The History of Detective Fiction

The origins of detection in Western culture can be traced back to

the story of ‘Susanna and the Elders’ in The Old Testament in
which Prophet Daniel exposed the falsehood of the testimonies
by certain individuals to prove the innocence of a woman who
was wrongly accused as an adulteress and sentenced to death.

In the Middle East, the renowned work of Arabian literature,

One Thousand and One Nights features a story called ‘The Three
Apples ‘in which the Caliph Haroun-al-Rashid orders his vizier
to solve the mystery of an unknown corpse in a casket. He
succesfully solves the crime in three days.

In British literature, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is considered

by some as consisting of certain traits of the detective fiction.
Hamlet knows that Claudius, his uncle, is his father’s murderer,
but he waits and tries to prove his uncle’s guilt before taking
revenge.
The History of Detective Fiction
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is considered to be the pioneer of modern detective fiction. His
stories ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’; ‘The Mystery of Marie Rogêt’ and ‘The Purloined
Letter’ feature the French detective C.Auguste Dupin, who solves the mysteries with his
intuitive insights, keen observation and detailed analysis. Poe called these stories his ‘tales of
ratiocination’.

French writer Émile Gaboriau (1832-1873) is considered to be the first writer of a full-
length detective novel. He wrote the novel L’Affaire Lerouge’ which introduces the character
of the amateur detective called M.Tabaret, nicknamed Père Tireauclair. His more well-
known detective is known as Monsieur Lecoq, modelled after the historical police ofiicer
Vidocq. The longer form of the novel allowed Gaboriau to explore his characters and
situations in details.

The first full-length modern detective novel in British literature is attributed to

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) and his most well known work in this genre is the 1868
novel The Moonstone. This novel introduces the professional police officer Sergeant
Cuff as the detective who solves the mystery of the missing diamond called the
Moonstone.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), the renowned writer of classics, is also believed to be

one of the precursors of detective fiction. His novels Bleak House and the unfinished
The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ carry certain characteristics of the Modern Detective
Novel.
 The History of Detective Fiction
Detective fiction flourished in England in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century. Therefore, this period is known as The Golden Age of
Detective Fiction.

The most celebrated writer of British detective fiction is Arthur Conan

Doyle (1859-1930) who published A Study in Scarlet in 1887, the first of his
four novels with the detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr John
Watson. He went on to write more than fifty short stories about the duo.

Sherlock Holmes has become one of the most popular fictional characters,
having captured the public imagination with his eccentric personality, his
genius for solving mysteries and crimes, his brilliant superhuman aura.
Holmes solves tremendously complex cases, bordering on the fantastic,
with what he calls ‘the science of deduction’.

Holmes calls himself a consulting detective, and along with John Watson,
his accomplice, he goes on to solve crimes that challenge the Scotland
Yard, one of the best police departments of the world.

Dr. John Watson, his friend and close confidante, is the first-person
narrator of all his stories. This is the figure of the detective’s assistant, who
represents the reader to some extent, and serves to highlight the
detective’s extraordinary observation, intelligence and reasoning powers.
 The History of Detective Fiction
The Ten Rules of ( the Golden Age of) Detective Fiction

Monsignor Ronald A. Knox (1888-1957) was a British clergyman, editor, a literary critic, a humourist and a detective story
writer himself who presented the "ten rules" that guided detective fiction in its so-called Golden Age. They appeared in
the preface to Best Detective Stories of 1928-29, which Knox edited.

 The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the
reader has been allowed to follow.

 All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.

 Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.

 No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the
end.

 No Chinaman must figure in the story.

 No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.

 The detective must not himself commit the crime.

 The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.

 The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his
intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.

 Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.
 The History of Detective Fiction

The ‘whodunit’ which presents two

stories: the story of the crime and the
story of the investigation.

Tzvetan Todorov, in his 1966 essay

The Typology of Detective Fiction, The thriller which focuses more on
classified the detective novel under the second story or the investigation.
three categories:

The suspense which combines the

properties of the whodunit and the
thriller.
 The History Of Detective Fiction
Characteristics of the ‘whodunit’:

 It flourished in Britain in the inter World War years, i.e. in the 1920s and 1930s.

 The term ‘whodunit’ is a colloquial variation of the words ‘who did it’, referring
to the mystery of finding out the identity of the perpetrator.

 It is a complex, plot-driven, variety of the detective story.

 In the narrative, certain clues are provided to the reader from which the identity
of the perpetrator can be deduced before the revelation at the climax.

 The mystery is generally solved by an amateur or a professional detective of an

eccentric nature.

 It comprises a ‘double narrative’: one which is open and one which is hidden
from the readers
 The History Of Detective Fiction
A few examples of the ‘Whodunit’ in British literature in The Golden Age of Detective Fiction:
 Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (1868), widely regarded as one of the first modern
whodunits
 Gaston Leroux's The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907), a locked-room mystery
 Anna Katharine Green's Initials Only (1911)
 E. C. Bentley's Trent's Last Case (1913)
 Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) introduces Hercule Poirot.
 A. A. Milne's The Red House Mystery (1922)
 Dorothy L. Sayers's Unnatural Death (1927), one of the first Lord Peter Wimsey novels
 S. S. Van Dine's The Greene Murder Case (1928)
 Ronald Knox's The Footsteps at the Lock (1928)
 Anthony Berkeley's The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) features six different solutions
to the murder (and is an expansion of Berkeley's classic short story, "The Avenging
Chance")
 Ellery Queen's The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932), regarded by some as the best of his early
novels in the Golden Age style
 C. P. Snow's Death Under Sail (1932), his first novel, after which he turned to mainstream
fiction; it features unusually complex characters for a mystery of this period
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