Editing Philo Vance (section)

==Character==
{{Over-quotation|section|date=January 2017}}
In the early novels, Van Dine claimed that "Philo Vance" was an alias, and that details of the sleuth's adventures had been altered to protect his true identity, even if "he has now gone to Italy to live".<ref>From ''Introductory'' of ''The Benson Murder Case''</ref> This claim was conveniently forgotten as the series progressed. (A few years later, the same process occurred with another fictional detective, [[Ellery Queen]], whose authors acknowledged being inspired by Van Dine.)

As Van Dine described the character of Vance<ref name="worllitetoda.89.6.0016">{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=J. Madison |title=The Evaporation of the Extraordinary Gentleman: S. S. Van Dine's Rules |journal=World Literature Today |date=2015 |volume=89 |issue=6 |pages=16–18 |doi=10.7588/worllitetoda.89.6.0016 |jstor=10.7588/worllitetoda.89.6.0016 |s2cid=163487459 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7588/worllitetoda.89.6.0016 |access-date=1 July 2023 |issn=0196-3570|url-access=subscription }}</ref> in the first of the novels, ''[[The Benson Murder Case]]'':

<blockquote>Vance was what many would call a dilettante, but the designation does him an injustice. He was a man of unusual culture and brilliance. An aristocrat by birth and instinct, he held himself severely aloof from the common world of men. In his manner there was an indefinable contempt for inferiority of all kinds. The great majority of those with whom he came in contact regarded him as a snob. Yet there was in his condescension and disdain no trace of spuriousness. His snobbishness was intellectual as well as social. He detested stupidity even more, I believe, than he did vulgarity or bad taste. I have heard him on several occasions quote Fouché’s famous line: ''C’est plus qu’un crime; c'est une faute''. And he meant it literally.

Vance was frankly a cynic, but he was rarely bitter; his was a flippant, Juvenalian cynicism. Perhaps he may best be described as a bored and supercilious, but highly conscious and penetrating, spectator of life. He was keenly interested in all human reactions; but it was the interest of the scientist, not the humanitarian.

Vance’s knowledge of psychology was indeed uncanny. He was gifted with an instinctively accurate judgement of people, and his study and reading had coordinated and rationalized this gift to an amazing extent. He was well grounded in the academic principles of psychology, and all his courses at college had either centered about this subject or been subordinated to it…

He had reconnoitered the whole field of cultural endeavor. He had courses in the history of religions, the Greek classics, biology, civics, and political economy, philosophy, anthropology, literature, theoretical, and experimental psychology, and ancient and modern languages. But it was, I think, his courses under Münsterberg and William James that interested him the most.

Vance’s mind was basically philosophical—that is, philosophical in the more general sense. Being singularly free from the conventional sentimentalities and current superstitions, he could look beneath the surface of human acts into actuating impulses and motives. Moreover, he was resolute both in his avoidance of any attitude that savoured of credulousness and in his adherence to cold, logical exactness in his mental processes.</blockquote>

In the same book, Van Dine detailed Vance's physical features:

<blockquote>
He was unusually good-looking, although his mouth was ascetic and cruel...there was a slightly derisive hauteur in the lift of his eyebrows...His forehead was full and sloping—it was the artist's, rather than the scholar's, brow. His cold grey eyes were widely spaced. His nose was straight and slender, and his chin narrow but prominent, with an unusually deep cleft...Vance was slightly under six feet, graceful, and giving the impression of sinewy strength and nervous endurance.
</blockquote>

In the second adventure, ''[[The Canary Murder Case]]'' (set in 1927), Van Dine says that Vance was "not yet thirty-five... His face was slender and mobile; but there was a stern, sardonic expression to his features, which acted as a barrier between him and his fellows."

Vance was highly skilled at many things: an "expert fencer", a golfer with a three [[Golf handicap|handicap]], a breeder and shower of thoroughbred dogs, a talented polo player, a master poker player, a winning handicapper of race horses, experience in archery ("a bit of potting at Oxford," as he referred to it), a patron of classical music, a connoisseur of fine food and drink, knowledgeable of chess, and of several foreign languages. He was also an expert on Chinese ceramics, psychology, the history of crime, ancient Egypt, Renaissance art, and a host of other recondite subjects. In ''The Kidnap Murder Case'', in which Vance uses a gun, Van Dine describes Vance as a good marksman and a decorated World War I veteran.

Van Dine says Vance's "one passion" is art. "He was something of an authority on Japanese and Chinese prints; he knew tapestries and ceramics: and once I heard him give an impromptu ''causerie'' to a few guests on Tanagra figurines..." (''The Benson Murder Case'')

His interest in dogs is featured in ''[[The Kennel Murder Case]]'' (his polo playing is also mentioned in that case), his skill at poker in ''The Canary Murder Case'', his ability to handicap race horses in ''[[The Garden Murder Case]]'', his knowledge of chess and archery in ''[[The Bishop Murder Case]]'', and of Egyptology in ''[[The Scarab Murder Case]]''. His skills at golf and at fencing do not figure in any of the cases.

Vance often wore a monocle, dressed impeccably (usually going out with chamois gloves), and his speech frequently tended to be quaint:

* "Why the haste, old dear?" Vance asked, yawning. "The chap's, dead, don't y' know; he can't possibly run away." (''The Benson Murder Case'')
* "Really, y' know, Markham, old thing, " he added, "you should study the cranial indications of your fellow man more carefully—vultus est index animi..." (''The Canary Murder Case'')
* "And now I think I'll erase the Greenes from my mind pro tempore, and dip into the 'Satyricon.' The fusty historians pother frightfully about the reasons for the fall of Rome..." (''[[The Greene Murder Case]]'')

He was also a heavy smoker, lighting up and puffing on his [[Regie Company|Regies]] throughout the stories.

According to some contemporary critics, these mannerisms of Vance were affectations, which made him look like a foppish dandy, a poseur. (See below for criticisms.)  There is some indication that Van Dine wished the reader to question Vance's sexuality. In ''The Benson Murder Case'', Vance is called a "sissy" by another character, and early in the book, as he is dressing, his friend Markham asks if he is planning to wear a green carnation, the symbol of homosexuality during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/articles/the-language-of-pride | title=The Language of Pride }}</ref>