"The detective story is the normal recreation of noble minds." Philip Guedalla

http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/etexts/detective/

WILKIE COLLINS: THE MYSTERY OF THE FIRST DETECTIVE NOVELISThttp://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/3158/wilkie-collins-mystery-first-detective-novelist

Biographer Andrew Lycett explores the shadowy world of the 19th century author, Wilkie Collins Spurred on from his last work, a biography of Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Andrew Lycett set off on the trail of the original detective novelist. His search led to Victorian writer and fellow north Londoner Wilkie Collins, whose unusual, opium-ridden life proved worthy of a detective investigation in itself…

Do you agree with the claim that Collins wrote the first detective novel?In the 1860s the detective was still a recent phenomenon, with the division at Scotland Yard only set up in the 1840s. Wilkie wasn’t the first person to write what might be described as a ‘detective story’; one or two others, such as Edgar Allan Poe, had done that already. Charles Dickens, too, had written about a detective in his magazine Household Words. But with The Moonstone, Wilkie was the first person to put it into a novel and turn it into a page-turning read.

Wilkie realised that within people’s domestic homes

lay deeply held secrets And ‘sensation fiction’… how

does that fit?In this period of British history there were increasing numbers of literate people. Consequently there was a new market for exciting, page-turning books. Wilkie was one of the inventors of the so-called ‘sensation’ school of novel writers in the 1860s, responding to this demand with stories uncovering dark

mysteries. People had attempted to reel in readers before with gothic fiction but in sensation novels the events took place in people’s homes as opposed to some exotic castle. Wilkie realised that within people’s domestic homes lay deeply held secrets.Was this related to Wilkie’s own secretive nature?Yes, Wilkie’s personal life was also shrouded in mystery. He had two families and he wasn’t married to either of the women involved. He met Caroline Graves first, who came from Gloucestershire, and then Martha Rudd, an agricultural labourer’s daughter from Norfolk. Interestingly, I was able to go and look at the parish records and discover that Caroline was born out of wedlock, which must have informed Wilkie’s own writing about legitimacy. But Wilkie kept his family circumstances to himself. In fact, the first time anybody officially knew about his double family life was after his death, as both families were treated equally in his will.What impact did this have?Although there is a grave in Kensal Green cemetery, there were moves to have Wilkie commemorated in Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s. However, the powers that be ultimately decided that he wasn’t the right sort of person, without making their reasons entirely clear. Although a peer of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins doesn’t have the same profile or legacy that Dickens holds for us today. Why do you think that is?Wilkie’s heyday was in the 1860s but there was a period after of about 30 years where he wasn’t quite the popular novelist he had been. The taste for sensation fiction had passed and the fin de siècle writers were in vogue. Yet in the 1920s there was a resurgence of interest in Wilkie’s works, beginning with TS Eliot, who described The Moonstone as “the first and greatest of English detective novels”. Towards the end of the 20th century as well, people were interested in Wilkie as a transgressive figure examining things beneath the surface of Victorian life, such as the problems with matrimonial and property laws for women or living as a disabled person in society.

http://www.librarypoint.org/detective_fiction_origins

Detective and crime-related stories are one of the most popular genres of fiction. In

literary form, detective novels are so numerous that publishing companies devote entire

labels to the genre and release hundreds of entries per year. Detective/crime-related

narratives have become a major part of television programming, with networks basing

their entire primetime schedule around crime-related series.

Detective fiction is such an integral part of the current literary landscape that many

people have difficulty remembering all its subgenres, popular works, and notable

authors. This series explores the history of detective fiction, the authors who were a

major influence on its development, and books and films in its major subgenres.

Gothic Genesis

 

Despite the continuing widespread popularity of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Doyle

did not originate the detective story. This credit must be given to another author of the

19th century, Edgar Allan Poe. In addition to being a major contributor to the literary traditions of

Gothic horror and romanticism, Poe also originated the detective story with his character C.

Auguste Dupin. When the character first appeared in “The Murders in The Rue Morgue”

(1841), the word detective did not even exist; the character’s name “Dupin” suggests the

English word dupe, or deception, which Dupin utilizes in order to obtain the information he

requires to solve a case.

 

 

Many of Dupin’s characteristics heavily influenced character portrayals of

detectives throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. His cold, logical

method or problem solving, upper-class background, and emphasis on

intense reading for clues would remain consistent in his portrayals

throughout two other Poe stories, “The Mystery of Marie Roget” (1842)

and “The Purloined Letter (1844). Poe only published three Dupin stories over his lifetime before

his death in 1849, although other authors have used the character--who is now considered

public domain--posthumously in novels such as The Murder of Edgar Allan Poe and The

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1. Cinematic adaptations of the Dupin stories are

rare in comparison to films featuring Sherlock Holmes, although Universal released adaptations

of Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1932 andThe Mystery of Marie Roget in 1942.  

 

“Elementary, my dear Watson”--An Icon Is Born

 

If Poe was the inventor of the detective novel, it was Arthur Conan Doyle who truly cemented it

as a popular literary genre. The first obvious difference between the two authors was in the

sheer volume of output. As opposed to Poe, who only created three stories featuring Dupin,

Doyle created 56 short stories and four novels featuring Sherlock Holmes. The four Holmes

novels Doyle wrote are; A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Sign of the Four (1890), The

Hound of the Baskervilles (1901) and The Valley of Fear (1914). The first series of short

stories appeared in the Strand Magazine in 1891, and was responsible for the dramatic rise in

the character’s popularity. They were also published the collections The Adventures of

Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock

Holmes, His Last Bow, and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. 

 

One major difference between Doyle’s detective tales and Poe’s is

Doyle’s inclusion of a sidekick character to assist Holmes. Dr. Watson,

although steadfastly loyal to Holmes, stands in sharp contrast to him. His

approaches to problem-solving are populist and simplistic while those of

Holmes are complex and sophisticated. He sees the surface of the crime

while Holmes tries to plunge into the psychological depths of the criminal.

He is emotional while Holmes is scientific.  Yet it is overwhelmingly Watson who gives the

Holmes stories their point of view, supplying narration for 53 of the short stories and all four of

the novels. The interaction between Holmes and Watson and their differing methods of problem

solving is just as enjoyable for the reader as the actual mystery to solve. This relationship is

perhaps even more important in the various film adaptations of the Holmes stories.

 

Holmes in the Age of Cinema

 

The Holmes stories were one of the earliest mystery series to have film adaptations produced,

beginning with the 1914 version of A Study in Scarlet, all prints of which are now completely

lost. Although individual adaptations of other Holmes stories starring different actors would

continue to be made, the definitive Holmes film series began with 1939’s adaptation of The

Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as

Watson. Although 20th Century Fox did not create the film with the intent of starting a series,

Rathbone and Bruce proved so popular with audiences as Holmes and Watson that a

sequel, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, was produced which incorporated elements of

several Holmes stories. Following Adventures, Universal obtained the rights to the series from

20thCentury Fox and continued making films with Rathbone and Bruce as the lead characters.

 

 

Universal’s Holmes films were considerably different from those

of 20th Century Fox. The setting was updated from the Victorian

era to WWII England and, instead of going against the schemes

of Moriarty and other villains from Doyle’s stories, Holmes and

Watson were pitted against Nazi spies and other WWII-era

dangers. The entries in this series were; Sherlock Holmes

and the Voice of Terror,Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, Sherlock Holmes in

Washington, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, The Spider Woman,The Scarlet

Claw, The Pearl of Death, The House of Fear, The Woman in Green, Pursuit to

Algiers, Terror by Night, and Dressed to Kill. Four of them, Sherlock Holmes and the

Secret Weapon, Woman in Green, Dressed to Kill, and Terror by Night, are public

domain, and these are the most frequently shown on television.

 

“A Case of Identity"

 

Considered by many to be the most influential Holmes and Watson, the portrayals of Rathbone

and Bruce left an indelible mark in the public imagination through their portrayals of the

characters. It is Rathbone’s stern, clever, driven Holmes and Bruce’s blundering, comical

Watson that most audiences today “see” when they read the original Holmes stories, despite the

fact that only one entry in the Rathbone series was actually based on a Doyle story. Rathbone

and Bruce were so connected to the characters in public perceptions that they played the roles

of Holmes and Watson on the radio series “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” from

1939 to 1947. Audio samples of Rathbone and Bruce from this drama were used for the voices

of Holmes and Watson in Disney’s animated film The Great Mouse Detective, a testament to

the enduring appeal of Rathbone and Bruce in the roles.

 

The Sherlock Holmes stories remain popular to this day, and many film

and television adaptations have been made after the end of the

Rathbone/Bruce series. Among modern actors to play Holmes, Jeremy

Brett is perhaps most associated with the role, having played Holmes in

several acclaimed television series. Other notable actors to play Holmes

include Christopher Lee, Rupert Everett, and, in a Russian-language

adaptation popular in the former Soviet Union, Vasili Livanov. A new

adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr., is set to be

released on December 25. Certainly the enduring popularity of Conan Doyle’s original stories

and the many adaptations already produced in the public domain ensure that the character will

remain popular for years to come. 

 

Ironically, Holmes was perhaps too popular for the two people most associated with his

success. Despite being best remembered today for the Holmes stories and adventure fiction

such as The Lost World, Doyle greatly disliked having to write “popular” literature and felt it

was distracting him from more important subjects. Doyle attempted to kill Holmes by having him

fall to his death in a struggle on Reichenbach Falls with his arch-nemesis Moriarty in the story

“The Adventure of the Final Problem”, published in 1893, but received a continuing deluge of

negative press and angry fan mail that forced him to revive Holmes inThe Hound of the

Baskervilles. 

Basil Rathbone also grew tired of his continued association with the Holmes character

and quit the film and radio series in 1946, although Nigel Bruce remained Dr. Watson on

the radio series until 1947. Despite a long and distinguished acting career in everything

from horror to prestige pictures, Holmes remains Rathbone’s best-known role. One

does not have to have the brilliance of a master detective to understand that the public’s

fascination with the character of Sherlock Holmes can never be erased, even by the

efforts of his creators.

Top 10 Detective and Crime Novels and their Authors!

By

monika pareek. Published on August 18, 2014 0

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It’s one of the best genres of popular literature. It has been read extensively since ages and is something that always stays. I am talking about nothing else but ‘detective or crime fiction’. Detective and crime-based novels are so popular that publishing houses decide to dedicate an entire label to their release. With the coming in of the BBC Version of ‘Sherlock Holmes’, we have all become familiar with the character  Sir A C Doyle created almost a hundred years ago, but it still creates and impact and leaves the audience enthralled and amused.

Though all the credit for the popularity of detective fictions goes to Arthur Conan Doyle; but the truth is that he did not really invent this form of writing.

So who was the master behind these detective stories that we so eagerly watch and read today?

All the credit goes to the 19th century author, Edgar Allan Poe. He made major contributions to the literary traditions of dark romanticism and gothic fiction. Poe is known to be the pioneer of detective fiction because he created a character called C.Auguste Dupin. Initially the word ‘detective’ was unknown to all. This character’s name ‘Dupin’ which is suggestive of ‘dupe’ (meaning deception), used deception to obtain information and inquire about his case. Hence the word ‘detective’ came up. His was a character that influenced all the other detective characters that were created in the 19th and the 20th century.

Here is a list of some of the most famous criminal and detective novels of all times:

 

10. Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles

Year: 1931

 

Herbert R Armstrong was a guy who was charged and finally hanged for murdering his wife in 1922. He was called the ‘Hay poisoner’ and is definitely believed to be an inspiration behindMalice Aforethought. The story is about the adulterous physician called Devon who plans

to slowly poison his wife to death. Then he starts eliminating those who he thinks, know his mystery. It’s a psychological paced, and has got a catchy twist at the end.

 

9. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy

 Year : 1935

 

It’s set during the time of the Great Depression. Something that is really surprising about this book is that even today it shocks the reader as much as it did at the time when it was published.  It is an extremely gripping book since the very beginning where the narrator is charged guilty for an unknown crime. The writing style is brilliant and it has got an unbelievable ending.

8. Night and the City by Gerald Kersh

Year:  1938

It is Kersh’s best known work. It’s the tale of Soho Denizen, a pimp and a gangster known as Harry Fabian. He attempts to blackmail  people and fails and a number of attempts at boxing promotions go off the track too. He is not an admirable person but still the reader tends to start liking him through the course of the read, until Harry betrays Zoe, and it all ends terribly for him.

 

7. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

Year:  1942

When one talks of ‘detective fiction’, how can one not mention the name of the greatest detective fiction writers of all times, Agatha Christie?

It’s the story of a painter Amyas Crale who wants to paint the picture of a young Elsa. However, he gets murdered under suspicious circumstances where he is poisoned to death. His daughter decides to find who the murderer is, with the help of Hercule Poirot. It has got all the hallmarks that Christie has in her novels- subplots, a last minute reveal, and psychological thrill.

6. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

Year: 1950

Its Patricia Highsmith’s first novel and the story is really simple. The story is about two men who meet on a train and each one of them has encumbrances against an inconvenient father and an adulterous wife.  It’s a brilliant psychological thriller, and the themes range from guilt, adultery, desire to unconscious behaviour.  And the most amazing fact avbout the book is that the author was in her 20s when she wrote the book.

5. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

Year: 1958

This book by Green is set in Cuba at the time of the Batista regime. It was published at a when a great political upheaval was just three months away. It’s a story about a guy called Jim Wormold, who is simple guy working as a salesman , but becomes a British Secret Service agent inadvertently. Things turn awry when the Head Quarters in London send a man to help him at work.

4. The Collector by John Fowles

Year: 1963

The first part of the book talks from the point of view of a loner called Frederick Clegg who works at the city hall and has a peculiar hobby of collecting butterflies. He is obsessed with a young, Fine Arts student named Miranda. He seems a psychopath  when he drugs Miranda and kidnaps her and locks her up in a cellar. The end is rather disturbing but I wouldn’t throw any spoilers here.

3. Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry by B.S. Johnson

Year: 1973

It’s a story of a young accountant who has a very intriguing way of ‘balacing his books’. For each of his sufferings in life, he entitles himself to take revenge. Soon, minor vandalism becomes huge terrorist activities. It’s a black comedy and was published just before the author committed suicide at 41.

2. A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell 

Year: 1977

The opening lines begins with “Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write”, so you can imagine that how gripping can the novel be throughout. It’s a commentary on the British class system and succeeds in delivering an absolutely fantastic mystery.

1. Laidlaw by William McIlvanney

Year: 1977

A local hardman’s teenage daughter is found murdered and D.J Laidlaw comes to investigate the case. The proses are richly gothic and Mcllvanney is known as the father of the Scottish Noir. The book is about violence and sentimentality and is definitely a must read.