Detective Literature: The Development Of Detective Fiction

2. Development of the Detective Fiction

2.1. Fascination with Crime and Detective Literature

Conventionally it has been accepted that it is an American writer who grounded/established the genre of the detective fiction in the first half of the nineteenth century: more precisely, it has been believed that the modern detective fiction has its origin in Dupin stories written by Edgar Allan Poe (cf. Alewyn 63; Grossvogel, “Death” 1; Kinsman 158; Nyman 65). It has also been argued that the writer who has brought the genre to its immense popularity in Great Britain is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who towards the end of the nineteenth century created the characters of Sherlock Holmes and his friend/associate Dr. Watson (cf. Kaemmel 58; Kinsman 158; Wiltse

It seems that on the eve of the emergence of the detective literature, people were innately/largely preoccupied with feelings that crime invokes/rouses/wakes/raises/induces in them: “‘I like a good murder that can’t be found out,’ said one character in a novel of 1859, voicing the feelings of many in Victorian Britain. ‘That is, of course, it is very shocking, but I like to hear about it’” (Worsley 156). Undoubtedly/unmistakably, this example/quotation describes the expectations of the reader of sensation literature. Detective fiction, in its turn, does not deal with/focus on/engage with/concern itself with emotions. Neither does it care about retribution – in contrast to melodrama or ‘Penny Blood’ fiction – it is rather concerned with solution of the crime (Worsley 124). In other words, the detective novel differs from its predecessors: as Alewyn puts it, “the crime novel tells the story of a crime, the detective novel that of the solution of a crime” (64). As a consequence of this/the focus shift, the main interest of the detective story lies in “[t]he process of collecting evidence and identifying and/or capturing a (probable) culprit” (Linde and Wouters, par. 7). Furthermore, in the modern detective fiction, it is the very agent navigating the whole process of investigation that is in focus in the narration: whether an amateur or a professional, whether a single person or a group of people (Knight, “Some Men” 267). Although, Worsley maintains that “[a]ll the great fictional detectives until the Second World War – Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, Hercule Poirot, Albert Campion – are amateurs or private investigators” (159). Furthermore, in the detective fiction, an/the actual crime usually opens the narration, while/whereas the criminal and the circumstances