Shelling the Hazelnut
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Shelling the Hazelnut: Five Times Hazell Wormed His Way Out Of Trouble |
| Author(s): | Greer Watson |
| Date(s): | 4 March 2011 |
| Length: | 1324 words |
| Genre: | backstory |
| Fandom: | Mary Renault |
| External Links: | "Shelling the Hazelnut" |
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"Shelling the Hazelnut: Five Times Hazell Wormed His Way Out Of Trouble" by Greer Watson is a short story based on Mary Renault's 1953 novel The Charioteer. It presents five episodes in the chequered career of Hazell, a significant offscene character in Chapter Two of the novel. (None of the scenes is based on canon.)
Essentially a character piece, "Shelling the Hazelnut" follows the development of Hazell's characteristic defensive stratagem (seen in Chapter Two): to wiggle out of trouble by blaming someone else.
The author provides Hazell with the personal name "Edwin" in the first part of the story.
Background
"Shelling the Hazelnut" was written as part of the Unwritten Charioteer writing project for Chapter Seven of The Charioteer, associated with the third chapter-by-chapter discussion of the book on the maryrenaultfics LiveJournal community. The story was posted to the community on 4 March 2011,[1] and then archived on the author's website.
Comments
Comments to the story included the following:
- "I really liked this portrayal of Hazell here. I think you captured him very well with what Renault intended. Poor old Lanyon doesn't know what his in for."—comment by dramadream10
- "[...] What an ominous closing. Made me shudder."—comment by my_cnnr