Detective Fiction
Cultural History of Literature
1. Edition August 2005
280 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Detective Fiction is a clear and compelling look at some of
the best known, yet least-understood, characters and texts of the
modern day. Charles J. Rzepka traces the history of the genre from
its modern beginnings in the early eighteenth century, with the
criminal broadsheets and 'true' crime stories of The
Newgate Calendar, to its present state of diversity, innovation,
and worldwide diffusion, in a manner that students and scholars
alike will find readable and provocative.
The book focuses particularly on the relationship of detective
fiction's emerging 'puzzle-element' to the
investigative methods of the nascent historical sciences, and to
popular cultural attitudes toward history, particularly in Great
Britain and the United States. In addition, the author examines the
specific impact of urbanization, the rise of the professions, brain
science, legal and social reform, war and economic dislocation,
class-consciousness, and changing concepts of race and gender.
Extended close readings of the classics of Detective Fiction in
several 'Casebook' essays devoted to seminal works by
Poe, Doyle, Sayers, and Chandler show in detail how the genre has
responded to these influences over the last century and a half.
They also serve to introduce students to a variety of current
critical approaches.
Undergraduate students of Detective and Crime Fiction and of
genre fiction in general, will find this book essential
reading.
'Cool, savvy, and utterly compelling: every page of
Charles J. Rzepka's magnificent history of detective fiction
displays the forensic panache of the true connoisseur of murder.
Commanding an unrivalled breadth of reference and depth of insight,
the book is a must-read for everyone interested in detective
fiction.'
Nicholas Roe, University of St Andrews
'In this sustained analysis of the emergence and
development of detective fiction in England and America, Charles
Rzepka has produced both a compelling cultural history and a
skilful demonstration of what Poe aptly called "the moral
activity which disentangles". It will become an indispensable
guide to serious students of detective literature.'
Ronald R. Thomas, University of Puget Sound
Introduction
Part I: Narratives of Detection and the Sciences of History
Chapter 1: What is Detective Fiction?
Chapter 2: Detection and the Historical Sciences: Two Locked Rooms and Two Keys to Unlock Them
Part II: The Rise of Detective Fiction and the Birth of Detection
Chapter 3: From Rogues to Ratiocination
Casebook 1: The Ape and the Aristocrat
Chapter 4: From Detectives to Detection
Casebook 2: The Scientific Detective's Bohemian Soul
Chapter 5: From Holmes to the Golden Age
Casebook 3: Of War and Wimsey
Chapter 6: Hard-Boiled Detection
Casebook 4: No Game for Knights
Chapter 7: Cold War, Cops and Counterculture
Epilogue: The End of History?
Works Cited
Index
themselves. This fine analytical study is a five-story library
analyzed and mixed into answering the many questions that arise ...
(an) exhaustive and comprehensive guide, which needs to be owned
and studied by all literary-cultural-crime fiction scholars."
Journal of American Culture
"A lucid and fascinating exploration of the cultural changes
that influenced the 19th and early 20th-century development of the
genre."
Times Higher Education Supplement
"Rzepka's real strength is his clear, graceful writing which
sets his overview apart from its many competitors. In his
discussion of the unique sensibility of Sherlock Holmes, the
baffling morality of Sam Spade, or the sullied romanticism of
Philip Marlowe, Rzepka is as skillful as these accomplished
detectives?rightly perceiving a depth of complexity, shrewdly
identifying their key elements, and clearly tracing their inherent
logic ? Admirably [fulfils] its stated purpose ... to be a
stimulating overview of this genre from its origins up to present
day and to be read by college undergraduates."
Modernism/Modernity
"Cool, savvy, and utterly compelling: every page of Charles J.
Rzepka's magnificent history of detective fiction displays the
forensic panache of the true connoisseur of murder. Commanding an
unrivalled breadth of reference and depth of insight, the book is a
must-read for everyone interested in detective fiction."
Nicholas Roe, University of St Andrews
"In this sustained analysis of the emergence and development of
detective fiction in England and America, Charles Rzepka has
produced both a compelling cultural history and a skilful
demonstration of what Poe aptly called 'the moral activity which
disentangles'. It will become an indispensable guide to serious
students of detective literature."
Ronald R. Thomas, University of Puget
Sound
