237:"Cuff is the inevitable detective, a character apparently so regularly retained on the establishment of sensational novelists that it would be convenient for a due appreciation of their new works to find appended to advertisements of them, along with extracts from critical journals, such remarks as 'Very true to life' and the like, dated from Scotland Yard. We cannot afford to love the police-court flavour these characters infuse into modern tales. But 'the great' Sergeant Cuff would almost reconcile one to the type."
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310:, page 128: "The Sergeant stood at the window with his hands in his pockets, looking out, and whistling the tune of “The Last Rose of Summer” softly to himself. Later in the proceedings, I discovered that he only forgot his manners so far as to whistle, when his mind was hard at work, seeing its way inch by inch to its own private ends, on which occasions “The Last Rose of Summer” evidently helped and encouraged him"
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derive from the Road Hill Case, including the missing nightdress stained with paint and the incriminating laundry book. Cuff's melancholic nature was also inspired by
Whicher, as well as his role of a London detective investigating a rural household. The case was still in the public mind as
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Cuff is described within the novel as confident and intelligent, with a piercing gaze and a self-possessed manner. Physically, he is "a grizzled, elderly man... his face was as sharp as a hatchet, and the skin of it was as yellow and dry and withered as an autumn leaf".
226:, was the criminal. Collins ignored the official solution in favour of "the notions of somnambulism, unconscious deeds, double selves that the Road case had aroused, the dizzying whirl of perspectives that had been brought to bear upon the investigation."
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confessed for the crime in 1865, three years before the publication of the novel. Inspector Cuff would undoubtedly have been recognised as a reflection of
Whicher by the Victorian reading public.
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Cuff differs from later portrayals of the 'Great
Detective' by not arriving at the correct solution, accusing Miss Rachel Verinder instead of the actual culprit,
222:. In examining the work in parallel with the Road Hill House case, Cuff arrived at the same conclusion that Whicher did, that the daughter of the house,
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in creating Cuff, particularly his investigation of the 1860 murder of
Francis Saville Kent. Several plot details from
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He is characterised as having a passionate interest for growing roses, and has the habit of whistling
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185:. While Dickens used Field as the basis for the character as Inspector Bucket in
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The name 'Cuff' comes from contemporary
Victorian slang, meaning 'to handcuff'.
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Wilkie
Collins and His Victorian Readers: A Study in the Rhetoric of Authorship
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Dreadful Deeds and Awful
Murders: Scotland Yard's First Detectives 1829-1878
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191:(1853), it is likely that Collins was also inspired by the "thief-taker".
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Sutherland, John (1999). "A Note on
Composition, Reception and Text".
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The
Suspicions of Mr Whicher: or, The Murder at Road Hill House
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Wilkie
Collins was also inspired by Detective Inspector
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Sergeant Cuff interviews Mrs Yolland about the crime.
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380:Page, Norman, ed. (1974). "Unsigned review,
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344:. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 356–357.
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183:Charles Frederick Field
159:The Last Rose of Summer
117:In-universe information
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132:Sergeant Richard Cuff
548:Fictional detectives
355:Lonoff, Sue (1982).
87:Charles Irwin (1934)
258:Lock, Joan (1990).
19:Fictional character
16:Fictional detective
179:All the Year Round
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84:Portrayed by
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365:18 December
293:14 December
268:14 December
188:Bleak House
166:Inspiration
148:Description
100:Antony Sher
542:Categories
505:Television
464:Miss Clack
442:Characters
242:References
122:Occupation
95:John Welsh
76:Inspector
63:Created by
382:The Times
231:The Times
214:Influence
73:Based on
487:(lost)
112:(2016)
107:(2011)
102:(1996)
97:(1972)
92:(1959)
478:Films
527:2016
522:1996
517:1972
512:1959
496:1934
367:2023
295:2023
270:2023
55:1868
431:'s
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330:^
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421:e
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
