The Detective as Historian : History and Art in Historical Crime Fiction PDF
Preview The Detective as Historian : History and Art in Historical Crime Fiction
rJ1ie t])etective as Jlistorian %e 'Detective as j{istorian: :;{istory and .9l.rt . in :;{istorica{ Crime :Fiction edited by !Rg!J fJ3. 'Browne and Lawrence J2L 1(reiseT; Jr. Preface b!J 2?gbin W. WinR§ The University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press 1930 Monroe Street, 3rdFIoor Madison, Wisconsin 53711-2059 uwpress.wisc.edu 3 Henrietta Street London WC2E 8LU, England eurospanbookstore.com Copyright © 2000 Bowling Green State University Popular Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any format or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without written permission of the University of Wisconsin Press, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging':'in-Publication Data The detective as historian : history and art in historical crime fiction I edited by Ray B. Browne and Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-87972-815-9 (cloth) -- ISBN 0-87972-816-7 (paper) 1. Detective and mystery stories, English--History and criticism. 2. Detective and mystery stories, American--History and criticism. 3. Historical.fiction, American--History and criticism. 4. Historical fiction, English--History and criticism. 5. Literature and history--Great Britain--History. 6. LiteratUre and history--United States--History. 1. Browne, Ray Broadus II. Kreiser, Lawrence A., 1969- PR830.D4 D39 2000 813' .087209358J-dc21 00-029245 Cover design by Dumm Art ISBN 978-0-87972-816-8 (pbk.: alk. paper) . ' Dedicated to Pat, Alicia, and Julia for reasons only they can fully understand Contents Preface ix Robin W. Winks Introduction 1 Ray B. Browne and Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr. Lynda S. Robinson and Lauren Haney: Detection in the Land of Mysteries 11 Rita Rippetoe John Maddox Roberts and Steven Saylor: Detecting in the Final Decades of the Roman Republic 22 Terrance L. Lewis Lindsey Davis: Falco, Cynical Detective in a Corrupt Roman Empire 32 Peter Hunt Peter Tremayne: Sister Fidelma and the Triumph of Truth 45 Christiane W. Luehrs and Robert B. Luehrs Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael 60 Edward J. Rielly P. C. Doherty: Hugh Corbett, Secret-Agent and Problem-Solver 76 Edward L. Meek, Theron M. Westervelt, and David N. Eldridge Susanna Gregory: Doctor Matthew Bartholomew, Master of Medicine and Detection 85 Jean Coakley Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose 95 Judy Ann Ford Elizabeth Eyre: Detection in the Italian Renaissance 111 Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox Margaret Frazer: Sister Frevisse and Medieval Mysteries 122 Patricia W. Julius Josephine Tey and Others: The Case of Richard III 133 R. Gordon Kelly C. L. Grace: Kathryn Swinbrook, Fifteenth-Century Physician and Sleuth 147 Jean Coakley Michael Clynes: The Recollections of Shallot 156 David N. Eldridge, Theron M. Westervelt, and Edward L. Meek Maan Meyers: The Saga of the Dutchman 169 Frank A. Salamone Bruce Alexander: Sir Henry Fielding and Blind Justice 175 Donna Bradshaw Smith Keith Heller: A Genealogy of Detection in the Eighteenth Century 186 Scott R. Christianson Margaret Lawrence: An Eighteenth-Century Midwife 202 Marie Nelson Stephanie Barron: (Re)Inventing Jane Austen as Detective 213 Anita Vickers Kate Ross: Where Have All the Dandies Gone? 222 Jerry L. Parker James Brewer: Sleuths and Carpetbaggers along the Mississippi River 230 Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr. Peter Heck: Mark Twain as Detective 240 Ray B. Browne and Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr. Caleb Carr: Running Away from the Darkness 251 Douglas Tallack Anne Perry: Victorian 'Istorian and Murdermonger 265 Linda J. Holland-Toll Peter Lovesey: No Cribbing on History 283 Margaret L. Foxwell Elizabeth Peters: The Last Camel Died at Noon as Lost World Adventure Pastiche 293 Gary Hoppenstand Contributors 306 Preface Robin W. Winks Mystery and detective novels are the bestselling form of popular fic tion today, certainly in the United States and Great Britain, and the "histori cal mystery" is the most rapidly growing branch of the genre. Clearly many readers find pleasure in seeing a mystery set in the past and solved by meth ods not always available in our times. Of course, logic, the careful accumu lation of evidence, and knowing how to ask good questions were as essential in the thirteenth century as they are in the twenty-first, and the his torical mystery is not greatly removed from a rousing puzzle set in the year 2000, but there are great differences in technique and in the tools available to both the detective and the criminal. One need think only of DNA, com puters, and modem photography to dramatize the gap between the main stream detective story and the historical mystery. Why do so many readers enjoy historical mysteries? Surely there are many reasons. These will include a desire for the presumably more ordered world of the nineteenth century. But then why are novels about the disor derly world of the fifteenth century so popular? Surely there are readers attracted to the historical mystery because the bloodshed is, on the whole, less and certainly less gruesomely revealed in most cases; because the casual vulgarities of tum-of-this-century demotic speech are not to be found on the lips of even the most heinous villains of ancient Rome (though equiv alents may be abundantly present, undetected by some readers): perhaps because the crimes are less threatening to us than are repetitive serial killings, accounts of wildings in Central Park, and corrupt police. Still, one notes these plot devices creeping into the historical mystery today, as they were certainly present in real life. Perhaps readers who do not much care for history as written by historians, but who enjoy thinking their way back into the past, rid themselves of any residual gUilt they may have felt about dis cussing this subject in school. I confess that until recently I have disliked historical mysteries. Not too long ago I wrote what I now recognize as a virtual hatchet job on Josephine Tey, exasperated by the number of times her Daughter of Time was praised as a good mystery novel. I still think it is a bad novel and quite misleading as to how historians ask and answer questions, but I now realize, especially having read the many essays in this pioneering volume, that she had no intention of representing herself as a historian and that she shoulders little blame if unwary readers take her to have posed as one. Read objectively, unburdened by the professional historian's regard for methodology, objec- ix
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