Skip to main content

Book Review: Arsenic in the Post by Ruskin Bond

Arsenic in the Post by Ruskin Bond is a murder mystery covered in the book Death Under the Deodars. This story dates back to 1920s – it is narrated by Miss Ripley-Bean. When this story actually took place that time she was a young girl of twenty. Well, now she is a seventy year old spinster living in one of the rooms of the hotel Royal in Mussoorie. The story is narrated in the company of Nandu, the hotel owner, Lobo, the pianist, the princess of Harshil, and Ruskin Bond.

 
Mrs. Doreen Smith is a voluptuous married woman in her thirties. She lives in Meerut with his husband, Mr. Clarence Smith, and an eleven year old school-going daughter. She is bored of her life – she leads a sedentary lifestyle and her husband is not much of fun to her in bed. She is looking for some extra in life.

Soon, she comes in contact with a tall and dark and handsome man, Monty Summers. They get along together quite soon and secretly make love whenever they get chance. Monty Summers is married and lives in Agra. So, he often comes to Meerut on official duty and in the afternoon he comes to Doreen’s home. At times, Doreen visits him at his hotel place. The more they meet, the more they feel like doing it.

They are so excited by their love-making episodes that they hatched a plan to meet permanently, without caring a bit about their families. Monty Summers posted arsenic in an envelope to Doreen, along with it instructions on how to use it for killing Mr. Smith tactfully. Love is blind, so does lust.

Doreen and Monty succeed in giving a slow death to Mr. Smith. Soon, out of nowhere, in Agra a few men enter Monty’s house and kills his wife. His wife identifies one killer and screams out his name so aloud that her daughter who is sleeping in the next room hears that clearly. At the time of crime, Monty is not at home. He is out of town. When he comes back he handles the case to the police. Upon asking their daughter about the crime, she reveals one of the killers that her mother was screaming aloud. That man was a painter at Monty’s house. Police picks him up, he confesses Monty’s name in the murder.

Monty is arrested. From the deep investigation, it also comes out that he and Doreen killed Mr. Smith. Monty is hanged in Allahabad and Doreen is sent to jail for life imprisonment. Doreen is pregnant with Monty’s child. The baby is born, but she dies. What happens to the daughters of Monty and Mr. Smith remains a mystery – where did they go and how.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the