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* {{Unishment}}: Yapp is transferred to an open prison, where he settles in and is reluctant to be paroled.
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* MeaningfulName: The ill-fated 'Willy Coppett'.
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* InnocenceLost: Emmelia Petrefact goes through this throughout the novel. [[spoiler: After witnessing her family's selfishness and cowardice, she tries to act for good on her own through arranging a criminal campaign that should get her arrested and Yapp freed, but ultimately is pressured/bribed by her family into keeping silent, with their influence being able to keep her out of prison despite her campaign.]]
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* ClusterFBomb:
--> Lord Petrefact made noises which seemed to signify that Professor F***ing Yapp could stuff his f***ing case where the f***ing monkey stuffed the f***ing nuts.
--> Lord Petrefact made noises which seemed to signify that Professor F***ing Yapp could stuff his f***ing case where the f***ing monkey stuffed the f***ing nuts.
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* AFoolForAClient: Yapp tries to represent himself in court.
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* AmbitionisEvil: Lord Petrefact’s ambition and attaining a title ostracized him from his relations. [[spoiler: Though they aren’t any much different from him, and cling to their obscurity only as a shield.]]
to:
* AmbitionisEvil: AmbitionIsEvil: Lord Petrefact’s ambition and attaining a title ostracized him from his relations. [[spoiler: Though they aren’t any much different from him, and cling to their obscurity only as a shield.]]
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Petrefacts, an unsavory bunch, are shocked at [[spoiler: Frederick Petrefact having started up a sex toy factory. It’s less about how depraved it is than how shocking people will be on learning about it.]]
to:
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Petrefacts, an unsavory bunch, are shocked at [[spoiler: Frederick Petrefact having started up a sex toy factory. It’s less about how depraved it is than how shocking shocked people will be on learning about it.]]
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* MistakenforCheating: Everyone assumes that Yapp and Rosie Coppett are having an affair, including Rosie's husband Willy and the Petrefacts.
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* MistakenforCheating: MistakenForCheating: Everyone assumes that Yapp and Rosie Coppett are having an affair, including Rosie's husband Willy and the Petrefacts.
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* TownWithaDarkSecret: Buscott, the Petrefact ancestral town. [[spoiler: though the secret – a sex toy factory is being run in secret - is more embarrassing than deadly, it’s still the kind of secret that can do major damage.]]
to:
* TownWithaDarkSecret: TownWithADarkSecret: Buscott, the Petrefact ancestral town. [[spoiler: though the secret – a sex toy factory is being run in secret - is more embarrassing than deadly, it’s still the kind of secret that can do major damage.]]
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Yapp himself finds himself thrown for a loop when he stays at a bed-and-breakfast run by Rosie Coppett, a large beautiful woman and her dwarf husband Willie. Yapp finds himself attracted to Rosie, which arouses jealousy in Willie. But things come to a head when Willie is found dead and Yapp is arrested. How did the crime happen? What will happen to Yapp and the Petrefacts?
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Yapp himself finds himself thrown for a loop when he stays at a bed-and-breakfast run by Rosie Coppett, a large beautiful woman and her dwarf husband Willie. Willy. Yapp finds himself attracted to Rosie, which arouses jealousy in Willie. Willy. But things come to a head when Willie Willy is found dead and Yapp is arrested. How did the crime happen? What will happen to Yapp and the Petrefacts?
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* AccidentalMurder: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson ends up running over Willie Coppett, who was blind drunk and never saw the tractor coming.]]
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* AccidentalMurder: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson ends up running over Willie Willy Coppett, who was blind drunk and never saw the tractor coming.]]
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* HappilyMarried: To everyone’s surprise and slight disbelief, Willie and Rosie Coppett. Despite their physical proportions giving Willie grief when it comes to sex, they’re comfortable with each other.
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* HappilyMarried: To everyone’s surprise and slight disbelief, Willie Willy and Rosie Coppett. Despite their physical proportions giving Willie Willy grief when it comes to sex, they’re comfortable with each other.
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* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson, an ordinary citizen who accidentally runs over Willie Coppett with his tractor, drops the body in Yapp’s car to hide what he did, and when Yapp is arrested for Willie’s murder, he keeps his head down and his mouth shut. All that he really suffers by this are some mild panic attacks, where he repeatedly cleans his tractor. At the end of the story Rosie hears gossip about him putting the tractor on sale.]]
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* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson, an ordinary citizen who accidentally runs over Willie Willy Coppett with his tractor, drops the body in Yapp’s car to hide what he did, and when Yapp is arrested for Willie’s Willy’s murder, he keeps his head down and his mouth shut. All that he really suffers by this are some mild panic attacks, where he repeatedly cleans his tractor. At the end of the story Rosie hears gossip about him putting the tractor on sale.]]
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* TinyGuyHugeGirl: An extreme case with the dwarf Willie Coppett and his gigantic wife Rosie.
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* TinyGuyHugeGirl: An extreme case with the dwarf Willie Willy Coppett and his gigantic wife Rosie.
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Yapp himself finds himself thrown for a loop when he stays at a bed-and-breakfast run by Rosie Coppett, a large beautiful woman and her dwarf husband Willy. Yapp finds himself attracted to Rosie, which arouses jealousy in Willie. But things come to a head when Willie is found dead and Yapp is arrested. How did the crime happen? What will happen to Yapp and the Petrefacts?
to:
Yapp himself finds himself thrown for a loop when he stays at a bed-and-breakfast run by Rosie Coppett, a large beautiful woman and her dwarf husband Willy.Willie. Yapp finds himself attracted to Rosie, which arouses jealousy in Willie. But things come to a head when Willie is found dead and Yapp is arrested. How did the crime happen? What will happen to Yapp and the Petrefacts?
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* AccidentalMurder: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson ends up running over Willy Coppett, who was blind drunk and never saw the tractor coming.]]
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* AccidentalMurder: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson ends up running over Willy Willie Coppett, who was blind drunk and never saw the tractor coming.]]
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* BreaktheHaughty: This happens to both Emmelia and Yapp. [[spoiler: Emmelia is subject to abuse from her own family for allowing Frederick to run a sex toy factory, causing her suffer massive disillusionment. Yapp gets framed and thrown in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, causing all his academic beliefs to smash.]]
to:
* BreaktheHaughty: BreakTheHaughty: This happens to both Emmelia and Yapp. [[spoiler: Emmelia is subject to abuse from her own family for allowing Frederick to run a sex toy factory, causing her suffer massive disillusionment. Yapp gets framed and thrown in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, causing all his academic beliefs to smash.]]
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* HappilyMarried: To everyone’s surprise and slight disbelief, Willy and Rosie Coppett. Despite their physical proportions giving Willy grief when it comes to sex, they’re comfortable with each other.
to:
* HappilyMarried: To everyone’s surprise and slight disbelief, Willy Willie and Rosie Coppett. Despite their physical proportions giving Willy Willie grief when it comes to sex, they’re comfortable with each other.
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* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson, an ordinary citizen who accidentally runs over Willy Coppett with his tractor, drops the body in Yapp’s car to hide what he did, and when Yapp is arrested for Willy’s murder, he keeps his head down and his mouth shut. All that he really suffers by this are some mild panic attacks, where he repeatedly cleans his tractor. At the end of the story Rosie hears gossip about him putting the tractor on sale.]]
to:
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson, an ordinary citizen who accidentally runs over Willy Willie Coppett with his tractor, drops the body in Yapp’s car to hide what he did, and when Yapp is arrested for Willy’s Willie’s murder, he keeps his head down and his mouth shut. All that he really suffers by this are some mild panic attacks, where he repeatedly cleans his tractor. At the end of the story Rosie hears gossip about him putting the tractor on sale.]]
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* TinyGuyHugeGirl: An extreme case with the dwarf Willy Coppett and his gigantic wife Rosie.
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* TinyGuyHugeGirl: An extreme case with the dwarf Willy Willie Coppett and his gigantic wife Rosie.
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* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Lord Petrefact dies, and Yapp is freed from prison while Rosie is freed and gets a job as a maid in Emmelia’s house. But the Petrefact family gets off scot free for their deeds, and show no sign of repentance or even regret over them.]]
* BreaktheHaughty: This happens to both Emmelia and Yapp. [[spoiler: Emmelia is subject to abuse from her own family for allowing Frederick to run a sex toy factory, causing her suffer massive disillusionment. Yapp gets framed and thrown in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, causing all his beliefs to smash.]]
* BreaktheHaughty: This happens to both Emmelia and Yapp. [[spoiler: Emmelia is subject to abuse from her own family for allowing Frederick to run a sex toy factory, causing her suffer massive disillusionment. Yapp gets framed and thrown in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, causing all his beliefs to smash.]]
to:
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Lord Petrefact dies, and Yapp is freed from prison while Rosie is freed and gets a job as a maid in Emmelia’s house. But the Petrefact family gets off scot free for their deeds, and show no sign of repentance or even regret over them.]]
* BreaktheHaughty: This happens to both Emmelia and Yapp. [[spoiler: Emmelia is subject to abuse from her own family for allowing Frederick to run a sex toy factory, causing her suffer massive disillusionment. Yapp gets framed and thrown in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, causing all his academic beliefs to smash.]]
* BreaktheHaughty: This happens to both Emmelia and Yapp. [[spoiler: Emmelia is subject to abuse from her own family for allowing Frederick to run a sex toy factory, causing her suffer massive disillusionment. Yapp gets framed and thrown in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, causing all his academic beliefs to smash.]]
** The prisoners Yapp meets in prison assume Yapp is a child-killer, because of his incarceration for murdering a little person. [[spoiler:Somewhat subverted by him being framed for it.]]
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* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: [[spoiler:Yapp]], who was framed and sent to prison, ends up feigning madness to get respect there.
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* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: [[spoiler:Yapp]], [[spoiler:Yapp, who was framed and sent to prison, ends up feigning madness to get respect there.]]
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* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson, an ordinary citizen who accidentally runs over Willy Coppett with his tractor, drops the body in Yapp’s car to hide what he did, and when Yapp is arrested for Willy’s murder, he keeps his head down and his mouth shut. All that he really suffers from are some mild attacks of fear, where he repeatedly cleans his tractor. At the end of the story Rosie hears gossip about him putting the tractor on sale.]]
to:
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson, an ordinary citizen who accidentally runs over Willy Coppett with his tractor, drops the body in Yapp’s car to hide what he did, and when Yapp is arrested for Willy’s murder, he keeps his head down and his mouth shut. All that he really suffers from by this are some mild attacks of fear, panic attacks, where he repeatedly cleans his tractor. At the end of the story Rosie hears gossip about him putting the tractor on sale.]]
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* MistakenforCheating: Almost everyone assumes that Yapp and Rosie Coppett are having an affair, including Willy Coppett and the Petrefacts.
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* MistakenforCheating: Almost everyone Everyone assumes that Yapp and Rosie Coppett are having an affair, including Rosie's husband Willy Coppett and the Petrefacts.
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* PoliceAreUseless: [[spoiler:The police do their best to get to the bottom of the mess the Petrefacts cause, but stuck for clues and faced with pressure from the Petrefact family, they have to give up.]]
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* PoliceAreUseless: [[spoiler:The [[spoiler: The police do their best to get to the bottom of the mess the Petrefacts cause, but stuck for clues and faced with political pressure from the Petrefact family, they have to give up.]]
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* PrisonRape: Endured by [[spoiler:Yapp]].
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* PrisonRape: Endured by [[spoiler:Yapp]].It's strongly implied that this was done to Yapp during his time in prison.
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* VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Petrefacts rely on their vices being covered with status and influence.
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* VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Petrefacts rely on their vices being covered with status and influence.influence.
----
----
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* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: [[spoiler:Yapp]], who was framed and sent to prison, ends up feigning madness to get respect there.
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* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: Yapp, who was framed and sent to prison, ends up feigning madness to get respect there.
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* PrisonRape: Endured by [[spoiler:Yapp]].
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* SerialKillingsSpecificTargets: Inverted. Emmelia, the only one convinced that Walden Yapp didn't murder the diminutive Willy Coppett, sets out on a spree of attempting to kidnap other Persons of Restricted growth to make it appear that the culprit is still at large.
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* SerialKillingsSpecificTargets: SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: Inverted. Emmelia, the only one convinced that Walden Yapp didn't murder the diminutive Willy Coppett, sets out on a spree of attempting to kidnap other Persons of Restricted growth to make it appear that the culprit is still at large.
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Ancestral Vices is a 1980 satirical novel by Creator/TomSharpe, that focuses on the foibles of the English upper-class.
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''Ancestral Vices'' is a 1980 satirical novel by Creator/TomSharpe, that focuses on the foibles of the English upper-class.
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* SerialKillingsSpecificTargets: Inverted. Emmelia, the only one convinced that Walden Yapp didn't murder the diminutive Willy Coppett, sets out on a spree of attempting to kidnap other Persons of Restricted growth to make it appear that the culprit is still at large.
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* SetRightWhatWentWrong: [[spoiler: Emmelia tries to get Yapp free by herself by embarking on a campaign of serial attacks on dwarves to enable people to think there is a dwarf killer about.]]
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* SetRightWhatWentWrong: SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: Emmelia tries to get Yapp free by herself by embarking on a campaign of serial attacks on dwarves to enable people to think there is a dwarf killer about.]]
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* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler: Emmelia discovers that at their core, her Petrefact relatives are this. Without their status and secrecy, they are no better than anyone else and in fact are less than that with their sordid eccentricities. The only ones with any sort of courage are Emmelia herself and her brother Ronald (and Frederick), but even they are limited by how much they can do and by blood must yield to their family loyalty.
to:
* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler: Emmelia discovers that at their core, her Petrefact relatives are this. Without their status and secrecy, they are no better than anyone else and in fact are less than that with their sordid eccentricities. The only ones with any sort of courage are Emmelia herself and her brother Ronald (and Frederick), but even they are limited by how much they can do and by blood must yield to their family loyalty. ]]
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* PoorCommunicationSkills: An Italian chef who asked for a “big fucking pig” to cook for dinner ends up getting a boar built for breeding.
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* PoorCommunicationSkills: PoorCommunicationKills: An Italian chef who asked for a “big fucking pig” to cook for dinner ends up getting a boar built for breeding.
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* TinyGuyHugeWife: An extreme case with the dwarf Willy Coppett and his gigantic wife Rosie.
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* TinyGuyHugeWife: TinyGuyHugeGirl: An extreme case with the dwarf Willy Coppett and his gigantic wife Rosie.
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* DirtyCoward: Emmelia discovers that at their core, the Petrefacts are this. Without their status and secrecy, they are no better than anyone else and in fact are less than . The only ones with any sort of courage are Emmelia and her brother Ronald (and Frederick), but even they are limited by how much they can do and by blood must yield to their family loyalty.
to:
* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler: Emmelia discovers that at their core, the Petrefacts her Petrefact relatives are this. Without their status and secrecy, they are no better than anyone else and in fact are less than . than that with their sordid eccentricities. The only ones with any sort of courage are Emmelia herself and her brother Ronald (and Frederick), but even they are limited by how much they can do and by blood must yield to their family loyalty.
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PoorCommunicationSkills: An Italian chef who asked for a “big fucking pig” to cook for dinner ends up getting a boar built for breeding.
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* PoorCommunicationSkills: An Italian chef who asked for a “big fucking pig” to cook for dinner ends up getting a boar built for breeding.
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VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Petrefacts rely on their vices being covered with status and influence.
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* VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Petrefacts rely on their vices being covered with status and influence.
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Ancestral Vices is a 1980 satirical novel by Creator/TomSharpe, that focuses on the foibles of the English upper-class.
The story focuses on the Petrefacts, an elite but eccentric and obscure family. Lord Ronald Petrefact, a successful aristocrat with a distinct contempt for his family, hires academic Walden Yapp to compile a history of his family as an act of spite. Yapp heads down to the Petrefact family town of Buscott to start his research, and finds himself up against the Petrefact family, led by Ronald’s younger sister Emmelia, who seeks to put a stop to Yapp’s investigations. Meanwhile, Ronald’s estranged son Frederick has established himself as a successful businessman in Buscott, but is hiding a dark secret that is threatened by Yapp’s arrival.
Yapp himself finds himself thrown for a loop when he stays at a bed-and-breakfast run by Rosie Coppett, a large beautiful woman and her dwarf husband Willy. Yapp finds himself attracted to Rosie, which arouses jealousy in Willie. But things come to a head when Willie is found dead and Yapp is arrested. How did the crime happen? What will happen to Yapp and the Petrefacts?
----
!! This novel contains examples of:
* AccidentalMurder: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson ends up running over Willy Coppett, who was blind drunk and never saw the tractor coming.]]
* AmbitionisEvil: Lord Petrefact’s ambition and attaining a title ostracized him from his relations. [[spoiler: Though they aren’t any much different from him, and cling to their obscurity only as a shield.]]
* AntagonisticOffspring: Frederick Petrefact to his father. A minor version, since both are too distant for any major confrontations or drama.
* AristocratsAreEvil: Lord Petrefact is the villain of the story, but the Petrefacts overall are a selfish, egocentric bunch. The novel itself is a satire on the English upper-class of the 1970s and their abuse of power.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Lord Petrefact dies, and Yapp is freed from prison while Rosie is freed and gets a job as a maid in Emmelia’s house. But the Petrefact family gets off scot free for their deeds, and show no sign of repentance or even regret over them.]]
* BreaktheHaughty: This happens to both Emmelia and Yapp. [[spoiler: Emmelia is subject to abuse from her own family for allowing Frederick to run a sex toy factory, causing her suffer massive disillusionment. Yapp gets framed and thrown in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, causing all his beliefs to smash.]]
* CharacterDevelopment: Emmelia Petrefact and Walden Yapp go through this, both learning that the world is a chaotic place that doesn’t let reason reign, and allows bad people to triumph and good people to suffer. [[spoiler: Each reacts to this in a different way: Emmelia tries to rebel against this, but eventually accepts it in order to keep some power and control in her life. Yapp on the other hand finds comfort in thinking only of himself above any intellectual ideas that are ultimately insignificant.]]
* DirtyCoward: Emmelia discovers that at their core, the Petrefacts are this. Without their status and secrecy, they are no better than anyone else and in fact are less than . The only ones with any sort of courage are Emmelia and her brother Ronald (and Frederick), but even they are limited by how much they can do and by blood must yield to their family loyalty.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Petrefacts, an unsavory bunch, are shocked at [[spoiler: Frederick Petrefact having started up a sex toy factory. It’s less about how depraved it is than how shocking people will be on learning about it.]]
* EvilCripple: Lord Petrefact is confined to a wheelchair.
* EvilOldFolks: Lord Petrefact is about eighty years old.
* FoodPorn: Lord Petrefact invokes this by ordering an eight-course meal for Yapp to indulge his ideas about how rich people have luxurious banquets. This includes sucking pig, turtle soup involving a genuine turtle shell, and dessert wine for the whole course.
* GroinAttack: A distinctly sordid example: a female dwarf when targeted for rape, bites off her attacker’s penis. [[spoiler: Good thing it was an artificial one.]]
* HappilyMarried: To everyone’s surprise and slight disbelief, Willy and Rosie Coppett. Despite their physical proportions giving Willy grief when it comes to sex, they’re comfortable with each other.
* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: Yapp, who was framed and sent to prison, ends up feigning madness to get respect there.
* JerkassRealization: Emmelia realizes that as a Petrefact, she is just as nasty and ruthless as her brother Ronald.
* KangarooCourt: The Petrefacts set this up for Yapp.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson, an ordinary citizen who accidentally runs over Willy Coppett with his tractor, drops the body in Yapp’s car to hide what he did, and when Yapp is arrested for Willy’s murder, he keeps his head down and his mouth shut. All that he really suffers from are some mild attacks of fear, where he repeatedly cleans his tractor. At the end of the story Rosie hears gossip about him putting the tractor on sale.]]
** [[spoiler: The Petrefacts end up as untouchable and elite as ever.]]
* MistakenforCheating: Almost everyone assumes that Yapp and Rosie Coppett are having an affair, including Willy Coppett and the Petrefacts.
* MoralMyopia: The Petrefacts are less considered with how horrific their actions are, than how embarrassing their exposure will be. Judge Petrefact justifies this somewhat by explaining that without their upper-class status to give them respectability and obscurity, their influence is non-existent.
** Frederick Petrefact muses on how the English morality considers masturbation worse than murder.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Emmelia gave her nephew Frederick a free hand to make himself a successful Petrefact. [[spoiler: He achieves this by building a sex toy factory right under her nose.]]
* PoliceAreUseless: [[spoiler:The police do their best to get to the bottom of the mess the Petrefacts cause, but stuck for clues and faced with pressure from the Petrefact family, they have to give up.]]
PoorCommunicationSkills: An Italian chef who asked for a “big fucking pig” to cook for dinner ends up getting a boar built for breeding.
** Later on the chef mistakenly gives the impression that the said pig was meant for sexual intercourse.
** A female bureaucrat from a Marriage agency visits Rosie and, not knowing she’s married to a dwarf or that the marriage is a content one, advises Rosie that if she’s being denied sexual rights she should engage in extramarital affairs. [[spoiler: This is what leads her to make an advance on Yapp.]]
* ServileSnarker: Lord Petrefact’s valet Croxley holds a thinly-veiled antagonistic relationship with his master, and the two engage in a duel of wills and snark at every opportunity.
* SetRightWhatWentWrong: [[spoiler: Emmelia tries to get Yapp free by herself by embarking on a campaign of serial attacks on dwarves to enable people to think there is a dwarf killer about.]]
* TinyGuyHugeWife: An extreme case with the dwarf Willy Coppett and his gigantic wife Rosie.
* TitleDrop: At one point in the story Emmelia goes to sleep thinking of a line about “ancestral vices prophesying war”.
* TownWithaDarkSecret: Buscott, the Petrefact ancestral town. [[spoiler: though the secret – a sex toy factory is being run in secret - is more embarrassing than deadly, it’s still the kind of secret that can do major damage.]]
VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Petrefacts rely on their vices being covered with status and influence.
The story focuses on the Petrefacts, an elite but eccentric and obscure family. Lord Ronald Petrefact, a successful aristocrat with a distinct contempt for his family, hires academic Walden Yapp to compile a history of his family as an act of spite. Yapp heads down to the Petrefact family town of Buscott to start his research, and finds himself up against the Petrefact family, led by Ronald’s younger sister Emmelia, who seeks to put a stop to Yapp’s investigations. Meanwhile, Ronald’s estranged son Frederick has established himself as a successful businessman in Buscott, but is hiding a dark secret that is threatened by Yapp’s arrival.
Yapp himself finds himself thrown for a loop when he stays at a bed-and-breakfast run by Rosie Coppett, a large beautiful woman and her dwarf husband Willy. Yapp finds himself attracted to Rosie, which arouses jealousy in Willie. But things come to a head when Willie is found dead and Yapp is arrested. How did the crime happen? What will happen to Yapp and the Petrefacts?
----
!! This novel contains examples of:
* AccidentalMurder: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson ends up running over Willy Coppett, who was blind drunk and never saw the tractor coming.]]
* AmbitionisEvil: Lord Petrefact’s ambition and attaining a title ostracized him from his relations. [[spoiler: Though they aren’t any much different from him, and cling to their obscurity only as a shield.]]
* AntagonisticOffspring: Frederick Petrefact to his father. A minor version, since both are too distant for any major confrontations or drama.
* AristocratsAreEvil: Lord Petrefact is the villain of the story, but the Petrefacts overall are a selfish, egocentric bunch. The novel itself is a satire on the English upper-class of the 1970s and their abuse of power.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Lord Petrefact dies, and Yapp is freed from prison while Rosie is freed and gets a job as a maid in Emmelia’s house. But the Petrefact family gets off scot free for their deeds, and show no sign of repentance or even regret over them.]]
* BreaktheHaughty: This happens to both Emmelia and Yapp. [[spoiler: Emmelia is subject to abuse from her own family for allowing Frederick to run a sex toy factory, causing her suffer massive disillusionment. Yapp gets framed and thrown in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, causing all his beliefs to smash.]]
* CharacterDevelopment: Emmelia Petrefact and Walden Yapp go through this, both learning that the world is a chaotic place that doesn’t let reason reign, and allows bad people to triumph and good people to suffer. [[spoiler: Each reacts to this in a different way: Emmelia tries to rebel against this, but eventually accepts it in order to keep some power and control in her life. Yapp on the other hand finds comfort in thinking only of himself above any intellectual ideas that are ultimately insignificant.]]
* DirtyCoward: Emmelia discovers that at their core, the Petrefacts are this. Without their status and secrecy, they are no better than anyone else and in fact are less than . The only ones with any sort of courage are Emmelia and her brother Ronald (and Frederick), but even they are limited by how much they can do and by blood must yield to their family loyalty.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Petrefacts, an unsavory bunch, are shocked at [[spoiler: Frederick Petrefact having started up a sex toy factory. It’s less about how depraved it is than how shocking people will be on learning about it.]]
* EvilCripple: Lord Petrefact is confined to a wheelchair.
* EvilOldFolks: Lord Petrefact is about eighty years old.
* FoodPorn: Lord Petrefact invokes this by ordering an eight-course meal for Yapp to indulge his ideas about how rich people have luxurious banquets. This includes sucking pig, turtle soup involving a genuine turtle shell, and dessert wine for the whole course.
* GroinAttack: A distinctly sordid example: a female dwarf when targeted for rape, bites off her attacker’s penis. [[spoiler: Good thing it was an artificial one.]]
* HappilyMarried: To everyone’s surprise and slight disbelief, Willy and Rosie Coppett. Despite their physical proportions giving Willy grief when it comes to sex, they’re comfortable with each other.
* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: Yapp, who was framed and sent to prison, ends up feigning madness to get respect there.
* JerkassRealization: Emmelia realizes that as a Petrefact, she is just as nasty and ruthless as her brother Ronald.
* KangarooCourt: The Petrefacts set this up for Yapp.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Mr Jipson, an ordinary citizen who accidentally runs over Willy Coppett with his tractor, drops the body in Yapp’s car to hide what he did, and when Yapp is arrested for Willy’s murder, he keeps his head down and his mouth shut. All that he really suffers from are some mild attacks of fear, where he repeatedly cleans his tractor. At the end of the story Rosie hears gossip about him putting the tractor on sale.]]
** [[spoiler: The Petrefacts end up as untouchable and elite as ever.]]
* MistakenforCheating: Almost everyone assumes that Yapp and Rosie Coppett are having an affair, including Willy Coppett and the Petrefacts.
* MoralMyopia: The Petrefacts are less considered with how horrific their actions are, than how embarrassing their exposure will be. Judge Petrefact justifies this somewhat by explaining that without their upper-class status to give them respectability and obscurity, their influence is non-existent.
** Frederick Petrefact muses on how the English morality considers masturbation worse than murder.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Emmelia gave her nephew Frederick a free hand to make himself a successful Petrefact. [[spoiler: He achieves this by building a sex toy factory right under her nose.]]
* PoliceAreUseless: [[spoiler:The police do their best to get to the bottom of the mess the Petrefacts cause, but stuck for clues and faced with pressure from the Petrefact family, they have to give up.]]
PoorCommunicationSkills: An Italian chef who asked for a “big fucking pig” to cook for dinner ends up getting a boar built for breeding.
** Later on the chef mistakenly gives the impression that the said pig was meant for sexual intercourse.
** A female bureaucrat from a Marriage agency visits Rosie and, not knowing she’s married to a dwarf or that the marriage is a content one, advises Rosie that if she’s being denied sexual rights she should engage in extramarital affairs. [[spoiler: This is what leads her to make an advance on Yapp.]]
* ServileSnarker: Lord Petrefact’s valet Croxley holds a thinly-veiled antagonistic relationship with his master, and the two engage in a duel of wills and snark at every opportunity.
* SetRightWhatWentWrong: [[spoiler: Emmelia tries to get Yapp free by herself by embarking on a campaign of serial attacks on dwarves to enable people to think there is a dwarf killer about.]]
* TinyGuyHugeWife: An extreme case with the dwarf Willy Coppett and his gigantic wife Rosie.
* TitleDrop: At one point in the story Emmelia goes to sleep thinking of a line about “ancestral vices prophesying war”.
* TownWithaDarkSecret: Buscott, the Petrefact ancestral town. [[spoiler: though the secret – a sex toy factory is being run in secret - is more embarrassing than deadly, it’s still the kind of secret that can do major damage.]]
VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Petrefacts rely on their vices being covered with status and influence.
