The Dark Frontier - Analysis

Analysis

It is an obvious fact that Ambler's subsequent novels are quite different from The Dark Frontier—not so much in subject matter but most certainly in style and atmosphere. Critics as well as Ambler fans (and the author himself in an Introduction to the novel) have pointed out that The Dark Frontier was meant to be a parody of the brand of adventure thriller Ambler enjoyed as an adolescent but came to find rather silly when he reached adulthood. In other words, Ambler wrote an intentionally "bad" novel. However, since both the writers and the writing that is parodied have been long forgotten, it is difficult for 21st century readers to fully appreciate the book's intended comic nature. There are, however, some signs in the novel that somewhat elucidate Ambler's intention; for example Carruthers's unrequited love for the evil Countess Schverzinski, which makes him want to put a bullet through his head when he finds out that she is dead, a suicide which can only be prevented through Casey's intervention.

The dualism of Henry Barstow - an eminent professor but a rather bumbling man of action - and the virtually superhuman Conway Carruthers seems to prefigure the Clark Kent/Superman dualism which was to profoundly influence American and worldwide popular culture (the first Superman comics appeared a few years after Ambler's book). Ambler himself, in later books, preferred to have as his protagonists bumbling Barstow-type amateurs, who need to deal with dangerous situations without superhero help.

Depiction of the country of Ixania clearly draws on the long-standing sub-genre of Ruritanian romance, derived from Ruritania in Anthony Hope's "The Prisoner of Zenda" and finding many followers and imitatators in the early decades of the Twentieth Century. At the time of writing, its popularity was already waning, and Ambler clearly intended a parody, though using many elements of the established genre.