DETECTIVE

FICTIONRicardo Celis

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

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

➢ 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

1. Godwin, W., & Hindle, M. (2005) Pag. X

2. Priestman, M. (2003). Pag.2

William Godwin

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.

1. Poe, E. A., & Galloway, D. (2003). Pag.xxii

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.

● 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 plot1

Wilkie Collins: the Father of Detective Novels

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction

● 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

● 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

1. Sanders, A. (2000). Pag. 469

2. Priestman, M. (2003) Pag. 4

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

➢ 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

1. Priestman, M. (2003). Pag 78

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

➢ 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

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

1. Priestman, M. (2003).Pag 96

2. Priestman, M. (2003). Pag 97

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)

➢ 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

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.

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