THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

An Inspector Calls
J.B. Priestley

Playwright and author J.B. Priestley (1894-1984) left an impressive body of work behind him, yet An Inspector Calls remains one of his best known play, along with Time and the Conways.

An Inspector Calls  was first presented in the Soviet Union in 1945 (a not-so-innocent coincidence, as we shall see) and premiered in England the following year. The most recent production dates back to 2011/2012.

The scene is Brumley, England, in 1912. The wealthy middle-class Berling family are celebrating the engagement of their daughter, Sheila to one Gerald Croft, a former business of rival of Mr. Berling. A police detective named Goole (the pun is very much intentional, as we shall see) interrupts the proceedings with distressing news: a young, working-class girl by the name of Eva Smith has just died, having committed
 suicide. Apparently, Inspector Goole can trace the girl's death to her recent dealings with the Berling family. It is not a pretty story.

Reign in the suspects, I say...

• Arthur Berling: The head of the Berling family, a wealthy, pompous, self-important middle class industrialist. Apparently this is where Ms. Smith's troubles began. As an employee of Mr, Berling, she complained about the wages and asked for a raise, which (of course) she didn't get. She then attempted to force the issue with a strike. It failed and Mr. Berling unceremoniously fired her. 

Things looked grim, yet Eva was soon back on her feet, working in a clothes shop. Unfortunately, she soon ran afoul of...

• Sheila Berling's petty insecurities and jealousy. See, Sheila was shopping with her mother at that very same store. When she saw that Eva looked better in a particular dress way more than she did, she felt rather inadequate. No matter, just complain to her manager for her "impertinence" and have the poor girl fired for no good reasons. 

Back to square one for Eva. Things looked grim again, however she met a silver lining in the clouds in the form of...

• Gerald Croft: Met Eva Smith in a pub, fell in love with her and took her as his mistress (remember, Croft was about to get engaged with Sheila Berling). However, due to his upcoming engagement, he terminated the relationship when it was about to become inconvenient. Once again, Eva was out in the streets again. Thankfully, there's a lot of charities out there for women in trouble, like the one presided by...

•  Sybil Berling. Yes, your typical upper class hypocritical rich bitch.  See, Eva turned up at Mrs. Berling's door one day. Claiming she was pregnant with Berling child. Her preposterous behavior only irritated Miss Berling who steadfastly refused her any help and threw a pregnant, jobless woman back on the streets (maybe Mrs. Berling should be reminded of what charity organizations are for.)

But you see, Eva was not just whistling Dixie, she was pregnant and from a Berling...

• Eric Berling: The youngest of the Berlings, Eric is a rather troubled soul. See, Eric has a drinking problem and it's well known around his family, although no one likes to talk about it. Eric met Eva one night, while he was already quite blotto. The young girl really didn't want to have anything to do with him but, well, some men, while quite drunk, rather becomes beastly. So young Eric here took her by force and she soon found herself pregnant with Eric's "love child". He tried to make up for it by stealing money from Dad, but Mrs. Smith was made of more scrupulous stuff.

Still, Eva went to Mrs. Berling for help (and we known how that turned out), finding none she finally did herself (and her unborn child) in. She had quite enough of the Berlings for one lifetime.

There's a twist, but you'll have to figure it out by yourselves. Priestley is clearly a working class author, judging by his evisceration of the well-to-do, respectable Berlings who took out their petty vices, prejudices and dishonourable attitudes on a defenseless, decent woman who hadn't done anything to anyone.

For shame!