Audiobook · read by volunteers
That Mainwaring Affair
Anna Maynard Barbour
Read by J. M. Smallheer · 27 chapters · 9 h 24
About the book
When the wealthy financier Hugh Mainwaring dictates his will to his private secretary, he cannot imagine the chain of events about to unfold. Shocking events follow, a fortune is at stake, and the people around him begin to behave in strange and suspicious ways. A family with secrets, a long investigation and a courtroom full of tension carry the story forward. Anna Maynard Barbour mixes detective work, social drama and romance, and her story was a best seller when it was first published in 1901. It is an entertaining mystery in the style of its day, with a good deal of atmosphere, a few false trails and several surprising turns. An old-fashioned mystery for those who enjoy a long, twisting puzzle. It runs for about nine and a half hours, read by a single LibriVox volunteer.
Introduction
Anna Maynard Barbour was an American novelist who wrote mystery stories at the turn of the twentieth century. Little is recorded about her life, and her books are not as well known today as those of some of her contemporaries, though in her own time she found a wide readership. That Mainwaring Affair was published in 1901 and was among her most successful works.
The book belongs to the period when the detective novel was becoming a popular form of entertainment. Readers enjoyed complicated puzzles, sudden revelations and the sight of a hidden secret slowly coming to light. Barbour uses all of these ingredients, and adds a strong interest in questions of justice and character. Her detective work is combined with scenes of courtroom drama, a feature that gave many novels of the time their special flavour.
This LibriVox recording has twenty-seven sections and runs for about nine and a half hours. It is read by a single volunteer. Its length makes it suitable for a long journey or several quiet evenings, and its short sections make it easy to keep listening. If you enjoy period mysteries and the pleasures of an old-fashioned inquiry, you may find this a fine discovery from a nearly forgotten writer.
The pleasures of the book are those of a well-built puzzle: a cast of suspects, a family with secrets and a final explanation that draws the threads together. It also shows how a woman writer of the time could handle legal and financial themes with confidence. Settle in, and enjoy the slow unwinding of the plot.
Public domain
Anna Maynard Barbour died in 1841: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text