From Agatha Christie To Ruth Rendell: British Women Writers in Detective and Crime Fiction (Crime Files)

233 Pages·2001·1.15 MB·English

by  Susan Rowland

From Agatha Christie
to Ruth Rendell
British Women Writers in Detective
and Crime Fiction
Susan Rowland
From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell
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10.1057/9780230598782 - From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell, Susan Rowland
Crime Files Series
General Editor: Clive Bloom
Since its invention in the nineteenth century, detective fiction has never been
more popular. In novels, short stories, films, radio, television and now in
computer games, private detectives and psychopaths, prim poisoners and
overworked cops, tommy gun gangsters and cocaine criminals are the very stuff
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of modern imagination, and their creators one mainstay of popular 3-0
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consciousness. Crime Files is a ground-breaking series offering scholars, students 1-
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and discerning readers a comprehensive set of guides to the world of crime and 20
detective fiction. Every aspect of crime writing, detective fiction, gangster movie, ct -
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true-crime exposé, police procedural and post-colonial investigation is explored n
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through clear and informative texts offering comprehensive coverage and C
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theoretical sophistication. av
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Published titles include: e -
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Ed Christian (editor) m
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THE POST-COLONIAL DETECTIVE Tr
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Paul Cobley ek
THE AMERICAN THRILLER bliot
Generic Innovation and Social Change in the 1970s bi
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Lee Horsley sit
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THE NOIR THRILLER v
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Susan Rowland o
FROM AGATHA CHRISTIE TO RUTH RENDELL ed t
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British Women Writers in Detective and Crime Fiction en
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Crime Files ght
Series Standing Order ISBN 0–333–71471–7 hardcover yri
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10.1057/9780230598782 - From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell, Susan Rowland
From Agatha Christie
to Ruth Rendell
British Women Writers in Detective
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and Crime Fiction 3-
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Susan Rowland ect -
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Senior Lecturer in English Co
University of Greenwich ve
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10.1057/9780230598782 - From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell, Susan Rowland
© Susan Rowland 2001
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying 09
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court 03-
Road,London W1P 0LP. 11-
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this ct -
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil ne
claims for damages. on
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The author has asserted her right to be identified av
as the author of this work in accordance with the gr
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Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. e - P
First published 2001 by so
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PALGRAVE o
H17o5u nFdifmthi lAlsv,eBnausein,gNsetowk Yeo,Hrka,mN.pYs.h1ir0e0 R1G021 6XS and ket i Tr
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Companies and representatives throughout the world ot
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PALGRAVEis the new global academic imprint of bi
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St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and et
Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ersit
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ISBN 0–333–67450–2 hardback o U
ISBN 0–333–68463–X paperback d t
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This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and ce
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. m - li
A catalogue record for this book is available co
from the British Library. ect.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data o
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Rowland,Susan. ve
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From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell / Susan Rowland. gr
p.cm. pal
Includes bibliographical references and index. ww.
ISBN 0–333–67450–2 (cloth) m w
1.Detective and mystery stories,English—History and criticism.2. o
Women and literature—Great Britain—History—20th century.3. al fr
Christie,Agatha,1890–1976—Criticism and interpretation.4. eri
Allingham,Margery,1904–1966—Criticism and interpretation.5. mat
Rendell,Ruth,1930–—Criticism and interpretation.6.English fiction– ht
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–Women authors—History and criticism.I.Title. yri
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PR888.D4 R68 2000 Co
823'.0872099287—dc21
00–042202
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd,Chippenham,Wiltshire
10.1057/9780230598782 - From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell, Susan Rowland
For my mother, Mary Rowland, a courageous woman
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10.1057/9780230598782 - From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell, Susan Rowland
Contents
Preface viii
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1 Lives of Crime 1 1-
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2 Gendering the Genre 15 ct -
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3 Social Negotiations: Class, Crime and Power 39 o
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4 Lands of Hope and Glory? Englishness, gr
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Race and Colonialism 62 e - P
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5 Detecting Psychoanalysis: Readers, Criminals and Narrative 86 ms
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6 Gothic Crimes: A Literature of Terror and Horror 110 et i
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7 The Spirits of Detection 135 bliot
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8 Feminism Is Criminal 157 et
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Appendix A: The Complete Detective and Crime niv
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Novels of the Six Authors 181 o
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Appendix B: A Conversation with Ruth ns
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Rendell/Barbara Vine 192 m - li
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Appendix C: A Conversation with P.D. James 196 ct.c
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Notes 199 ec
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Select Bibliography 214 algr
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Index 217 ww
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10.1057/9780230598782 - From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell, Susan Rowland
Preface
Upon finishing this book I realised that its true subject is pleasure.
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These six authors have not only accompanied my own life for many 3-0
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years, but have enchanted millions of readers. Perhaps there has been 1-
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spur to From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell. As well as inspiring such Co
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widespread delight in the reading public, Agatha Christie, Dorothy av
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L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, P.D. James and Ruth al
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Rendell/Barbara Vine have all made definitive contributions to the e -
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crime and detecting form. Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh con- m
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stitute the ‘Four Queens’ of the so-called English country house mur- et i Tr
der, which I will refer to as the ‘golden age genre’. The novels of James ek
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and Rendell engage in a literary debate with the earlier form in order bli
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both to scrutinise its limits and to develop the representation of crime s
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in the context of literary realism. The lack of critical engagement with sit
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the profoundly influential work of all six writers is astonishing. From niv
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Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendellaims to remedy some of this neglect and o
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to suggest areas for future consideration. se
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My subject is pleasure: this book will concentrate on the deeply liter- ce
ate embedding of readerly pleasures in these crime and detecting sto- m - li
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ries. All six writers maintain their reputations because their novels are ct.c
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not only widely read but treasured and repeatedly reread. This suggests n
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that the reader is engaged not so much by the ‘closure’ of these novels, ec
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the ‘whodunit’, but the ‘process’, the means by which the criminal is gr
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finally identified out of many narrative possibilities. It is, in fact, the lit- w.p
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erary qualities of these crime fictions, which sustain their popular and w
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cultural significance, making the refusal to treat these authors as literary o
artists all the more glaring an omission. If the pleasure of these novels al fr
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does not rely upon the final pinpointing of a single criminal, then it at
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must also be found in their stories of social and self-discovery. This ht
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is not to deny the very real differences between them as artists, and as yri
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writers with differing social and political approaches. From Agatha C
Christie to Ruth Rendell pursues a dual purpose in evaluating generic
developments in the light of exploring their individual artistic visions.
What this book does discover is that the pleasures of these novels are
bound up with an interrelated set of concerns. Unsurprisingly, these
viii
10.1057/9780230598782 - From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell, Susan Rowland
Preface ix
crime stories are interested in society and its attitude to deviance, but
they express their anxieties by strategies ranging from social comedy to
tragic realism. The reader’s sense of identity, both personal and
national, is also debated. In responding to other literatures, the fictions
of the six authors draw upon the pleasurable terrors of the literary
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Gothic. As might be expected of writers who are women, the changing 3-
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roles of femininity and sexuality receive their conscious attention 11-
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which, I will also demonstrate, affects developments in the genre. ct -
In an age in which psychoanalysis has become such a widely dissem- ne
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inated cultural phenomenon, the six authors record thoughtful critical C
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appreciations of its resources for portraying unconscious nightmares gra
and irrational passions. By considering the function of unconscious Pal
fantasy in the detecting literary form, I shall show some of the plea- oe -
s
sures of the genre’s duel with death. Last but not least, these six writers om
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explore the metaphysical dimension possible to a genre depicting the et i
healing of a society through a redemptive detecting figure. Again, I will ek
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suggest that part of the reading pleasure lies in alternately secure and bli
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ambivalent supernatural echoes. ets
Crucial to the reconsideration of these writers as literary artists is the ersit
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acknowledgement of the power of individual novels. Therefore all bar ni
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the first of the subsequent chapters contain analyses of one individual d to
novel by each author. From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell provides 42 se
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pleasure in the ‘playful’ nature of the golden age form, part of which ct.
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survives in the succeeding, more realistic authors. In wanting to nn
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emphasise ‘process’ over ‘closure’ I am, of course, disputing the dismis- e
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a
sive reaction to most of these authors as unproblematically conserva- gr
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p
tive. This work aims to initiate debate by opening these fascinating w.
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novels to new forms of scrutiny. It does so in the cause of re-evaluating w
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thMe lyit earcakrnyo dwelleigdhgetsm eenngtesn sdheoruedld b pyr othpeesrely a oucthcuoprsy. many pages, so I can erial fro
only mention a few of the people who have been the most helpful in mat
the making of this book. Without the support of Gerard Livingstone ght
this work could never have been written. I owe him more than I can pyri
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say. Evelyn Hewitt made the completion of this text possible by nobly
volunteering to type most of it. In this onerous task Joan Livingstone
ably assisted her. I am deeply grateful for their generous and unstinting
efforts. Part of the structure of From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell is
indebted to the pioneering efforts of Juliet John, and I am also
indebted to Gill Plain for helping me to see the importance of also
10.1057/9780230598782 - From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell, Susan Rowland