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Snuff (Pratchett novel)
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Snuff is the 39th novel in the Discworld series, written by Terry Pratchett. It was
published on 11 October 2011 in the United States, and 13 October 2011 in the
United Kingdom.[1] The book is the third-fastest-selling novel in the United
Kingdom since records began, having sold over 55,000 copies in the first three
days.[2][better source needed]
Snuff
Snuff cover low.jpg
First edition
Author
Terry Pratchett
Cover artist
Paul Kidby
Language
English
Series

Discworld
39th novel – 8th City Watch novel (9th story)

Subject

Characters:
Samuel Vimes, Lady Sybil, Lord Vetinari, Cheery Littlebottom, Captain Carrot

Genre
Fantasy
Publisher
Doubleday
Publication date
2011
ISBN
978-0385619264
Preceded by
I Shall Wear Midnight
Followed by
Raising Steam

The book is the eighth City Watch story and is based largely around Commander Sir
Sam Vimes. Pratchett emphasised that the word 'snuff' has "at least two meanings".
[3]
SynopsisEdit

Commander Sam Vimes is forced by his wife, Lady Sybil, to take a holiday with their
son, Young Sam, at her family's mansion Crundells. After a short time of enjoying
his holiday, he discovers that the rural community has a dark past with the
resident goblins, humanoid lifeforms that live in caves nearby. Vimes finds out
that the son of Lord Rust has been enslaving goblins to force them to work on his
tobacco plantations in Howondaland, allowing him to manufacture cigars cheaply that
are then smuggled to Ankh-Morpork. After teaming up with the local constable, a
young man called Upshot, Vimes manages to arrest those responsible for the crime.

In the end, thanks to his wife's organisational skills and powers of persuasion,
goblins are recognised as citizens by all major nations and rulers. Rust's son is
disinherited and exiled to Fourecks, where Lord Vetinari assures an eye will be
kept on him.
PlotEdit
Learn more
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (March 2022)

Commander Vimes is persuaded by his wife Sybil and Lord Vetinari to take a family
holiday at the Ramkins' countryside estate; Willikins, Vimes's thug-turned-butler,
accompanies them. As Vimes arrives in the countryside, despite the silence and
tranquillity, he senses crime.

At a dinner with all the local 'nobs' organised by Sybil, Vimes discovers the
distaste the local people have towards goblins, calling them vermin and a nuisance,
with a pub called the Goblin's Head having an eponymous stuffed and mounted
goblin's head. At the dinner, he also meets Miss Felicity Beedle, a children's book
author whose works Young Sam is a fan of, and he feels that she has something she
wants to tell him about a possible crime.

The next day he participates in a hand-to-hand fight with the hot-headed local
blacksmith, Jethro. After Vimes wins the fight, he arranges to meet with Jethro at
Dead Man's Copse on Hangman Hill at midnight, as Jethro has something to tell Vimes
about the mistreatment of goblins. Lord Rust then approaches Vimes and tells him
that he will not find any crimes in the country, also warning him that he has no
jurisdiction outside of Ankh-Morpork.

That night, Vimes and Willikins go up to Hangman Hill to find Jethro, but instead,
they find the severed finger of a goblin girl and lots of blood. The next morning,
the young local chief constable, Feeney Upshot, sworn to enact the will of the
local Board of Magistrates rather than to uphold the law, arrives at Ramkin Hall to
arrest Vimes for the murder of the blacksmith, who has gone missing. Vimes is
considered the most likely suspect because he was in a fight with the blacksmith
the night before, and he was overheard making plans to meet Jethro on Hangman Hill.
However, Vimes refuses arrest, instead taking on the task of mentoring Upshot and
teaching him to be a better copper, and together they start an investigation on the
case.

Vimes and Upshot, led by a goblin named Stinky, find the goblins' abode in a cave.
They enter into pitch-black darkness, and Vimes realises he can see perfectly in
the darkness, a skill rewarded to him by the Summoning Dark (a demon that briefly
possessed him in the novel Thud!. It is implied that the 'dark' and Vimes now have
a mutual respect).

In the cave he meets with the goblin chief who leads him to a goblin's corpse, the
same goblin that was killed on Hangman Hill. Vimes ventures further in the cave in
search of the blacksmith, but he instead finds Miss Beedle, who, because of
adoptive goblin ancestry, spends her spare time teaching goblin girls how to read
and communicate with humans.

Upshot and Vimes then pay a visit to Mr Flutter; he is known as the 'local trouble'
and seems to be involved in most crimes in the area. They capture Flutter, but he
is unwilling to say much. Vimes then notices a cellar in his house and enters it;
surrounded by darkness he is able to communicate to the Summoning Dark. From the
Summoning Dark, who represents all darkness, he is able to get a witness account of
what happened on Hangman Hill the other night and relays this to Flutter, who then
tells Vimes that he protested against the killing of the goblin-girl, and whose
murderer was a Mr Stratford, a man working for Gravid Rust, the 'entrepreneurial'
son of Lord Rust.

After Sergeant Colon is possessed by the ghost of a goblin child after finding an
unggue pot (a goblin burial pot) inside a free cigar, parallel investigations by
the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and Vimes lead to the revelation that goblins are being
used for slave labour on tobacco plantations in Howondaland. Vimes also finds out
that three years ago, large numbers of goblins were taken from their caves to work
at the plantation. In this incident, many goblins were killed, abused and starved
to death. Wee Mad Arthur of the Watch flies to Howondaland to investigate and finds
the plantation, where all the goblin workers are dying or already dead.

Vimes and Upshot hear that more goblins have been taken and are now being
transported on the paddleboat The 'Wonderful Fanny'. Vimes and Upshot secretly
board the boat just as a thunder storm arrives, making the night pitch-black and
the river laden with debris and thus deadly. Vimes, with the help of Stinky, frees
the goblins who are trapped in the cargo holds. He also rescues the captain's wife
and daughter from being shot by Stratford, who had been posing as an underling. He
then heads towards the captain and his captor.

A battle ensues between Vimes and Stratford when the boat once again lifts on the
tide, giving Stratford time to escape. After Vimes comes round from a knock to the
head he surmises that Stratford is not dead and will be back to finish what he
started. The captain of the boat loses track of the riverbends during the commotion
and panics. Vimes's ability to see in the dark allows him to guide the boat to
safety, and for this he is awarded the title 'King of the River'.

Vimes is knocked unconscious in the storm and wakes to find himself and the boat in
Quirm, everyone having survived the night. Vimes quickly discovers that the
goblins, along with Stratford, have already boarded the next boat to Howondaland.
Vimes boards the boat and arrests the Captain and frees all the goblins once and
for all as well as a kidnapped Jethro, but Stratford is not on board.

Vimes returns to his family in Ramkin Hall and together they travel to Quirm on the
pleasure boat Roberta E. Biscuit. Stratford attempts to attack Vimes's son and is
defeated by Vimes and Willikins and handed over to the Quirmian gendarmerie, to be
returned to Ankh-Morpork for trial. On the way the prison coach crashes, Stratford
escapes and kills a guard. However, shortly after he is met on the road and killed
by Willikins.

Meanwhile, Lady Sybil arranges a concert in the Ankh-Morpork Opera House, inviting
the Patrician, Lady Margalotta Von Uberwald, and the ambassadors to Diamond King of
Trolls and the Low-King of Dwarves. The aim of the concert is to showcase the
musical talent of one of the goblin girls taught by Miss Beedle. The dignitaries
are so moved by the display they agree to enact laws which will grant goblins the
same rights as other sapient creatures and protection under the law. Gravid Rust,
primarily due to his trafficking of troll narcotics, is disinherited and exiled to
Forecks, much to Vimes's chagrin as he is left unpunished for the enslavement of
goblins. However, it is implied that Gravid is monitored (and possibly killed) by
one of Vetinari's Dark Clerks. One year later, Vimes and Lady Sybil return to the
countryside to attend a wedding, where he learns that the events of the novel have
been turned into a novel, Pride and Extreme Prejudice, in which he is the main
character.
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Last edited 22 days ago by 78.33.41.125
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