ipl-logo

The Golden Age Of Detective Fiction Analysis

1485 Words6 Pages

DETECTIVE FICTION “ The term ‘Golden Age’ stands for a particular blessed era of crime writing” – Susan Rowland. Golden Age of Detective fiction is regarded as the period between World Wars I and II, an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s; however, classic novels had been written since 1911 and still, are being written. Most of the Golden Age writers are British, however, in America the genre of ‘Hard-Boiled’ fiction is dominant. In this age, the major theme is ‘whodunit’ or the ‘clue puzzles’ in which the reader solves the mystery of a codified game. Golden Age of Detective Fiction was preceded by an age, which began with Sir Arthur Canon Doyle’s set of short mystery stories …show more content…

These mystery stories are apart from the reality. The Realists, unlike the Intuitionists, presents the text as realistic as possible, Dorothy L. Sayers, an English author is one of the most famous writers of this sub-genre and wrote ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ and another eleven novels and two sets of the short stories. The Realist works with the physical evidence such as footprints, bullet holes, and other forensic or measurable evidence, however, the Intuitionists with the exercise of minds. Therefore, Crime Fiction is not static, each of these sub-genres within The Golden Age holds its basic conventions of the establishment. The Golden Age texts follow a common thing which is a mystery and along with that there are conventions of the classical mystery texts: • The reader must have a fair and an equal opportunity to guess the criminal or to solve the ‘clue puzzle’. The reader has to be provided with all the clues and hints, as the ‘sidekick ‘or the companion of the detective cannot hide his/her thoughts from the readers, there should be a transparency in the …show more content…

The authors of the Golden Age shows their faith and belief in the detectives (emphatically vulnerable detectives). The detectives in these stories dominate the plot and solve the mystery case by influencing the perspective of the reader. The detectives mostly are self-conscious and Golden Age does not expect the reader to solve the crime ahead of the detective. They are decidedly unaggressive, non-god like, nondominant and do not exude ‘macho-like’ qualities of a ‘real he-man’. In the Detective Fiction, detectives fall into three broad categories; amateurs, private investigators, and the professional police. In the Golden Age, amateurs are the supreme category. Martin Edwards said “ Originally, detectives tended to be memorable for their eccentricities; now the emphasis is on in depth characterization. The field has become crowded, with many detectives of many different kinds operating in a wide variety of places and

Show More
Related
780 Words | 4 Pages

Goldy Schulz Culinary mysteries are a series of novels by Diane Mott Davidson, a popular American cozy mystery writer. The lead characters in the series is Goldy Schulz a caterer from the fictional town of Aspen Meadow that we first meet in the first novel in the 1990 published debut Catering to Nobody. When we first meet Goldy in the first novel in the series, she has just left an her abusive husband to set up her own business Goldilocks Catering. But it is not long before things go wrong and she becomes the chief suspect in the brutal killing of her ex father in law. She is forced into amateur sleuthing to try to get herself out of the sticky situation.

Read More
532 Words | 3 Pages

Book Review: NYPD Red 3 April Smolkowicz Georgia Gwinnett College Upon reading the fiction book NYPD Red 3, authors James Paterson and Marshall Karp deliver an intense story where two of NYPD’s Red finest detectives, Zack Jordan and his newly assigned partner and ex-girlfriend, Kylie MacDonald investigate the murders of four bodies in four days, but only two heads (Patterson & Karp, 2015, p.339). What exactly was Project Gutenberg? Where was there money to be made? What did this mean when Irene said,” they made money in the wake of all that suffering (Patterson & Karp, p.274).” What was the top secret that no one should have been able to find out?

Read More
747 Words | 3 Pages

Sue Grafton’s, “Full Circle”, describes a determined private detective, Kinsey Millhone, whose audacity during an investigation almost got her seriously hurt or even killed. After a murder Kinsey had personal connection to, she was insistent on finding out who the killer was. In the midst of her inquiry, Kinsey comes to find out who the killer is after finding the murder weapon in their car. Suddenly, the man comes home and realizes what Kinsey has found and begins a high speed car chase. Kinsey’s audacity kicked in she was determined to find him, describing, “I jammed my accelerator to the floor and pinned myself to his tail” (185).

Read More
627 Words | 3 Pages

In Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None there are at least two of the twenty rules from “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” by Van Dine used. These two rules being “The culprit must turn out to be a person who has played a more or less prominent part in the story — that is, a person with whom the reader is familiar and in whom he takes an interest” (Van Dine) and “No willful tricks or deceptions may be placed on the reader other than those played legitimately by the criminal on the detective himself” (Van Dine) In And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie One of the many rules from “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” by Van Dine shown is “The culprit must turn out to be a person who has played a more or less prominent part in the story. . .” (Van Dine).

Read More
990 Words | 4 Pages

Similar to the author, the lead is an author who writes mysteries and works as a private investigator in

Read More
570 Words | 3 Pages

In P.D. James’ novel An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, the main character, Cordelia Gray is thrust into the world of private investigators when the suicide of her partner, Bernie Pryde, forces her to take over the business alone. In her first case, she is hired to investigate the motive behind Mark Callender’s suicide. Although Cordelia is a solo detective in this case, she relies on the memory of Bernie Pryde and the lessons he shared with her during their time together. In An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, Cordelia’s use of memory allows for her to remember the lessons of more experienced investigators.

Read More
511 Words | 3 Pages

This I Believe... Presenting different perspectives that are against the norm is perilous. There's a lot of  stress in having people criticize your unpopular beliefs. In Alan Lightman’s “The Power of Mysteries” and Allan Barger’s “I Could Be Wrong” they tell two different stories that bond between one essential idea: challenging mainstream beliefs. Each writer uses different styles to convey their message that initially has the reader questioning the author's credibility, but in the end they both captivate the reader by teaching them to keeping an open mind to all perspectives.

Read More
407 Words | 2 Pages

The Long Goodbye, along with Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, is a hard-boiled detective novel that has a slower paced plot, which reveals Chandler’s own life as a material. He focuses on Marlowe’s voice, but also his views of the society, the flaws of the characters, and the corrupt world. Marlowe’s life is full of corruption, which also reflects the cruel world. Marlowe is contradictory to Doyle’s Holmes or Poe’s Dupin, because the crimes are not puzzles or conclusive. Holmes was great at scanning a room and figuring out the crime scene, but Marlowe faces crimes with violence and pain.

Read More
172 Words | 1 Pages

The author has constructed Valentine’s character to question the traditional male detective. The protagonist is introduced in a first person narrative, which is purposely gender non-specific, presenting

Read More
1937 Words | 8 Pages

When it comes to mystery films in this generation, there are a wide variety of effect that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of a mystery films. One useful tactic that film-writers often use is that they allow their characters to know vital pieces of information. While doing this the audience is often times left in the dark. The purpose of this tactic is that it allows the suspense in the audience to build so that they can experience first-hand what it like to be a detective. A great example of this is the film called Mystery Team since it allows viewers to join alongside the characters and experience life as a teenage detective.

Read More
384 Words | 2 Pages

His novels are often regarded as a milestones in the field of criminal fiction. In a continuation of “The adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, “The Memoir of Sherlock Holmes” is a cleverly written book with well defined characters and is a relevant depiction of the human condition. “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes” is a series of short stories centered around a detective named Sherlock Holmes and his partner Watson. Doyle creates

Read More
487 Words | 2 Pages

A study of scarlet has expanded my horizons in terms of book genres. The genre of Sherlock Holmes consists of both short story and detective fiction which was eye opening, because before I only read fantasy books and autobiographies. But after reading Sherlock Holmes I discovered the enjoyment of detective fiction where mysteries are unfolded and attempting to solve cases before reading the conclusion of the novels. Sherlock Holmes has underlined the importance of never

Read More
834 Words | 4 Pages

A crime that reaches Sherlock Holmes is not just a broken law, but a mystery. Trivia locates patterns to form functional solutions, while Doyle creates a world of disguises, drugs, and intrigue, in which the answer is never the obvious or expected. The facts presented are not the definite, or even likely, conclusion. This is apparent in the story’s mystery, in which the wife of Neville St. Clair witnessed what appeared to be her husband’s murder, leading to the arrest of a beggar, Hugh Boone, who was found at the scene of the crime. However, Sherlock Holmes deduces that Boone and St. Clair are the same man, revealing that St. Clair had been commuting to the city to beg rather than work and had allowed his own arrest to protect his ruse.

Read More
1730 Words | 7 Pages

. Christie’s detective world is very much a product of the post World War I ‘modernist’ cynicism which also rendered in humans, a sense of introspection. As Poirot says, “It is the brain, the little grey cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within, not without.”

Read More
490 Words | 2 Pages

Looking at the 21st century, there are countless inventions and ideas that people from the olden days would never dream of. People from millions of different occupations used their minds to create products, businesses, and other things to improve the quality of life for themselves and for others. People from all career backgrounds use their imagination to solve problems in order to make their lives easier, such as businessmen, musicians, engineers, doctors, police officers and detectives. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles, one can infer that imagination can help people to achieve success in many settings, such as innovation and helping someone solve a crime. Examining cases and mysteries in the world today

Read More

More about The Golden Age Of Detective Fiction Analysis

Open Document