From Agatha Christie To Ruth Rendell: British Women Writers in Detective and Crime Fiction (Crime Files)

From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell is the first book to consider seriously the hugely popular and influential works of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Nag Marsh, P.D. James and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. Providing studies of 42 key novels, this volume introduces these authors for students and the general reader in the context of their lives, and of critical debates on gender, colonialism, psychoanalysis, the Gothic, and feminism. It includes interviews with P.D. James and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. Booknews Herself writing in a spare, factual style fitting of the detectives she critiques, Rowland (English, U. of Greenwich, England) surveys women crime writers, exploring the elements of Gothic horror, gender, psychoanalysis, and colonialism contained within their works. She considers 42 novels by Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, P.D. James, and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine in comparative chapters divided by theme. Appendices contain lists of the authors' complete works and interviews with P.D. James and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 9 1 Lives of Crime......Page 12 2 Gendering the Genre......Page 26 3 Social Negotiations: Class, Crime and Power......Page 50 4 Lands of Hope and Glory? Englishness, Race and Colonialism......Page 73 5 Detecting Psychoanalysis: Readers, Criminals and Narrative......Page 97 6 Gothic Crimes: A Literature of Terror and Horror......Page 121 7 The Spirits of Detection......Page 146 8 Feminism Is Criminal......Page 168 Appendix A: The Complete Detective and Crime Novels of the Six Authors......Page 192 Appendix B: A Conversation with Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine......Page 203 Appendix C: A Conversation with P.D. James......Page 207 Notes......Page 210 Select Bibliography......Page 225 Index......Page 228 From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell is the first book to consider seriously the hugely popular and influential works of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L.Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, P.D. James and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. Providing studies of forty-two key novels, this volume introduces these authors for students and the general reader in the context of their lives, and of critical debates on gender, colonialism, psychoanalysis, the Gothic, and feminism. It includes interviews with P.D. James and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell is the first book to consider seriously the hugely popular and influential works of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, P.D. James and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. Providing studies of forty-two key novels, this volume introduces these authors for students and the general reader in the context of their lives, and of critical debates on gender, colonialism, psychoanalysis, the Gothic, and feminism. It includes interviews with P.D. James and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine "From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell considers seriously the hugely popular and influential works of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Nag Marsh, P.D. James and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. Providing studies of 42 key novels, this volume introduces these authors for students and the general reader in the context of their lives, and of critical debates on gender, colonialism, psychoanalysis, the Gothic, and feminism. It includes interviews with P.D. James and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine."--BOOK JACKET. This text considers the popular and influential works of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, P. D. James and Ruth Rendell. Studies of 42 novels are presented, introducing these authors to students and the general reader