Talk:Lord Darcy (character)

Later short stories

Is it possible to acquire the later short stories "The Bitter End" and "The Spell of War" without having to purchase a copy of the omnibus (since I already have the three previous books)? —Phil | Talk 15:53, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

"The Spell of War" is included in the volume "The Best of Randall Garrett". As far as I know, "The Bitter End" can only be obtained in the omnibus, or in its original 1978 magazine appearance.

Check out the Gutenberg site. They seem to have most (all?) of Garrett's stories posted. I assume the copyrights have expired. Klausner (talk) 06:01, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

Ossification?

Is it fair to say Lord Darcy's world is ossified? It's conservative, but it's not stagnant. Avalon 04:28, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

File:Darcy's arms.jpg

Name

What's his actual name? Jooler 10:33, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Not given in the stories by Garrett, as far as I can tell. (At least not in the Baen omnibus edition.) He's referred to as "Lord Darcy" in all except "The Spell of War", where he's referred to as "Lieutenant Darcy". -- Kazrak 17:50, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

He met someone and greeted him by his first name; the other called him "Darcy". In one story he thought that "Mama Darcy's little boy" might wind up fighting savages in New France. The only name we have ever seen for him is Darcy in some form or another. Steveha 05:46, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Being addressed by his title is standard British usage (see Shakespeare, etc.). It is not impossible that he is, oh, Desiderius D'Arcy, Lord Darcy, but he could just as well be Aelfrid Holmes, Lord Darcy; Garrett doesn't seem to have left us any clues. --Orange Mike 20:38, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

One possible clue relates to his coat-of-arms as described near the end of Too Many Magicians. Unfortuantely, I don't know enough heraldry to interpret the description; can anyone help? Murray Langton 22:01, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't have a copy of the novel handy; but if you transcribe the blazon, I'll try; I'm a fair book herald (35 years in the SCA and all).--Orange Mike 22:16, 13 December 2006 (UTC) (a/k/a Lord Inali of Tanasi, G.D.H.)

From the very last paragraph: "Lord Darcy's personal arms: Ermine, on a fess gules, a lion passant gardant or."Murray Langton 06:22, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

File:Brittany coa.png

That's a shield of ermine (white fur with little black tails), bisected by a broad red horizontal stripe taking up about one-third of the field. On that stripe is a gold heraldic lion walking, with his face turned towards you. The interesting thing about this is that the royal arms of England are File:England-Richard-I-Arms.svg: three of the gold "lions of England" on red; so there is an implication of a link to the royal family, somewhere back in the past. Interesting, but no hint as to his name. --Orange Mike 14:47, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

I've heard that Garrett used that shield in the SCA before giving it to Darcy. —Tamfang 00:50, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

And a field ermine often alludes to the duchy of Brittany. —Tamfang (talk) 22:47, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

List of in-jokes?

Randall Garrett loved to insert in-jokes, such as "Bontriomphe" for the character who is much like Archie "Goodwin". The preface to the combined Baen collection of Lord Darcy stories says that the novel Too Many Magicians contains three punning allusions to the TV show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I just re-read the whole novel and I was unable to spot these puns... if anyone knows them, I'd love to see them listed in the Lord Darcy entry. There was a reference to the Pink Panther in a later story, and when I find it again, I'll put it in the entry. Steveha 04:53, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

The Pink Panther reference is in the short story "The Bitter End", the bumbling Sergeant-at-Arms is named Cougair Chasseur (cat chaser), for to Inspector Clouseau. Klausner (talk) 03:20, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

The Polish refugee Tia Einzig (Tia "Single" or "Solitary" or "Solo") is worried about her uncle, Neapeler Einzig (Napoleon Solo). She learns that he has escaped and is safe. She discovers he is on the Isle of Man. Her uncle is Napoleon Solo, the uncle from Man. Avalon 05:03, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Capital! Thank you for that. I think "Neapleler Einzig" is one, "The Uncle from Man" is another; and you gave me the place to look and I easily found one more. Tia's uncle sent a friend to Tia. The friend was "Goodman Colin MacDavid". Napoleon Solo's partner was played by actor David McCallum. Steveha 05:42, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

also, Tia is Spanish for aunt. —Tamfang 00:52, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

It should perhaps be explained that Neapel is the German name of Naples, and thus Neapeler can be literally translated Neapolitan. I don't know if the name Napoleon had any connexion with the city – but even if not I won't quarrel with the pun! —Tamfang 03:26, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure how many people are contract bridge players and Lord Darcy fans, but I've added one in-joke that would only make sense to a bridge player and which I've always recalled with pleasure. I've done this from memory, so if someone can identify the exact passage, that would be helpful. I'll make a note to dig out my copy of the collected Lord Darcy stories and identify the exact location. There are other glancing references to contract bridge, but I can't remember them sufficiently exactly to add them; one has something to do with a "forcing bid". Accounting4Taste 20:03, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Found my copy of the stories and one of the references; I've added it, and will continue to add them as I find them. Accounting4Taste 15:04, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Found the other reference, in the same story. Accounting4Taste 01:18, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Sherlock Holmes

The article says that Darcy resembles Sherlock Holmes in a number of ways, but I can't think of any, saving that both men are clever detectives and British. Darcy resembles Wimsey far more than he resembles Holmes. DavidJohns 03:00, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

It's absolutely justified. Darcy is said to have the deductive facility in its highest form, and Holmes is always shown as a deductive reasoner. Holmes has a lazy but brilliant brother Mycroft; Darcy has a lazy but brilliant cousin, the Marquis de London (who is also very obviously a Nero Wolfe pastiche). Darcy on several occasions makes Holmes-esque comments (if I recall correctly, he once said something like "a relative of mine once said 'Once you have eliminated the impossible, what's left, however improbable, must be the truth.'" The quote is from Holmes.) Also, Darcy smokes a pipe, as does Holmes. (That one might be a stretch; lots of people smoke in the Lord Darcy stories. Darcy's favourite pipe was described but I'm not sure whether it matched Holmes' favourite pipe.) There are of course many differences; Holmes uses opium when bored and Darcy doesn't, Darcy is more prone to actual action than Holmes, and Holmes does all his own forensic investigation while Darcy relies on Master Sean. Holmes is a monomaniac who cares only for investigating crime (when Watson tells Holmes that the Earth orbits the Sun and not vice versa, Holmes replies that he will now attempt to forget this information as it is not applicable to investigating crime and he doesn't want to clutter his memory uselessly!) while Darcy is a more well-rounded figure. Steveha 05:06, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Is Holmes's favorite pipe ever canonically described? —Tamfang 00:53, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

That's a subject that has triggered many an article! Briefly: no. He is quoted in one story taking down an "old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a counsellor"; and mentions a briar in one; but the non-canonical calabash was purely a creation of his stage and film imitators. --Orange Mike 17:02, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't have a reliable source, but I knew Garrett personally, and he was quite open about the fact that Darcy was based on Holmes. Whether it comes across or not, it's what he intended. And since he made no secret about it, there might be some reliable sources out there--but I don't have one at hand. --Xtifr _tälk 00:26, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

steampunk

Question: Is Darcey related in any way to the Steam Punk genre? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.205.70.173 (talk) 15:05, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

He's about thirty years too early, and shows none of the obsession with big brass machinery — but "in any way" is plenty broad, so I hesitate to say definitively 'no'. —Tamfang (talk) 23:51, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

I would say not, he's more in the urban fantasy genre, or in the tradition of rationalized magic like de Camp's Compleat Enchanter series. -- Resuna (talk) 12:36, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Mystery?

This article is in category Template:C but no other detective/mystery/crime/thriller-related category. And Template:C is not connected to wikipedia coverage of those detective/etc genres.

For some related comments see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Literature#Mystery is a mystery and Talk:Lord Darcy Investigates#Genre.

Nor are these Lord Darcy articles related to our coverage of England or Britain or France, as by any category Template:C or Template:C, etc. A setting so general as Template:C or Template:C, in order to fit the 20th century Angevin Empire, would not help much if the link were followed, although simply reading the linkname might be educational. (I don't know the Lord Darcy facts, or whether any such thing is a no-no regarding alternate history, and I have no related comments elsewhere.) --P64 (talk) 23:11, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

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Back to the name...

This:

→His full name is never given; he is always referred to by his title as the Lord of Arcy (i.e., Lord d'Arcy or Lord Darcy), even by his friends. He dresses in the style of an English aristocrat. He thinks of himself as English and yet Arcy seems to be a French place name. How he comes to be addressed as a "Lord" is never explained, though he seems deferential when dealing with other Peers such as Dukes, Counts, and a Marquis.

seems unfair.

1) In "The Spell of War" (1979) his father is named as Coronel Lord Darcy

2) Garrett's works describe a totally catholic western Europe where the protestant reformation never happened. And the conference in "Too Many Magicians" (1966) seems to include catholic Priests, and then Rabbis and Imams (chapters 2 & 13), but not protestants of any sort. (No Eastern Orthodox either).

Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy describes a catholic who opposed Henry VIII's Reformation. DdD's coat of arms is different from our Darcy's, but if Garrett had come across DdD in a history book, he would have been most unlikely to know what his coat of arms was.