Crime Fiction A History II Sir Arthur Conan

Crime Fiction: A History, II

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859 -1930 • Scottish physician • Writer of: detective stories, science fiction, historical novels, plays, romance poetry, nonfiction • Jesuit School • Stonyhurst College • University of Edinburgh, 187681 • 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, Married twice, golf 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, selfabsorbed drug addict. • Deductive Reasoning and Inference

Conan Doyle and justice • George Edalji • Threatening letters • Animal mutilation • Oscar Slater • German Jew and gambling-den operator • Court of Criminal • Bludgeoning an 82 Appeal established in year old woman 1907 • Inconsistencies‘ • Julian Barnes: Arthur & George, • Slater was framed 2005

• 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 History • First policewoman in the UK, 1914, Edith Smith

The Golden Age, Agatha Christie, 1890 -1976 • Years between 19201939 • 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.

• • 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 Agatha Christie

The Golden Age Dorothy 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

• 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 Lord Peter Wimsey

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 Mc. Carthy 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 – Leif Davidsen: Lime's Photograph, 2001 – Henning Mankell: Sidetracked , 1995 – Arnaldur Indridason: Jar City, 2005 – Sjowall and Wahloo: The Laughing Policeman – 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?