Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a literary genre that centers around the unraveling of a mystery, often involving crime, detective work, and suspenseful narratives. The genre started to take shape in the mid-nineteenth century, with Edgar Allan Poe being credited as one of its pioneers through his story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." This genre has evolved to include various subcategories, such as detective novels, cozy mysteries, legal thrillers, and historical mysteries. Influential figures in mystery fiction include iconic authors like Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created memorable detectives like Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, respectively.
The genre saw significant popularity during the Golden Age of mystery fiction in the early 20th century, marked by the emergence of unique storytelling styles, such as the "whodunit" format. Mystery fiction has transcended literature, influencing theater, film, and television, with notable adaptations by directors like Alfred Hitchcock. The genre also appeals to younger audiences through series like Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, showcasing its broad reach. Overall, mystery fiction continues to captivate readers by exploring themes of justice, intrigue, and the complexities of human behavior.
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Mystery fiction
The literary genre of mystery fiction emerged in the middle of the nineteenth century. Various subcategories of the mystery style of writing became evident as this fiction developed. These include stories of crime and homicide; detective novels; cozy mysteries; thrillers set in far-flung places; legal thrillers; stories where police play a prominent role; and fiction contextualized in historical times. Writers who immersed themselves in murder mysteries and detective fiction, and who changed the way this style of writing was perceived, include Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Mystery fiction became especially popular in its written form, and as time progressed stage productions of murder mysteries became prevalent, with film and television following suit.
Brief History
In 1841, Edgar Allan Poe presented his mystery story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," introducing the world to this type of literary genre. In the story, a fictitious character by the name of Monsieur Auguste C. Dupin was created by Poe to act as detective in the unfolding mysterious drama. This style of mystery writing has been called the "locked room" mystery. A murder victim is found in an enclosed space by a detective who scrupulously unravels clues in order to determine the murderer's motive. While Poe may be credited as the first mystery writer, his influence is attributed to Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. These authors wrote in the mystery genre as well, with works such as Dickens's Bleak House, 1853, and Collins's The Woman in White, containing examples of mystery, suspense, and crime. The first detective novel, The Moonstone, was authored by Collins in 1868. A decade later, the first female detective novel writer appeared on the literary scene. Anna Katherine Green's novel The Leavenworth Case may have sparked the theme of murder in an English country house.
The 1920s generated a proliferation of murder mystery literature. In the United Kingdom, a style that became popular was the "cozy" mystery. In cozy village settings, a drama was set up where suddenly a murder occurred. During this era, mystery fiction also burgeoned in the United States, with a set format of "whodunit" style mysteries. The Golden Age of mystery fiction had taken its place on the world literary scene. Agatha Christie, an English crime writer, emerged as an author who would change the trajectory by ushering in novel after novel of entertaining mysteries. America experienced the Golden Age a few years later when Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay collaborated as Ellery Queen to present popular murder mysteries featuring Ellery, an amateur detective, and his co-partner father, Richard Queen.
A significant step toward mystery fiction becoming more accessible to a wide range of readers transpired when Allen Lane, a publisher in London, decided to publish mystery works in paperback. The paperbacks were economically low cost and widely available and allowed the public to purchase the books with ease; readership expanded as a result.
Overview
Edgar Allan Poe. "The Murders in The Rue Morgue" is Edgar Allan Poe's seminal detective piece and gains credit as the origin of mystery writing in the detective realm. Monsieur Dupin's name hints at the duplicity involved in mysteries, suggesting someone being duped to gain access to material that will solve the mystery. Although Poe only managed to publish three of his Dupin stories, the character himself has been imitated posthumously by later writers.
Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is the name perhaps more popularly known than his author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The detective Sherlock Holmes became a household name, predominantly in England, but internationally as well. When Sherlock Holmes arrived on the mystery fiction stage in 1887 in A Study in Scarlet, his fame was established. Dr. Watson, the sidekick of Sherlock Holmes, became as popular and seemingly real a character as the detective. Doyle presented Holmes as a detective with a unique sense of style. His deductive ingenuity in solving mystery clues had readers enraptured. Doyle's authorship in the precise character portrayal of Sherlock Holmes paved the way for a scientifically oriented approach to detecting crime. The intellectual manner of the inimitable Sherlock Holmes was uniquely balanced by the softer down-to-earth manner of Dr. Watson.
Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie is one of the most famous and popular writers of mystery fiction in the genre's history. Her prolific career included over eighty mystery novels covering a span of more than fifty years. Her detective sleuth was named Hercule Poirot, a Belgian mastermind at solving crime. Poirot did not work alone; he was accompanied by Jane Marple, a spinster who worked close at hand with Poirot to untangle the cases in front of them. Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, have become iconic figures in mystery fiction. Christie also worked within the cozy style, with The Murder at the Vicarage and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys brought mystery fiction to the younger market. The Nancy Drew novels comprise a compilation of authors, collectively labeled Carolyn Keene, a pseudonym, and published by Edward Stratemeyer. Stratemeyer published The Hardy Boys as written by Franklin W. Dixon, likewise a pseudonym. The Encyclopedia Brown series written by Donald Sobol have also been popular mystery pondering stories for children.
Charlie Chan. Charlie Chan was created by Earl Derr Biggers in the 1930s. Chan was another of the eccentric and interesting, yet quirky, detectives proficient at unraveling mysteries. His unique ability involved using Eastern wisdom to ascertain answers to perplexing murder puzzles. Charlie Chan became a commercial name in film, radio, television, and books.
Alfred Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock, an English and American author, wrote a prolific canon of mystery fiction in the twentieth century. Hitchcock's films debuted in the 1920s; he went on to direct and produce approximately fifty feature films in fifty years. His films deal mainly with the themes of an accused man, a guilty woman, and a psychopath, with an interweaving of these often occurring amid chases and false accusations. Hitchcock is noted as one of the most masterful suspense writers.
Other writers and their famous characters include Erle Stanley Gardner and the attorney character Perry Mason; Mickey Spillane and his tough creation Mike Hammer. From hardline legal prosecutions, to gut-wrenching violence, Mason and Hammer appealed to the public. Radio, and then television, brought the police procedural and crime fiction mysteries alive.
Bibliography
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