Detective fiction

A very brief layout of detective fiction in the literature of the English-speaking world.

1. DETECTIVE FICTION Ricardo Celis

2. Crime Fiction and Detective Fiction Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals, and their motives. It has several subgenres, including detective fiction, legal thriller and courtroom drama. 1 Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction in which an investigator or a detective—either professional or amateur—investigates a crime, often murder. 2 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fiction 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction

3. Gothic Fiction and Detective Fiction The early novels of the gothic tradition included a component of mystery that had an important influence in the the creation and development of detective fiction. These novels included crimes but there was not (unlike in detective fiction) a body of professionals or an individual (amateur or professional) trying to solve the mystery by deduction. Illustration for Caleb Williams

4. William Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794) is a novel which uses some of the characters, trappings and plot elements of the Gothic novel, but it is set in contemporary England and Godwin was mainly interested in the problems of class perception and the nature of oppression that he had developed fully the previous year in his essay Concerning Political Justice. In Caleb Williams we have two “detectives.” Caleb who unearths a sinister secret from his master Falkland and Gines who is “the prototype of the state-employed but `legitimate` professional agent” 1 in his relentless pursuit of Caleb. Caleb williams is not considered the first detective novel in English, but Caleb is considered as the first detective in an English novel. In the creation of the detective story Edgar Allan Poe “acknowledged some debt to the structure as well as content of [...] Caleb Williams.” 2 Caleb Williams: the First Detective in English Literature Godwin, W., & Hindle, M. (2005) Pag. X Priestman, M. (2003). Pag.2 William Godwin

5. Edgar Allan Poe: the Father of Detective Stories Edgar Allan Poe is considered as the creator of the detective story with his character of C. Auguste Dupin. Poe introduced Dupin for the first time in his short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” So this is taken to be the first detectives story in the English language and Dupin became the prototype for many fictional detectives. A contrast recurs throughout Poe´s work between reason and imagination: Poe´s ideal was a perfect synthesis of the two modes of intelligence. In his fiction the closest he came to this ideal was in the creation of his master detective Dupin, a poet who brings to commonplace reality the discriminating eye of the artist, but who weighs his evidence as a logician and is able to extrapolate from the raw material of the real world the ideal solution. 1 Dupin solves the crimes both by his reason and by his imagination which he uses to penetrate the minds of the criminals. Poe, E. A., & Galloway, D. (2003). Pag.xxii

6. Harry Clarke´s illustration for ”The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Poe wrote three short stories featuring Dupin: In “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Dupin solves the mystery of the murder of two women in Paris. “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” is based on the actual murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers. It is the first murder mystery based on the details of a real crime. In “The Purloined Letter” a woman has been blackmailed by an unnamed minister who has in his possession a compromising letter. Dupin solves the mystery of where the minister hides the letter.

7. Charles Dicken included in a subplot of his novel Bleak House a murder that has to be solved by an Inspector Bucket. But the first detective novel in English was written by Dickens´ collaborator Wilkie Collins. In The Moonstone (1868) Collins established several elements that will become essential elements of future detective novels: English country house robbery An “inside job” Red herrings A celebrated, skilled, professional investigator Bungling local constabulary Detective inquiries Large number of false suspects The "least likely suspect" A rudimentary “locked room” murder A reconstruction of the crime A final twist in the plot 1 Wilkie Collins: the Father of Detective Novels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction

8. The most popular fictional detective and one of the most famous literary characters is Arthur Conan Doyle´s Sherlock Holmes. In the creation of Sherlock Holmes Conan Doyle was influenced by Poe's Dupin and by his own professor at the University of Edinburgh, Joseph Bell. Sherlock Holmes appeared for the first time in the novel A Study in Scarlet and then Conan Doyle went on to write another three novels and 56 short stories featuring his detective. Among the most popular are The Hound of the Baskervilles, His last Bow, “ A Scandal in Bohemia,” and The Sign of the Four. Arthur Conan Doyle

9. Similarly to Dupin, Holmes “reads signs and interprets them according to a process which combines logical deduction with leaps of the imagination” 1 Conan Doyle´s had a decisive influence on the genre of detective fiction: With Doyle’s creation of the Sherlock Holmes series, detective fiction became for the first time an indubitably popular and repeatable genre format. 2 Sanders, A. (2000). Pag. 469 Priestman, M. (2003) Pag. 4

10. The Golden Age of Detective Fiction The golden age of detective fiction is usually taken as the period between the two world wars. Among the most relevant authors of this period are S. S. Van Dine, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ronald Knox. Agatha Christie is the crucial author of this period. Gilbert Keith Chesterton is usually included in this group, although he started writing detective fiction earlier. He created the figure of a detective priest with his Father Brown G. K. Chesterton

11. There were certain common characteristics that many of these writers shared: -Murder is now essential as the central crime. -The story is also socially enclosed: The criminal comes from among the social circle of the victim. -The wider politics of the context are ignored -The victim will be a man or (quite often) a woman of some importance and wealth, -Detection is rational rather than active or intuitional. -There will be a range of suspects (Like in Wilkie Collins´ The Moonstone ), all of whom appear capable of the crime and are equipped with motives. -The identification of the criminal is usually the end of the story. 1 Priestman, M. (2003). Pag 78

12. Agatha Christie: “the Queen of Crime” Her reputation as "The Queen of Crime" was built upon the large number of classic motifs that she introduced, or for which she provided the most famous example. Christie built these tropes into what is now considered classic mystery structure: A murder is committed There are multiple suspects who are all concealing secrets. The detective gradually uncovers these secrets over the course of the story, He discovers the most shocking twists towards the end. At the end, the detective usually gathers the surviving suspects into one room, explains the course of his or her deductive reasoning, and reveals the guilty party. 1 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie

13. Her most famous creation is the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. He is featured in 33 novels and 54 short stories: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) Murder on the Orient Express (1934) She also created the character of Miss Marple, an elderly spinster who acts as a consulting detective. She is featured in The Murder at the Vicarage (1930). Illustration by Gilbert Wilkinson of Miss Marple

14. Harboiled Fiction: the Time of the Private Eye The hardboiled fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction considered by many authors as a genuine American version of detective fiction. It appeared in the United States in the the 1920s and 1930s, the time of the Prohibition era, the bands of gangsters and the Depression years. Probably the most deeply misguided piece of legislation of the American twentieth century [the 18th Amendment to the Constitution by which the Prohibition began], its effect was to turn hundreds of thousands of ordinary working and middle-class Americans into criminals, and to create a society in which crime syndicates flourished in the effort to cater to an appetite that could not be contained. 1 Hardboiled fiction was published in and closely associated with so-called pulp magazines, most famously Black Mask . While classic Golden Age British detective fiction derived much of their materials from comedy of manners, private eye stories shared much of theirs with American literary realism. 2 Priestman, M. (2003).Pag 96 Priestman, M. (2003). Pag 97

15. Samuel Dashiell Hammett The most significant practitioners of this kind of detective stories were Samuel Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Both of them got their start in Black Mask magazine. The world of the novels and stories of Hammett and Chandler is very different from the world of Golden Age British detective fiction. The emphasis now is on violence and corruption and the detective has to resort both to his intuition and to other more expedient means. Samuel Dashiell Hammet created the detectives Sam Spade ( The Maltese Falcon ) Nick and Nora Charles ( The Thin Man) and The Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse)

16. Chandler´s first novel, The Big Sleep , was published in 1939 and it was the first to feature his detective Philip Marlowe. Philip Marlowe is considered, alongside Hammett's Sam Spade, as the quintessential “private detective.” Philip Marlowe was featured in other novels like: Farewll, my Lovely (1940) The Lady in the Lake (1943) The Little Sister (1949) The Long Goodbye (1953) Playback (1958) Raymond Chandler

17. Bibliography Godwin, W., & Hindle, M. (2005). Things as They Are, or The Adventures of Caleb Williams . London: Penguin. Hayes, K. J. (2002). The Cambridge Companion to Poe . New York: Cambridge University Press. Hogle, J. E. (2002). The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Poe, E. A., & Galloway, D. (2003). The Fall of the House of Usher and other Writings: Poems, tales, essays, and reviews . London: Penguin. Poe, E. A. (1993) El escarabajo de oro y otros cuentos. Madrid: Grupo Anaya. Priestman, M. (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sanders, A. (2000). The Short Oxford History of English Literature . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

18. Bibliography Agatha Christie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie Crime Fiction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fiction Detective Fiction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction Detection Club http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detection_Club