Crime Fiction: A History, II

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930

• Scottish physician• Writer of: detective stories,

science fiction, historical novels, plays, romance poetry, non-fiction

• Jesuit School• Stonyhurst College• University of Edinburgh, 1876-

81• Began writing short stories,

published before he was 20• Ship’s doctor, • Doctorate 1885

Portrait, 1897

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930• Doctor in Southsea –• No clients writing!• “A Study in Scarlet”

1887,• Sherlock

Homes modeled after Joseph Bell

• Soccer, cricket, golf

Married twice, 5 kids

Sherlock Holmes• The Sign of Four, 1890• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,

1892• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, 1894• Holmes dies – Moriarty, Reichenbach

Falls, Switzerland• The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1902• Holmes reappears• The Return of Sherlock Holmes, 1905• The Valley of Fear, 1915• His Last Bow, 1917• The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,

1927 • Pattern for the great detective• Holmes: arrogant, omniscient, self-

absorbed drug addict. • Deductive Reasoning and Inference

Conan Doyle and justice

• George Edalji• Threatening letters• Animal mutilation

• Court of Criminal Appeal established in 1907

• Julian Barnes: Arthur & George, 2005

• Oscar Slater• German Jew and

gambling-den operator

• Bludgeoning an 82-year old woman

• Inconsistencies‘• Slater was framed

History • Police Matrons in 1891• Isabella Goodwin hired in

1896 as police matron• Becomes first detective

police woman in New York, 1911

• World War I, 1914-17• US prohibition of alcohol,

1919• Decline in the popularity of

short stories

• First policewoman in the UK, 1914, Edith Smith

The Golden Age, Agatha Christie, 1890-1976

• Years between 1920-1939

• Agatha Christie: “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, 1920

• English setting• Detectives: Hercule

Poirot (1920), Miss Marple, 1926

• “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” 1926, provoked a storm of protest because of Dr. Sheppard, the narrator.

Agatha Christie• Mixed education• Traveling• Married twice, one child• Nurse and Pharmacist

during World War I• 80 detective novels• 56 languages• “The Mouse Trap”:

23,000 performances • The classical detective

story - clues, puzzle, timetables, the great detective, reason, deduction, rules, bourgeoisie, non-human, devoid of love

The Golden AgeDorothy Sayers (1893-1967)

• Writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator, Christian humanist

• Student of classical and modern languages, Oxford, 1915, first class honors

• Blackwell’s, École des Roches, Copywriter, advertising firm,

• Friends with T.S.Eliot and C.S.Lewis

• Married once, no kids• Turned to “serious” academic

work: translated Dante’s Divine Comedy, and the French Song of Roland

Lord Peter Wimsey• The classical detective

story - clues, puzzle, timetables, the great detective, reason, deduction, rules, nobility, athlete, super-human - and with love!

• Detective: Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey , Whose Body, 1923

• 14 novels & short stories

History

• US prohibition of alcohol, 1919• Wall Street Crash, leading to Great

Depression, 1929• Alcohol prohibition repealed, 1933• Word War II, 1939-45• Dashiell Hammett: “Red Harvest”, 1929 &

Raymond Chandler: “The Big Sleep”, 1939.

Hard-boiled crime fiction

• Chandler and Hammett - Black Mask - pulp magazine.

• The PI - Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe

• The dark side of society - criticism of the US

• Strong first person narratives• Film noir• Ended the era of the

omniscient and arrogant detective.

History

• World War II, 1939-45• Cold War, 1945-90• Joseph McCarthy heads anti-communist drive, 1950-52• Berlin Wall marks intensification of Cold War, 1961.• Cuban missile crisis, 1962• Assassination of President Kennedy, 1963• Civil Rights Acts outlaw racial and sexual discrimination in

the US, 1964• US embroiled in Vietnam War, 1964

The Spy Novel

• Graham Greene: “Brighton Rock”, 1938 and Eric Ambler: “The Mask of Demetrios”, 1939.

• Ian Flemming: “Casino Royale”, 1953

• Graham Greene: “Our Man in Havana”, 1958

• John le Carré (1961), Len Deighton (1962), Frederick Forsyth (1971)

The British Tradition

• The Literary Crime Novel• P.D. James (1962), Ruth

Rendell (1964), Lynda La Plante (1983) Elisabeth George (1988), Minette Walters (1993)

• Reginald Hill (1971), Colin Dexter (1975)

• BBC

The American Tradition

•First person narratives, somewhat hard-boiled

• Elmore Leonard (1977), • James Elroy (1984), • Sue Grafton (A-1986),• James Lee Burke (1989),• Patricia Cornwell (1989)

Challenging the genre

• Jorge Luis Borges (1941), Umberto Eco (1983), Paul Auster (1987) Peter Høeg (1992), Arturo Perez-Reverte (1993)

Scandinavian Crime Fiction– Liza Marklund: The Bomber,

1998– Karin Fossum: Don't Look

Back, 1996– Stieg Larsson: The Girl with

the Dragon Tattoo, 2005– Henning Mankell:

Sidetracked , 1995– Arnaldur Indridason: Jar

City, 2005– Sjowall and Wahloo: The

Laughing Policeman

– Leif Davidsen: Lime's Photograph

– Peter Høeg: Smilla’s Sense of Snow

– Kerstin Ekman: Blackwater

Questions

• How are the two stories structured?• What is the pattern of “detecting”?• What are the characteristics of the two

detectives?• What characterizes the “friend”?• Are the two stories dated?