- Hardcover: 605 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr (T) (November 1992)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0192123084
- ISBN-13: 978-0192123084
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.5 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 862 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,003,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The editor of Victorian Ghost Stories returns with an inviting collection of 31 stories by 30 writers (two stories are by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) that provides an enthralling overview of the mystery/detective tale from 1845 to 1904. In an incisive introduction, Cox engagingly sketches the historical background. The volume proper opens, appropriately enough, with Edgar Allan Poe's seminal "The Purloined Letter," and proceeds chronologically. In E. and H. Heron's "The Story of the Spaniards, Hammersmith," the typical dark and stormy night precedes mysterious tapping in an "intensely English house" where paranormal detective Flaxman Low uncovers gruesome details. In Conan Doyle's "The Lost Special," in contrast, a bright June day does not deter cunning Herbert de Lernac from committing the "inexplicable crime of the century." In "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle," Sherlock Holmes links a lost hat, a Christmas goose and a hotel jewel robbery during the "season of forgiveness." Gambling habits prove ruinous in J. S. Le Fanu's exemplary double-locked-room mystery "The Murdered Cousin"; Wilkie Collins's "Who Killed Zebedee?" tells of love and obsession in a rooming house. Other stories address blackmail, embezzlement and kleptomania, showcasing the splendid diversity of the Victorian mystery.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
The Victorian era saw the first great flowering of the detective story. Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, J.S. LeFanu, and a host of others pioneered a genre of fiction that remains among the most popular today. Now, in Victorian Tales of Mystery and Detection, Michael Cox provides a sampling of the finest detective stories written from the 1840s to the early twentieth century.
Here readers will find a vast array of detectives and villains, and a multitude of murder methods and motives. In Edgar Allen Poe's "The Purloined Letter," the identity of the robber is known from the start--it is the surreptitious retrieval of the letter that is the mystery. In M. McDonnell Bodkin's "Murder By Proxy," a gentleman is shot in the head at close range, by a murderer who was not even in the same room. Charles Dickens's "Hunted Down" portrays a murderer who was slowly poisoning his very own nieces for their insurance money. And in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost Special," a train and its passengers vanish in thin air. In addition, Cox (who is rapidly becoming one of the foremost experts on Victorian popular fiction) arranges the stories in chronological order so that readers can follow the genre as it develops over time. For instance, in Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" we see an example of the many Sherlock Holmes escapades that popularized and came to typify the detective story for the Victorian public. And in the progression of the stories, we witness the evolution of the investigator from Poe's brilliant and eccentric Chevalier C. August Dupin, to Doyle's scientific Sherlock Holmes, into Robert Barr's cavalier Valmont (a possible model for Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot).
Including well-known stories by famous authors, as well as little known gems reprinted for the first time, Victorian Tales of Mystery and Detection not only offers hours of enjoyment and escape for all lovers of crime fiction, but also brings alive the society, language, the sights, and sounds of the Victorian age.
Here readers will find a vast array of detectives and villains, and a multitude of murder methods and motives. In Edgar Allen Poe's "The Purloined Letter," the identity of the robber is known from the start--it is the surreptitious retrieval of the letter that is the mystery. In M. McDonnell Bodkin's "Murder By Proxy," a gentleman is shot in the head at close range, by a murderer who was not even in the same room. Charles Dickens's "Hunted Down" portrays a murderer who was slowly poisoning his very own nieces for their insurance money. And in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost Special," a train and its passengers vanish in thin air. In addition, Cox (who is rapidly becoming one of the foremost experts on Victorian popular fiction) arranges the stories in chronological order so that readers can follow the genre as it develops over time. For instance, in Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" we see an example of the many Sherlock Holmes escapades that popularized and came to typify the detective story for the Victorian public. And in the progression of the stories, we witness the evolution of the investigator from Poe's brilliant and eccentric Chevalier C. August Dupin, to Doyle's scientific Sherlock Holmes, into Robert Barr's cavalier Valmont (a possible model for Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot).
Including well-known stories by famous authors, as well as little known gems reprinted for the first time, Victorian Tales of Mystery and Detection not only offers hours of enjoyment and escape for all lovers of crime fiction, but also brings alive the society, language, the sights, and sounds of the Victorian age.
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Amazon.com:
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a fascinating collection of mysteries, Mar 4 2010
By Bibliophile "Kleia" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Victorian Tales of Mystery and Detection: An Oxford Anthology (Hardcover)
So fascinating a collection that I ordered it twice for the pleasure of having it in two formats. Too bad it is not always available or easily available as a new item. A must have for lovers of the genre and novices alike.
Excellent intoductory section. Highly recommended.
2.0 out of 5 stars
A bit of bait and switch, Sep 14 2011
By M. Bulger - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Victorian Tales of Mystery and Detection: An Oxford Anthology (Hardcover)
This is the second Oxford anthology I'm taking the trouble to criticize, and for the same reason as the first. The title tells of 'mystery and detection.' Does that suggest to you detective fiction? It did to me. Instead, in the first few stories I get 'suspense' fiction. No detectives, no mystery presented and solved. Just crime stories whose endings resolve the 'mystery,' such as it is. Now the stories are well written, and I don't mind reading some of them, but I would not have taken the book out of the library if it had been titled 'Victorian Suspense Stories.' I happen to be on a detective fiction kick, and I want what I want. I don't think it's asking too much to demand truth in labeling.
I rated the book two stars to make my point. If you happen to be looking for a book of crime/suspense stories, this would be a perfectly good place to start. If you expect 'Mystery and Detection' to include both mystery and detection, look elsewhere. Unfortunately, the publisher is playing games here.
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