Hard-Boiled Sentimentality : The Secret History of American Crime Stories

Leonard Cassuto's cultural history links the testosterone-saturated heroes of American crime stories to the sensitive women of the nineteenth-century sentimental novel. From classics like The Big Sleep and The Talented Mr. Ripley to neglected paperback gems, Cassuto chronicles the dialogue-centered on the power of sympathy-between these popular genres and the sweeping social changes of the twentieth century, ending with a surprising connection between today's serial killers and the domestic fictions of long ago. Columbia University Press Praise for Hard-Boiled Sentimentality 2 Title Page 6 Copyright © 2009 Leonard Cassuto 7 CONTENTS 10 Introduction: Sentimentality, Sympathy, Serial Killers 14 Part I: Revising the roots of the hard-boiled tradition 36 1 Crime and Sympathy 38 2 Hammett and the Hard-Boiled Sentimental 60 Part II: Reading the hard-boiled sentimental 78 3 Depression Domesticity 80 4 The Sentimental Action Hero in Cold War Crime Stories 106 5 Sentimental Perversion: The canonized nonconformists of the fifties 136 Part III: Crime fiction at the sentimental apocalypse 162 6 The Homely Heart of the Hard-Boiled 164 7 Hard-Boiled Therapists, Hard-Boiled Women, and a Vigilante 194 8 Shades of Professional Sympathy, race, crime, detection 216 9 The Rise of the Serial Killer 252 Notes 286 Bibliography 320 Acknowledgments 324 Index 328 Cassuto offers an unconventional interpretation of American literature's most ""masculine"" genre, the American crime story, arguing that its origins can be traced, paradoxically, to nineteenth-century sentimental narratives which were almost always written by women. The crime story typically features a tough and laconic protagonist, usually a detective, navigating his way through an indifferent and corrupt world. Sentimental literature, by contrast, is based in the home and in religious faith, and emphasizes a strong moral code. Cassuto examines novels from the nineteenth century Leonard Cassuto's cultural history links the testosterone-saturated heroes of American crime stories to the sensitive women of the nineteenth-century sentimental novel. From classics like The Big Sleep and The Talented Mr. Ripley to neglected paperback gems, Cassuto chronicles the dialogue& mdash;centered on the power of sympathy& mdash;between these popular genres and the sweeping social changes of the twentieth century, ending with a surprising connection between today's serial killers and the domestic fictions of long ago Leonard Cassuto's cultural history of the hard-boiled crime genre recovers the fascinating link between tough guys and sensitive women Leonard Cassuto. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [307]-309) And Index.