Title: The rise of the detective in early nineteenth-century popular fiction /
Authors: Worthington, Heather, 1953-
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan,
Year: 2005
Subjects: Detective and mystery stories, English History and criticism.; Popular literature Great Britain History and criticism.; English fiction History and criticism; Detectives in literature.; Roman policier anglais Histoire et critique.; Paralittérature Grande-Bretagne Histoire et critique.; Roman anglais Histoire et critique.; Inspecteurs de police dans la littérature.; LITERARY CRITICISM European English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.; Detective and mystery stories, English; Detectives in literature.; English fiction; Popular literature; Misdaadverhalen.; Kriminalliteratur.
Abstract: "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.