Crime Fiction
Emerson 1
Nick Emerson
Professor Wilson
English 115: 1
30 November 2010
These Dead Hands: A Study of Crime Fiction
Since the form has never been perfected, it has never become fixed. The academians have never got their dead hands on it. It is still fluid, still too various for easy classification.(Horsley 1)
While Raymond Chandler, the author of those words, would surely be against the classification attempted here, these “dead hands” of mine will attempt to share a study of what has been described as the most widely read type of literature: crime fiction. Crime fiction is the genre of fiction that deals with crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. Crime fiction is a very broad, open genre and has many subgenres including classical detective fiction, hard-boiled (tough guy) fiction, psychopathological crimes (e.g., serial killers), non-investigative crime stories, and courtroom drama. While some might say that solving crimes can be traced back to the Bible, crime fiction is generally agreed to be considered as a serious genre around 1900. The American author Edgar Allen Poe is widely considered to be “the father of the detective story” and the first in this genre with the publication of The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841. The Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published from 1887 to 1914
Emerson 2 are said to have been singularly responsible for the huge popularity in this genre. The genre originated in the US and the British refined the features.
Classic crime fiction or as we call it today, detective fiction, began around 1841 with Edgar Allen Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue. As this story predated the word “detective”, Edgar Allen Poe created the word “ratiocination” a word meant to describe the type of rational, deductive reasoning used to solve the crime. While the genre may have begun in America, the British are the ones who defined its features. These early stories were written as
Nick Emerson
Professor Wilson
English 115: 1
30 November 2010
These Dead Hands: A Study of Crime Fiction
Since the form has never been perfected, it has never become fixed. The academians have never got their dead hands on it. It is still fluid, still too various for easy classification.(Horsley 1)
While Raymond Chandler, the author of those words, would surely be against the classification attempted here, these “dead hands” of mine will attempt to share a study of what has been described as the most widely read type of literature: crime fiction. Crime fiction is the genre of fiction that deals with crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. Crime fiction is a very broad, open genre and has many subgenres including classical detective fiction, hard-boiled (tough guy) fiction, psychopathological crimes (e.g., serial killers), non-investigative crime stories, and courtroom drama. While some might say that solving crimes can be traced back to the Bible, crime fiction is generally agreed to be considered as a serious genre around 1900. The American author Edgar Allen Poe is widely considered to be “the father of the detective story” and the first in this genre with the publication of The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841. The Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published from 1887 to 1914
Emerson 2 are said to have been singularly responsible for the huge popularity in this genre. The genre originated in the US and the British refined the features.
Classic crime fiction or as we call it today, detective fiction, began around 1841 with Edgar Allen Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue. As this story predated the word “detective”, Edgar Allen Poe created the word “ratiocination” a word meant to describe the type of rational, deductive reasoning used to solve the crime. While the genre may have begun in America, the British are the ones who defined its features. These early stories were written as
Bibliography: Friday. 19 Nov. 2010. < http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/goldenage.htm > This source just goes into a deeper explanation of what detective fiction is and when that style of writing was popular Haining, Peter. The Classic Era of Crime Fiction. Chicago Review Press, 2002. Horsley, Lee. Twentieth – Century Crime Fiction. United States: Oxford University Press, 2005. Plain, Gill. “The Purest Literature We Have’ to ‘A Spirit Grown Corrupt’: Embracing Contamination in Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction.” Volume 20, Number 1, 2008: 3–16 Queen, Ellery. Queen 's Quorum: A History of the Detective-Crime Short Story as Revealed in the 106 Most Important Books Published in this Field since 1845. Biblo & Tannen, New York (1969)