Hunted Down

De: Charles Dickens

Narrado por: Simon Stanhope

A gripping tale of mystery and suspense, involving murder, forgery, and insurance fraud, from the pen of one of the greatest of all 19th-century English novelists, Charles Dickens (1812-1870). A retired insurance agent relates an episode from his career, a "romance of the real world", in which a cunning criminal is exposed and "hunted down" to face justice.

Hunted Down appeared in Dickens's own periodical All the Year Round, in two installments, in August 1860. The story was apparently inspired by the real-life case of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, artist, author, and alleged serial killer; Dickens had visited Wainewright in Newgate prison in 1837. It also finds echoes in the story of Dr. William Palmer, "The Rugely Poisoner", another mid-Victorian sensation. The oily and obsequious Julius Slinkton is a memorable addition to Dickens' roster of literary villains.

Public Domain (P)2021 Simon Stanhope

Like listening to radio waves from the past…

I came to this story through being a fan of it’s narrator, Mr Simon Stanhope and his body or work on youtube. Posterity only has wax cylinders to give a few clues to how people sounded back in the 19thC, but Mr Stanhope’s voice conjures up the image of a learned Victorian-age English man telling a tale of mystery, at times in a firm evenhanded manner, but often with gothic strains of terror and woe creeping in. In a word: evocative.(As an aside, I am impressed when a person can speak distinctly the words. Mary, merry, and marry. I try and they all sound the same!)
The story itself is also quite good. Turns out, in addition of reverses-of-fortune tales for which he is famous, Dickens also wrote mystery stories, written in the same vein but with elements of surprise, crime, misfortune, and justice. Hunted Down follows the quest of a confidential agent meant to ferret out the stalker of a sickly woman, but as the investigation deepens it’s unclear who is stalking whom, and with what motive in mind.