It is Algy who first comes face to face
with the newly resurrected German, in the book Biggles & Co.
“…a tall, lithe, clean-cut military figure whose sunburnt face bespoke years of service in hot climates. A monocle gleamed in his right eye and accentuated the sardonic smile that played about his thin, clean-shaven lips.”
--Biggles & Co.
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| Image from biggles.unas.cz |
Funny that there is no mention of the famous
limp?
Perhaps he was sitting down when Algy was brought in?
ReplyDeleteNo. He walked into the room where Algy was.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he forgot to limp?
Wasn't Algy been menaced by several rifles at the time?
ReplyDeleteMaybe when someone is brandishing a firearm under your nose you forget to look down to notice if anyone is limping or not....
Not really, he was in a prison or something and then Erich came walking in and gave him a nasty shock.
ReplyDeleteAre there other books after that that talk about his limping? I keep trying to think of one but can't.
Biggles Takes A Holiday (1949), p. 94: 'So this was ... Erich von Stalhein ... one time high-spot of German Military Intelligence after a serious leg wound had put him off the Active List'.
ReplyDeleteBiggles Works it Out (1951), p. 37. Aboriginal trackers examined footprints: 'One was a tall man with a slight limp in his right leg'.
Biggles in Australia (1955), p. 143: 'There was no mistaking the two figures, one burly and the other limping slightly, coming towards the machines'.
But it certainly seems to come and go. In Biggles in the Blue (1953), p. 38, von Stalhein 'turned about and strode away'.
Maybe he is faking it...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the references! Maybe something happened to him in WWII, since & Co is set in the interwar years.
The limp also appears in No Rest for Biggles, Biggles Buries a Hatchet, Biggles, Foreign Legionnaire, Biggles Looks Back, Biggles Takes a Hand, Biggles Takes Charge and maybe a couple more. as for your comment on Erich's 'cold blue eyes' I read it as his eyes were cold and blue, although to be honest, I can't imagine Erich's eyes being warm and blue, or like Bertie's, curiously bright.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can't imagine his eyes being warm and blue when looking at Algy either!
ReplyDeleteI think, maybe, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, Fairblue, you're reading too much Biggles (as are you, SS), since you can quote Erich's limp just off the top of your heads like that...
Do I detect a touch of envy, Soppy?I'm at my mother-in-laws in Scotland, it's freezing cold here, she has no satellite television, my internet access is limited to a USB dongle which won't let me download anything, I've read my Christmas books and I've got writer's block where "Where's Bertie" is concerned. Can you think of anything better to do? I'ma t your service if you want anything obscure dug out about our boys. Big smiley smile here.
ReplyDeleteActually, they were just the first ones I grabbed that I knew had EvS in them, and I just quickly skimmed them looking for mentions of him. Once I'd found those I stopped as I figured it must feature pretty regularly, as Fairblue did indeed establish!
ReplyDeleteAnd Fairblue, I think I'd still rather be on holiday in Scotland than sitting at my desk working in an office with no air-conditioning during one of the worst heatwaves Australia has ever seen!
Actually, let me get this straight - did you take all your Biggles books with you to your mother-in-law's?!
i'd rather be in an office at the moment! Funny how you want what you don't have. Heatwave? Lovely. I work in Italy for 6 months in the summer and miss the sun. No, I didn't take all my Biggles books to my mother-in-laws:) I have some on Kindle and brought a few with me. Some of my husband's were in the attic and two or three I bought in a charity shop so I can leave some here. Mostly Air Police ones and like you I was able to flick through them. I really don't have much else to do. Not sure whether that should be a sad state of affairs or not.
ReplyDeleteI always get a bit sad (annoyed) when someone says they've read all the Biggles books. I've only got about forty or so of them.
ReplyDeleteAh, but Soppy, you have to remember that I'm tons older than you so have had tons more years to read them in. Also, you have something to look forward to. I've read them, I know what happens so now I have to rely on fanfics for surprises.You, on the other hand, have the delights of at least 50 more books to come.
ReplyDeleteI actually only completed collecting and reading them all over the last few years. It was an enjoyable (and at times very frustrating!) task, but as Fairblue says, it gives you something to look forward to. I still enjoy re-reading them (as I'm sure you do too Fairblue) even though I know the plot. Come to that, we all know Biggles is going to win!
ReplyDeleteI know this is hijacking EVS's column (sorry, Soppy) but digressions are sometimes very interesting. It never fails to amaze me that when I re-read the Biggles books there's always a little something that I missed the first time round. A little nuance, or something like that. Of course, discussing Biggles like we do has made me read them with a different eye, more akin to researching for a literature exam for instance.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite right. I also find myself discovering new things with every read. As I've grown older and understood more of the context, the books have become more interesting to read.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Fairblue, I seriously doubt that you are "tons" older than I am. (especially the way I'm feeling at the moment...)
I don't expect I'll ever be able to get my hands on all 98 books, but then again, as long as I can get all the good Algy ones that's enough for me.
Of course you'll get all 98 books! It's just your flu making you feel defeatist. You just have to be a little bit patient... And when you get yourself a well-paid job, you'll be able to afford anything on ebay :-)
ReplyDeleteDitto, SA.
ReplyDeleteMy short term goal is to get all the Algy books first, as I've suffered disappointment before when I've picked up an air police book and found NO ALGY in it. Maybe once I've gotten all the Algy books I can seriously think about all the other books.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, it would be nice to have a "Biggles shelf" like most people do--just a big shelf with hardcovers.
(I can dream, can't I?)
One big shelf? More like three... Unless your big shelf is solid enough not to bend in the middle :-)
ReplyDeleteSopwith, there really aren't many books without Algy in them at all, so you're probably still looking at about 90. In fact, he's Biggles' only companion in Deep Blue Sea, so there's one expensive one you're up for even just sticking to them. Actually, he's in Homework and Air Ace too, so your criteria still means money. So you might as well just go the whole hog anyway!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not going to talk about shelf space for fear of being bottled out of the room.
Getting back to von Stalhein's limp, it and other mysteries are discussed in this article:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/bigglesm.html
Ah yes, I remember this one - all the much-loved mysteries collected into one article and summarised neatly.
ReplyDeleteMind you, this is only the tip of the iceberg. If we were to list all the inconsistencies, it would be a very long list. Take the question of what Biggles drank after his affair with Marie! Even Biggles doesn't seem to remember clearly - but maybe that is not surprising :-)
EVS should have asked Algy...
A nice little list of mysteries! I suppose Johns couldn't be bothered to hire an assistant to keep everyone's backgrounds straight...?
ReplyDeleteThat's what the publisher's book editor is supposed to do! But maybe fiction books don't have editors. Maybe nobody thinks errors matter in fiction.
ReplyDeleteMind you, some academic books lack a good editor too :-(
I suppose it is fairly easy to forget small details when one has written so many books about the same character for so long...which goes for the editor as well, especially if there are multiple editors and multiple editions of everything.
ReplyDeleteInconsistencies occurred in the early books of the Chalet School Series too. I doubt whether the authors at the time thought their work was going to be analysed all around the world and simply wrote to appeal to the current fad. They may not have even thought they'd be writing so many books. I believe these days,, though, writers are more savvy and keep a catalogue of their characters etc
ReplyDeleteWhat sets W.E.J's mistakes apart though is that they are never little mistakes - about minor characters and events they are usually HUGE mistakes about his main characters - such as Biggles' appearance or whether Algy had ever been to Monte Carlo or not....
ReplyDeletedetails one would have thought would have been set in stone in his mind....
I appreciate he was churning out an astonishing amount of work - but even so....
Pity he didn't have an avid fan as a proof reader....
"Er - excuse me sir, shouldn't that read 'HAZEL eyes'?"
"No, it's GREY. Leave me alone! I've got to get a new book out by tomorrow--and I'm only on chapter 2!"
ReplyDeleteI suppose too that we have the internet to blame for all these mistakes getting so much attention. In the old days you wrote a letter to the author, complained to your friends, and that was it. Nowadays there are whole websites dedicated to inconsistencies in book series. Poor authors....
Good point. : )
ReplyDeleteI hope no one takes it into their heads to start finding inconsistencies in my fics! I know there must be a bunch of them...:)
ReplyDeleteOne big one called Jane!
ReplyDeleteShe's not inconsistent. In fact, if anything,she is TOO consistent.
ReplyDelete