Sylvia Silence, the girl detective

Sylvia Silence?

Shortly after Ida Wombwell, the 17 year old  revivalist, describes HCE as 'a brut! But a magnificent brut!', Sylvia Silence, the girl detective, is asked her opinion. 

'Sylvia Silence, the girl detective (Meminerva, but by now one hears turtlings all over Doveland!) when supplied with informations as to the several facets of the case in her cozydozy bachelure’s flat, quite overlooking John a’Dream’s mews, leaned back in her really truly easy chair to query restfully through her vowelthreaded syllabelles: Have you evew thought, wepowtew, that sheew gweatness was his twadgedy? Nevewtheless accowding to my considewed attitudes fow this act he should pay the full penalty, pending puwsuance, as pew Subsec. 32, section 11, of the C. L. A. act 1885, anything in this act to the contwawy notwithstanding.' 61.01-11

Vincent Deane identified Joyce's source for Sylvia as an advertisment for The Schoolgirls' Weekly in The Sunday Express of 29 October 1922. 

'No. 2 Just Out […] includes all these tip-top stories:— Eldorado Nell / A thrilling tale of life in the Far West / Sylvia Silence / the girl detective' 

It's a shame Eldorado Nell didn't get into Finnegans Wake.

Since Joyce only saw this advert, he had to imagine what such a girl detective might be like. He compares her to Minerva, goddess of wisdom, and gives her a comic rhotacism (inability to pronounce the letter 'r') which he even applies to r's which aren't pronounced (the 'r' in 'considered' 'per' etc). Sylvia is a consulting detective, like Sherlock Holmes or Nero Wolfe, looking at the 'several facets of the case' in her 'cozodozy bachelure's flat'. Unlike the other members of the public questioned, who give short direct answers, Sylvia seems to see this as a personal interview with her celebrity self.

In the first draft, Joyce gave her an additional moralistic line, which was then cut or lost:

'The ends of justice must not be earwigged.'

Stephen Crowe has made a beautiful illustration of Sylvia Silence sitting in her flat, which you can see here.

Her voice and name reappear later in the Stories chapter:

Imagine twee cweamy wosen. Suppwose you get a beautiful thought and cull them sylvias sub silence.  337.16

We also hear her voice in the séance, still talking with the reporter, channeled by the sleeping Yawn:

—Have you ever weflected, wepowtew, that the evil what though it was willed might nevewtheless lead somehow on to good towawd the genewality? 523.02

THE FIRST SCHOOLGIRL SLEUTH

The Schoolgirls' Weekly was a brand new paper in 1922, with new kinds of stories, mostly written by men, using female pen names. Sylvia Silence was created by John William Bobin, writing as Katherine Greenhalgh. He's described here by Lucy Parker in 100 British Crime Writers (edited by Esme MisKimmon, Springer Press, 2020):

I've also found an entry for Sylvia Silence in Russell James's Great British Fictional Detectives, which includes a supposed picture of her.

By an extraordinary coincidence I bought this greeting card last week for a friend's birthday.  I only looked at it properly after posting this blog.  It's the cover of an Angela Brazil novel published in 1920, so the right period but wrong girl. This is Ingerd Saxon not Sylvia Silence.

 

Bobin had created a successful formula, which you can see throughout the run of The Schoolgirls' Weekly. This is from the entry on the paper on the wonderful Friardale website.

' In January 1933 came "That Amazing Room Of Clocks" written by J.W. Bobin as Adelie Ascott, the first tale of Valerie Drew the 18 year old intrepid girl detective, doting daughter of an ex-Scotland Yard Chief Commissioner. "The Secret Of The Old Clock" written by Mildred Wirt as Carolyn Keene was published in America in 1930 and concerned Nancy Drew the 16 year old intrepid girl detective, whose doting father Carson Drew was a famous criminal lawyer cum detective. In Valerie's adventures over the next 7 years she was ably assisted by Flash, an alsation dog who acted almost human at times, and was more useful than Ned Nickerson was to Nancy. Both Nancy and Valerie were also well seasoned teenage motorists (at 18 Nancy was even a qualified pilot), their common sense and innate decency went almost unbelievably deep. The stories were always concise, entertaining, never heavy or heavy-going, and a charming if often melodramatic window on the world of the 1930's from an allegedly young female point of view. Unlike the Noel Raymond detective series running in the Girls' Crystal it was nearly always obvious who the guilty party was.'

You can read a complete 1933 Valerie Drew story here.

 

Nancy Drew, the American schoolgirl sleuth, is still solving cases today. 

 

SCISSORS AND PASTE MAN

'I am quite content to go down to posterity as a scissors and paste man'

Joyce to George Antheil, 3 January 1931, Letters, 297

Going back to the Wake passage, it's fascinating to see how it was assembled from diverse sources, which had nothing to do with schoolgirl magazines. Following the blue hyperlinks in the brilliant Digital Archive, we can read Joyce's notes, taken from newspapers and books:

'Sylvia Silence, the girl  detective', 'supplied with this information', 'really truly easychair', 'restfully', 'vowelthreaded', 'J Caesar, greatness his tragedy', 'considered judgement' 'full penalty',   'Sect XI Crim. Law. Amend.  Act 1885', 'anything in his act to the contrary notwithstanding'

Most of the sources have not been identified, though one note ('J Caesar, greatness his tragedy') shows Joyce had been reading about Julius Caesar. It would be very hard to track down the source of 'restfully'.

'Full penalty' is one of the many phrases, identified by Vincent Deane, taken from the 1922 Daily Sketch article on Bywaters:

'Petition for Reprieve of Bywaters is Ready To-Day': 'A taxicab driver: Bywaters is a silly young fellow, but he ought not to pay the full penalty'

Viviana-Mirela Braslasu discovered that the word 'vowelthreaded' was taken from the opening page of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser and Kenneth Macleod's Songs of the Hebrides, 1917.

  

'Subsec. 32, section 11, of the C. L. A. act 1885'

Oscar Wilde was tried for 'gross indecency' under section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. There is no subsection 32. Joyce has added that number to create the magical 1132 - the big number/date in Finnegans Wake, which relates to the law of falling bodies ('32 feet per second per second').  Oscar Wilde and HCE are both falling bodies.

Sam Slote found Joyce's specific source in Frank Harris's book Oscar Wilde His Life and Confessions, 1918.

 Here is the very section of the act.

Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years with hard labour.

For more on Wilde in the Wake, see my post Oscar Wilde: The Great White Caterpillar.

Often there's a dark undercurrent to the comedy in Finnegans Wake. I think we get that here with the seemingly sweet Sylvia Silence, relaxing in her cozydozy bachelure's flat, demanding the harshest punishment for HCE.

Discussing the Thompson and Bywaters case with Arthur Power, Joyce talked about the censoriousness of the English: 

'Though there is plenty of legal liberty in England...there is not much individual liberty, for in England every man acts as a censor to his neighbour, while here in Paris you have the only real freedom in Europe, where no one gives a damn about what his neighbour thinks or does...But in England everybody is busy about everybody else.'

Conversations with James Joyce, p.76