Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Series

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

The topic this week is: Reasons Why I Love [insert your favorite book title, genre, author, etc. here]. I have never done a Top Ten Tuesday post. Until now.

So here are my reasons why I love the Nero Wolfe series. First a brief overview of the series.

Rex Stout wrote 33 novels and 41 novellas about the private detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin. The series began in 1934, with Fer-de-lance, and the last book in the series, A Family Affair, was published in 1975, shortly before Stout's death.

1. The main characters:
Nero Wolfe is a lover of orchids and fine food, who supports himself as a private detective, charging exorbitant fees. Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the stories, is both his assistant and a private investigator, and he does most of the legwork. The series combines a genius armchair detective with a hard-boiled detective, and you get the best of both worlds. They complement each other. They disagree on a lot. But both of them look out for each other and will go to great lengths to help when the other is in trouble.

2. The "family" that lives at the brownstone:
I always enjoy the mysteries, but I read the books more to enter into the Wolfe household for a day or two. Wolfe is in his fifties; Archie is in his early thirties. Archie is Wolfe's employee, but he is also his own man. Throughout the series, the same group of characters inhabit the brownstone on West Thirty-fifth Street: Wolfe and Archie; Fritz, the cook; and Theodore Horstmann, the orchid expert (Wolfe has plant rooms on the top floor of the brownstone). All of them depend on Wolfe's talents as a detective to support the household. Archie is often the one who has to goad Wolfe into taking on a case.

3. Fred Durkin, Saul Panzer, Orrie Cather:
The team of freelance operatives that Wolfe uses when needed can be considered part of Wolfe's extended family. They each have their strengths and idiosyncrasies.

Archie describes them in Might as Well Be Dead:

Fred Durkin, big and burly and bald, knows exactly what he can expect of his brains and what he can’t, which is more than you can say for a lot of people with a bigger supply. Orrie Cather is smart, both in action and in appearance. As for Saul Panzer, I thoroughly approve of his preference for free-lancing, since if he decided he wanted my job he would get it–or anybody else’s.

4. Recurring characters I love:
Lily Rowan, Archie's friend and lover. They share a love of dancing. Lily is first introduced in Some Buried Caesar.

Inspector Cramer, in charge of the New York City homicide department, who alternately despises and admires and respects Wolfe.

Sergeant Purley Stebbins, Cramer's assistant. He is a good cop, tough and dedicated, and although they give each other a hard time, he and Archie also have a mutual respect.

Except for Wolfe and Archie, none of the characters mentioned in this post are in every book. Lily Rowan shows up much less than I remembered, but she is a special character for me. She has a long-term relationship with Archie with no strings attached, as Lily is a very independent and wealthy woman.

5. Archie's narration of each case:
Archie's first-person narration is what makes the series, in my opinion. He is a fantastic character. He gives his opinions, of Wolfe, of the victims and suspects and miscellaneous characters and he is very entertaining.

6. Wolfe's quirks and obsessions:
Wolfe is very interested in food and cooking. The tidbits about cooking in these stories are fascinating. He is attached to his orchids and will not miss his morning and afternoon sessions tending to them. He is a stickler for correct word usage, and often uses words the reader is not familiar with. He is very literate and frequently cites authors and books.

Nero Wolfe is well known for his extreme distaste for leaving his home. He is also afraid of riding in cars (or any other mode of transportation, actually). He doesn't trust any driver other than Archie, and he sits in the back seat and hangs on for dear life even when Archie is driving.

7. The main and recurring characters stay the same age throughout the series.
Over the forty plus years this series was published, the protagonists and other characters did not age at all, but they were always placed within the context of the time that the book was written.

8. Fer-de-lance does not read like the first book in a series.
From the beginning, Rex Stout had the relationships of Wolfe and Archie developed and recurring characters established. That is one reason that the series does not need to be read in order. The first time I read the books, I read them as I found them (at the library or loaned from my grandmother). Years later I took the time to read them in order, finding a few I had missed or did not own.

9. I love to reread the books. 
Like many fans of this series, I have reread all the books multiple times, and in most cases when I read them now, I know who the perpetrator is.  Thus I am not reading the books for the resolution of a crime but to enjoy the time with my favorite characters.

10. The TV Adaptations:
I enjoy the TV adaptations. Nero Wolfe and Archie have been portrayed in  films, but I have not seen any of those.  (See Wikipedia for a list of other adaptations.)

I have three favorite TV adaptations.

The most recent adaptation (2000-2001) starring Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin is fantastic. The episodes were set primarily in the 1940s–1950s and had wonderful production values.

In 1981, there was a TV series with William Conrad and Lee Horsley. It only lasted 14 episodes. I especially liked Lee Horsley as Archie.

The Italian Nero Wolfe series (2012), starring Francesco Pannofino as Nero Wolfe and Pietro Sermonti as Archie Goodwin, has eight feature-length episodes and each is based on a book in the series. I have only watched two episodes (one was Fer-de-lance), but I enjoyed both of them and look forward to watching the others. The episodes I have watched took more liberties with the story, and had a lighter tone.