands his pasteboard to the North Wind, footman of the mansion of All Outdoors, so that the inhabitants thereof may make ready.

He used simile and symbolism to describe the difficulty that Soapy met and that makes the story lively.

And also in a moment his heart responded thrillingly to this novel mood. An instantaneous and strong impulse moved him to battle with his desperate fate.

The simile here is very fitting to describe the hope and happiness Soapy when he heard the anthem.


The author successfully made the story sounds funny and humorous. But the thought he gave through the story is just opposite. The "gentlemen and ladies" Soapy met are lately found as thief and prostitute. And in the end, when finally Soapy decided to find a job and do something good, he was caught by the police. The author is trying to tell the disadvantage of the society with the funny ploy.
The humour is used to ugly side of the society. The difference between the appearance of the story and the meaning makes the satire much stronger.

O. Henry provides a really amazing story. The amazing point of the book is: the story sounds ridiculous and funny apparently. But when you give it a deep thought, you will find all the ridiculous things happened to the character is reasonable. And the information the author gives from the book is just oppositely heavy. It's really amazing and thoughtful for O. Henry to represent this with a story full of sense of humour. I highly recommend this book to others.

Book Review: The Necklace

This short story is written by the French author, Guy de Maupassant. This is a story about one French lady called Madame Mathilde Loisel and his husband. It's a short but nice story. It expresses the mammonism of France in 19th century with excellent depiction.

Madame is a beautiful lady but she is very poor. Her dream was to be in the high society. Finally she got a chance to attend a prom. She borrowed one diamond necklace from her rich friend. But after the success in the prom, Madame lost the necklace. To pay for the necklace, she suddenly fell to the lowest class of the society. The story represents the mammonism at that time and how it make people avid and fall.

In this short story, Maupassant writes from the view of a spectator. He put a lot of effort on describing the night that Madame reached her top point of her life and fell to the deepest level. The more successful she was on the prom, the harder she fell later. This kind of tableau shows Madame's strong vanity and the result it brings.

When I read this story, it reminds me of the book we are learning now--Great Expectation . At the point of issue, I think these two books are similar. The characters in each book are both the victim of the hierarchy. Because of that, Madame is not possible to be a part of the upper class. And that's one reason of her strong vanity. And Pip in also suffer the poor life because he was born in the Under Class. I think except the mammonism of people, Maupassant also tried to oppose with the system of society at that time.

I admire the author very much because he can describe a quite meaningful story with such few words and brought the characters to life. His words and rhetoric are used nicely. He depicted
Madame's languages and activities lively. And they all reflect her emotions clearly. For example, Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously. Her hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of herself.

The author depicted Madame's activities when she found her dreamed necklace lively. I think the author used symbolism here. Her madly cling to the necklace is the symbol of her endless vanity.
And the author used metaphor to make the emotion of the character distincter. For example,
in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart.

The author compares her happiness to a cloud and compares her success in the prom to a victory of the struggle. The exaggerated metaphor can show how deep Madame immersed in her own satisfaction.

Though that is an excellent story, I think the author can put more effort on the ending. So that the story will be more plenary. Overall this is a story worth reading and I recommend it to everybody.

Book Review: Animal Farm

This book is written by George Orwell in 1945. The story is talking about the rise and fall of the "Animalism" revolution. It's an excellent story that allude the actual polity situation of USSR.

In one farm, pigs led all the animals to defeat the farmers who treat them as slaves, and finally the pigs became the slaveholders instead of the farmers. The author described the story of the animal farm to show his Anti-Utopianism conception.

The author wrote this story as an allegory. But differently from the traditional allegory, this book doesn't simply tell a truth, it is more like a symbol of all the Totalitarianism in the world. To describe the serous polity with the animals' temperament and activities, it makes the whole story more ironical and more understandable for the readers.

You can see symbolism through the whole story. Each character is the symbol of one kind of people. For example, the pig, Napoleon,the leader of the animal farm, is just like the exploiters. And the horse, Boxer, is the honest supporter of the "Animalism".It works hard, believe every single word of its leader, but finally it is betrayed by its own belief. Boxer represents the kind people who believes the revolution theory. You can also see metaphor in the book. The windmill project is the symbol of the construction result of the USSR, and each war between human and animals alludes the violence in the history. All these elements make the animal farm just like the reprint of the revolution in 20th century. Through this book, people can understand the revolution more deeply.

In this book, George Orwell predicts the fall of socialism. And maybe more importantly, he uses art to tell that whatever in which way, the totalitarian rule is always the obstacle of the basic social need.

This is really an excellent allegory with meaningful truth. Both in writing skills and ideological content, George Orwell did pretty well in this book. Although maybe the author can do more on the depiction on the characters to make the image more full, I recommend this book to everybody.