In Partnership: Studies in story-telling — Reading Notes

Documents as Storytelling Devices

The first story relies entirely on documentary evidence: an obituary, promissory notes, and presumably letters (though only excerpts are provided). The obituary notes that Sir William Beauvoir's eldest son 'left England suddenly for America' and that 'much forgotten gossip will now in all probability be revived.' The IOUs from 1848 show debts of £105 and £250, signed by 'William Beauvoir, junr.' This method forces the reader to infer character and motive from dry records. The authors trust that a list of debts and a family notice can generate suspense. Later stories use different documentary forms: in 'The Seven Conversations of Dear Jones and Baby Van Rensselaer,' the narrative is built from dialogue and unspoken reactions, with the authors explicitly marking what is said versus what is thought. This structural variety suggests a deliberate exploration of how stories can be told through non-traditional means.

Unspoken Words and Ironic Contrasts

In 'The Seven Conversations,' the authors print characters' polite exchanges alongside their blunt inner thoughts. Dear Jones thinks 'More Girls' while saying 'Miss Van Rensselaer'; Baby Van Rensselaer mentally dismisses him as a 'slim young man.' This technique creates dramatic irony and reveals the gap between social performance and private feeling. The story also includes a scene where a character, Horace, saves a woman from a train wreck, only to learn she has just married another man. The narrative states: 'his narrow white bed knows all that I cannot tell of his tears and his broken dreams.' Here, the authors withhold direct emotion, letting the bed stand in for grief. Such restraint contrasts with the earlier, more explicit irony, showing a range of tonal control.

Collaborative Voice and Authorial Play

Because Matthews and Bunner wrote together, the collection raises questions about joint authorship. The table of contents attributes some stories to one author and others to both. 'The Documents in the Case' and 'The Seven Conversations' are co-written, while 'Venetian Glass' is by Matthews alone and 'The Red Silk Handkerchief' by Bunner. Yet the co-written pieces do not read as two voices stitched together; they maintain a consistent tone. The authors also play with reader expectations: the obituary in the first story is presented as a real document, but its inclusion in a fiction collection blurs fact and invention. The story's subtitle 'Part First' and the numbered documents suggest a case file, but the narrative eventually shifts to more conventional storytelling. This self-consciousness about form is a thread running through the book.

Readers should attend to how each story constructs its world: through letters, overheard remarks, or the collision of public and private selves. The authors are less interested in plot twists than in the mechanics of revelation. The collection rewards attention to its framing devices and the spaces between what is said and what is meant.

I keep returning to those obituaries and IOUs in In Partnership, how the gaps between documents said more than the words themselves, and it reminds me of another favorite, The man who talked too much — Themes and Context, where speech fills every silence but the real story hides in what never gets said. It’s funny how two such different books share that quiet ache for what’s left unspoken, and I find myself smiling at the connection.