Adèle and Co. explained

Adèle and Co.
Author:Dornford Yates
Series:Berry books
Genre:Comic novel
Publisher:Hodder and Stoughton[1]
Release Date:1931
Media Type:Print
Pages:320
Preceded By:Jonah and Co.
Followed By:And Berry Came Too

Adèle and Co. is a 1931 comic novel by the English author Dornford Yates (Cecil William Mercer), featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters. This was Yates's first full-length Berry novel, following several earlier Berry short story collections. It was the first Berry book to be published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, and the first not to be serialised in The Windsor Magazine.

Plot

The Berry family awaken in Paris from a drugged sleep to find that all their jewels have been stolen by their erstwhile friend, Casca de Palk. Led by Jonah Mansel, they chase the thief through France (while fending off the attentions of another group of thieves led by the notorious "Auntie Emma"), to Dieppe, Rouen, Tours and the Pyrenees, ending with a climactic encounter on the Spanish border near the Pic du Midi d'Ossau.

Boy & Adèle, and Berry & Daphne, remain married. Jill is now married to Piers, Duke of Padua, and has baby twins.

The book represents Adèle's valediction within the Berry series; she never appears again.

Background

Although this was the first complete Berry book since 1922, the characters had had cameo roles in other Yates stories since, and there was a complete Berry story called "Letters Patent" in The Windsor Magazine in January 1929 which subsequently appeared in the book Maiden Stakes.[2]

In contrast with the gaiety of the writing, Mercer was at this time at a miserable period in his personal life, his first marriage to Bettine having failed by the time of publication in 1931. By 1933 the couple were divorced.

Chapters

ChapterTitle
IWe Sup With The Devil
IIExpert Evidence
IIIBerry Protests And Is Corrupted
IVAdèle Stoops To Conquer
VPerfect Ladies
VIPlot And Counterplot
VIIWe Get Together
VIIIAlarms And Excursions
IXPray Silence For Berry
XA Lesson In French
XIWe Sail Very Close To The Wind
XIIEnter Hortense

Critical reception

According to AJ Smithers in his 1982 biography, Adèle and Co. is the author's most joyous and uproarious book, and is in the opinion of many the very best of the Berry series. It is designed as a connected whole, includes crime, and is presented in some of the funniest writing in the English language.

The original dustjacket included the following quotes -

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: British Library Item details . primocat.bl.uk . 21 April 2020.
  2. The Best of Berry (Dents Classic Thrillers 1989) introduction by Jack Adrian