If you didn't read beyond page 50 of "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand", then you missed the introduction of the entire plot strand about the matching pair of guns, which is basically the central conceit of the story. It's not a book about being smothered by social convention and forced to confront mortality; it's a joyous book about affirming your own values, flying in the face of social convention and denying mortality.

But possibly I identified a trifle too much with the Major...