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, 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.--jacket. Lives Of Crime -- Gendering The Genre -- Social Negotiations: Class, Crime And Power -- Lands Of Hope And Glory? Englishness, Race And Colonialism -- Detecting Psychoanalysis: Readers, Criminals And Narrative -- Gothic Crimes: A Literature Of Terror And Horror -- The Spirits Of Detection -- Feminism Is Criminal -- The Complete Detective And Crime Novels Of The Six Authors -- A Conversation With Ruth Rendell/barbara Vine -- A Conversation With P.d. James. Susan Rowland. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 214-216) And Index. "Heather Worthington's book challenges the traditional account that finds detection before Poe's Dupin and Doyle's Holmes only in Gothic and Newgate novels and some police memoirs. In fact, the popular press, from broadsides to periodicals, is where both the fictional detective and the investigative case-structures developed, in line with major changes in the real discipline of crime fighting. The well-known masters of early crime fiction, including Collins and Dickens, drew on and refined the raw riches of the popular field, found in texts that have rarely been reprinted or even discussed, but which are analysed in depth in this book. The book benefits from extensive archival research and is theoretically informed by Foucault's account of disciplinary power 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. Front Matter....Pages i-x Lives of Crime....Pages 1-14 Gendering the Genre....Pages 15-38 Social Negotiations: Class, Crime and Power....Pages 39-61 Lands of Hope and Glory? Englishness, Race and Colonialism....Pages 62-85 Detecting Psychoanalysis: Readers, Criminals and Narrative....Pages 86-109 Gothic Crimes: A Literature of Terror and Horror....Pages 110-134 The Spirits of Detection....Pages 135-156 Feminism Is Criminal....Pages 157-180 Back Matter....Pages 181-222 No study has examined this material in anything like the detail or with the explanatory approach offered here. With full references, comprehensive narrative description and written in an accessible and readable style, The Rise of the Detective in Early Nineteenth-Century Popular Fiction is essential reading for those researching in, studying or just fascinated by crime fiction."--Jacket This book explores the three aspects of deviance that contemporary crime fiction manipulates: linguistic, social, and generic. Gregoriou conducts case studies into crime series by James Patterson, Michael Connelly and Patricia Cornwell, and investigates the way in which these novelists correspondingly challenge those aforementioned conventions. Serial Crime Fiction is the first book to focus explicitly on the complexities of crime fiction seriality. Covering definitions and development of the serial form, implications of the setting, and marketing of the series, it studies authors such as Doyle, Sayers, Paretsky, Ellroy, Marklund, Camilleri, Borges, across print, film and television. 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. 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 What happens to detective fiction when the detective is "post-colonial," a marginalized native or settler in a country recovering from colonialism?