"THE DROWNING PEOPLE", Richard Mason.

By: -MANU NAIR
"THE DROWNING PEOPLE",
Richard Mason, 1999,
Micheal Joseph, London, 311 pp.
Copyright Protected

'My wife of more than forty-five years shot herself yesterday afternoon. At least that is what the police assume and I am playing the part of grieving widower with enthusiasm and success.
Life with Sarah has schooled me in self-deception, which I find, as she did, to be an excellent training in deceiving of others. Of course I know that she did nothing of the kind. My wife was far too sane, far too rooted in the present to think of harming herself. In my opinion she never gave a thought to what she had done. She was incapable of guilt. It was I who killed her.' In a cold winter afternoon just hours after the cold blooded murder of his wife, seventy year old James Farrell watching the setting sun from his room high above the sea, in Seton Castle on an island off the Cornish Coast unfolds the tragic story of his life and first love. Sarah and James had a happy and contented life, lived together for forty years in the Castle in style, well keeping with Harcourt family traditions of over three hundred years. Sarah was dutiful and devoted to her husband.
She was so young and beautiful with blue eyes and a look-alike of her cousin in their twenties when she meticulously planned and executed deceitful, deceptive ways leading to the virtual elimination of her beautiful and sensitive cousin Ella Harcourt, the first love of James. Thus, Sarah inherited for herself the title and fortune of the family. In the process, Sarah killed Ella's father Alexander in a party in the very presence of two hundred people. Ella was made to pay dearly for Sarah's crime. Sarah held all her secrets close to her chest for over forty-five years until the day before, when James discovered it and extracted Sarah's confession. No law on earth could have brought Sarah to justice and undo the fatal injustice done to Ella depriving her of a full and satisfying life. James, however reluctantly though, however not given to violence all these seventy years, administered the ultimate justice by shooting Sarah down, point blank. For once, and for all, Sarah who mastered the art of treachery, deceit and self-deception ceased to be the master of her own fate. James Farrell was a promising youngster at Oxford. His parents had high hopes on him like merchant banking. James had other designs, infatuated with his violin, totally unacceptable to his parents to think of James as an impoverished musician. To escape from conflict at home he went running in Hyde Park where he met lonely Ella in a similar mental frame. James chased Ella from then on. Born to nobility, but raised for long in America, Ella thought "Society is like an ocean" and she had been washed up where she was by the people's currents of strong expectations. All people are swimming as if one in a school of fish dutifully with the current and easily through their particular sea not knowing their direction or destination. She tried to swim by herself, not so safe in the big ocean, but found it easier to swim with the current than against it. Much against her wish and taste, she, niece of Earl and Countess of Seton was
engaged to Charles Stanhope, eldest son of Sir Lachlan and Lady Stanhope of Barton Manor, educated at Eton and Oxford as the most eligible by family considerations "suitable" to wed Ella Harcourt. James, driven by an innate desire to liberate Ella from the clutches of convention won the heart and depths of love of Ella. Their love bloomed. Painlessly, Ella broke off her engagement with Charlie. Sarah, Ella's first cousin born and brought up in England, perfect in her English accent and well bred in pure conservative English tradition considered herself the most eligible to occupy Seton Castle, though legally by inheritance Ella should reign over the preserve. Naturally, there was born rivalry and jealousy between the two sisters. Sarah was infact madly in love with Charlie. Ella took him from her and conveniently discarded him when time came. All to spite Sarah. Sarah, vengeful, meticulously planned the course of her life on her own terms to settle scores with Ella. She published and ran down the Harcourt family history as conspicuous with people of unsound mind and suicidal instincts. James excelled in his other love violin and rose to fame with his accompanist Eric, the pianist. His pursuit of excellence further took him to Prague to take lessons from Eduard Mendl whom James adored since his childhood. Ella's love took her to Prague. James and Eric spent time with Ella in France at the Harcourt's country house called Les Varreges. James earned Ella's love, Eric's friendship and his own musical success. The bosom friendship between Eric and James acquired tinges of passionate love between man and man. Ella grew envious of this unholy relation and challenged James to prove his loyalty to her by dumping Eric's love which he did painfully. Eric drowned himself in a disused stone-quarry. James could not bear the guilt of responsibility for the death of Eric.He broke off from Ella, his first love. James recovered. His violin took him to greater heights. Michael Fullerton, The Times' columnist adjudged him a genius. Ella broke down emotionally, consulted psychiatrists. The newspapers pried on her, being a celebrity herself, to sensationalise issues. They said the heiress was bitten by the Harcourts' curse of insanity and unnatural death. Eric's death was also linked that way. As the climax should have it, at the Seton Party, Sarah played a double role for a few moments, taking advantage of her resemblance to Ella, threw Ella's father out of the balcony in front of more than two hundred guests, seemingly everyone was convinced that Ella killed her father. Poor Ella alone knew her innocence. Ella pleaded and cried hysterically and accused Sarah the murderer, but of no avail. Her psychic condition was cited evidence of an ungovernable paranoia and Ella, the innocent, unfortunate lover was awarded the maximum punishment. No convicted criminal was to inherit Harcourt title and property, thus the way was made clear for Sarah's elevation in course of time. James, crestfallen, disappointed and disillusioned finds solace and fascination in Sarah's body form and they were soon married. James saved himself from 'drowning'. They lived on Sarah's terms until that fateful day. Amazing indeed the way the twenty-one year old Richard Mason knit the story with ease and deftness in a flowing language of simple words. The philosophical notes are full of wisdom. Mason dealt with the emotions and aspirations of the youth in their twenties with a depth of much understanding matching, if not surpassing that of the seventy year olds. The insight into the characters set against the conservative English society and American liberalism is at once noticed. He had included every minute detail in this book as also in the swiftness of his narration Mason did not ignore minor details even, such as the sound of James' sneeze breaking his and his friend's tension while examining the dusty Turkish rugs and drapes in Late Madame Mocsary's apartment. The tale of "The Drowning People" will inevitably move the reader to look for more such exciting fiction from the author. The book is worth giving a second reading. The printing, binding and the artistic flap are also tempting enough to possess a copy.