The second volume is full of glory and splendor in the capital, and the spirit is full of vitality in the foggy city. Chapter 268 Freeman
Subtitle of this chapter: It’s impossible to finish it even if you want to.
"Nowadays, people often say that the series of is the "Purple Bishop", which is a major stain on Mr. Yuan Yanshu's creative career.
This is not to say that this detective novel is not exciting or lacks creativity.
Quite the contrary. From a literary perspective, every novel in the Freeman series is a classic work of detective fiction.
Like Mr. Yuan Yanshu's other works, this series is very distinctive in layout and plot. No wonder he is known as the "magician of words".
The very beginning descriptions of his works are so surprising and out of the blue that they arouse the readers' keen interest and make them fall into one trap after another set by the author.
Then, the author will use a new trick. In the ups and downs of the plot, everyone is the murderer and everywhere is a maze. When you just vaguely realize that someone is the murderer, the author changes his writing style and makes you doubt your judgment. Your conclusion is denied again and again, and the murderer standing in the fog is always elusive to you.
Until the end, the reader is lost in the maze and can't tell east from west. But when the truth is revealed, one cannot help but admire Mr. Yuan's meticulous analysis and lament the lack of his own thinking ability.
In addition to the unique elements of detective novels, he is also particularly good at creating various vivid characters, allowing readers to naturally regard these characters as living people with flesh and blood when reading.
This was vividly demonstrated in his first novel, Murder on the Orient Express, written in 1921.
The characters in this novel represent almost all the representative countries and regions in Europe. All of them are "regional blacks", who take great pleasure in mocking and ridiculing each other for the regional characteristics of themselves and others.
For example, as the famous saying goes, what is a typical League of Nations official like?
The British for their ability to mediate, the Italians for their organizational skills, the Russians for their restraint, the Germans for their "flexibility," the French for their "humility," the Belgians for their "imagination," the Dutch for their "generosity," the Irish for their "wisdom," and the Americans for their "engagement."
The last sentence mocks the Americans' isolationism, which prevented them from joining the League of Nations.
Although such a plot may make some readers feel uncomfortable, it is definitely a kind of high-level humor and good-natured irony.
If it were placed in modern European and American countries, this would definitely be a politically incorrect novel. In 1921, the characters in Murder on the Orient Express were regarded as classic images of the people of Europe and America, and even many novels in the future followed this writing style..
Due to historical factors and the unfair treatment he suffered in Britain, Yuan Yanshu loves to portray the British as "black." This is especially true in his novel Death on the Nile, where not a single British character is portrayed positively; some are greedy, some are selfish, some are unfeeling, and some are mean.
It is for this reason that British readers have a love-hate relationship with these detective novels with a very British style.
Even the "Queen of Detective Novels" Agatha Christie said that I might be able to write the plot of the Freeman series of novels, but I definitely could not write the characters in it.
When Mr. Yuan Yanshu was also asked this question, he bluntly stated that he had intentionally written it that way, perhaps because he was an "outsider" of Western culture and therefore had a particularly clear perception of it.
Perhaps because she is a British person does not have the same observation ability as him and cannot feel some of the problems existing in her own nation. These problems will cause the British to lose their empire.
It has to be said that he is worthy of being the greatest writer of the 20th century. He also has the insight into people's hearts. Even when writing the most popular detective novels, he can give his texts profound meaning.
The most criticized thing about the Freeman series is that the male lead Morgan Freeman is obviously a tribute to Jack P. Morgan.
Not only is the name Freeman also means honorary citizen, but even the two are very similar in appearance, age, experience, and background.
They are all around sixty years old, well-educated and from wealthy American families. They even speak with an accent of "Queen's English" and have a mustache.
The biggest difference between the two is that Freeman is the real Freeman, a wealthy man with enough money and leisure to travel around the world. He becomes a private detective just as an intellectual game to pass the time, not for money.
Another difference is that the great detective is single and childless. With this setting, he becomes the object of pursuit by various beautiful widows and older single women in the book.
Therefore, this series of novels was regarded as Mr. Yuan's flattery of Morgan Jr.
In fact, Morgan Jr. really loves this series of works.
He may be the world's biggest fan. After Yuan Yanshu returned to the United States, Morgan Jr. bought a luxury yacht for Yuan as a gift. The yacht was named "FREEMAN".
In addition, the land of Mr. Yuan Yanshu's manor in California was also transferred to him at a low price at the instruction of Morgan Jr.
There is a saying that this piece of land was given to thank Mr. Yuan for asking a Chinese miracle doctor to cure the brain hemangioma of Harry Davidson, the second-in-command of the Morgan Consortium.
Moreover, he paid all the publishing costs of the Freeman series of novels. Except for the distribution costs, all the profits belong to Mr. Yuan.
At the suggestion of Mr. Yuan Yanshu, he also established a "Freeman Award" to be awarded to the best detective novel of the previous year.
The first Freeman Award was given in 1924 to Agatha Christie for The Golf Course Murders.
The two became close friends regardless of age difference, but their friendship came to an abrupt end in 1929.
Since the beginning of 1929, Mr. Yuan Yanshu has published articles, arguing that the current economic situation in the United States and even the world is not as optimistic as it seems, especially the need to prevent the problem of "excessive speculation" in the financial market.
These articles implicitly pointed the finger at the Morgan consortium and Wall Street as a whole.
This naturally made J.P. Morgan very unhappy. But what made him even more angry was that after Black Thursday, Mr. Yuan simply accused the Morgan consortium and Wall Street of playing a negative role in the economic crisis.
He also said that under old Morgan, the Morgan Consortium saved the United States twice, and now the Morgan Consortium is going to destroy the world once..
This, of course, turned the two of them against each other.
However, these articles and comments won Mr. Yuan the favor of the American people and deepened his friendship with FDR and the Democratic Party..."
—Excerpt from Who is a Free Man?
