Crime Fiction: A History, II

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Crime Fiction A History, II
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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
• Ships doctor,
• Doctorate 1885

Portrait, 1897
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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
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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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The Golden AgeDorothy Sayers (1893-1967)

• Writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator,
  Christian humanist
• Student of classical and modern languages,
  Oxford, 1915, first class honors
• Blackwells, 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
  Dantes Divine Comedy, and the French Song of
  Roland

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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)

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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

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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)

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Challenging the genre

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

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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 Smillas Sense of Snow
• Kerstin Ekman Blackwater

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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?