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"The Pleasures of Mystery."
By Anonymous (?-?).
First appearance: All the Year Round, July 7, 1894.
Article (4 pages).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).
"The pleasures of life are all built on the element of mystery. Literature in its most enjoyable form, fiction, would not attract if on the first page of each novel the reader could ascertain in a moment what fate befell the hero of the book. That agreeable mystery must not be solved until the end of the third volume, or thereabouts. Who would read detective stories if there was no doubt about the criminal from the opening chapter? No; the innocent and virtuous hero must be charged with the crime, must be embroiled in perplexities and woes as biting as Ulysses's own, must seem doomed inevitably to the hangman, and only be rescued when the rope is, so to speak, round his neck, and all the world has ceased to believe in him, save the fond girl who loves him and is prepared to adore him as a martyr after death."
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"Start from the Conclusion":
"The detective story has its separate art. It must practically be invented backwards. That is to say, the author must start from the conclusion and work out his clues, his false scents, and his wild-goose chases till he gets to the beginning. Then he is in a position to open his first chapter and have a fair run till he reaches earth." — Mr. Marriott Watson in the Daily Mail. Quoted in The Book Monthly (1903/4; HERE).
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"The Detective Story":
"Is there a product of romance so essentially a creature of the imagination as the detective of popular fiction? It is not that his exploits are more remarkable than the Real Thing, but his personality soars so much higher." — The Sunday Sun, London. Quoted in The Book Monthly (1904/5; HERE).
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"Twenty-five Years Hence":
"There are some kinds of fiction which have a greater chance of surviving than others, and the detective story is one of them. Take, in proof of this, Miss Anna Katharine Green's story, The Leavenworth Case. It was published a full quarter of a century ago, but it still sells merrily. Twenty-five years hence 'Sherlock Holmes' will be exciting a new generation of readers."
— Anonymous, "Personal and Particular," The Book Monthly (1904/5; HERE).
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| ONLY twenty-five years? |
"The Detective Tale":
"It is almost impossible for any detective story, be it ever so powerful,
to be regarded as a serious addition to literature, for the very elements
that are essential to its composition — mysterious crime, rival clues,
startling coincidences, and breathless adventures — have little in com-
mon with the qualities that make up a literary masterpiece."
— The Tribune. Quoted in The Book Monthly (1905/6; HERE).
. . . to which we add: Provide objective definitions of "literature" and "literary masterpiece."
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"A Mere Plot":
"A third work of fiction is from the pen of Mr. Robert Machray, and is called The Private Detective. As the title suggests, it is a highly sensational tale, but the delineation of character has not been sacrificed to a mere plot, however 'thrilling.'" — "New Books Nearly Ready," The Book Monthly (1905/6; HERE).
- ONTOS posts about Machray are (HERE) and (HERE).
The old argument about character vs. plot is obviously a lot older than we thought.
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"Shrieks and Throbs: Some Glimpses Into the Shaping
of a 'Shocker.'"
By C. E. Lawrence (1870-1940; HERE).
First appearance: The Book Monthly, March 1912.
Book reviews (5 pages).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).
~ The Mystery of the Ravenspurs (1911) by Fred M. White (1859-1935).
Online at Roy Glashan's Library (HERE; HTML) and (HERE; EPUB)
Fred White bio-bibliography is at Roy Glashan's Library (HERE).
~ The Secret Tontine (1912) by R. Murray Gilchrist (1868-1917).
Gilchrist Wikipedia article is (HERE).
~ The Triangle (1912) by Marie Connor Leighton (1865-1941).
Bear Alley's article about Leighton is (HERE).
~ The Mystery of Nine (1912) by William Le Queux (1864-1927).
Le Queux Wikipedia article is (HERE); the GAD Wiki entry is (HERE).
~ The Ruby Heart of Kishgar (1912) by Arthur W. Marchmont (1852-1923).
Edwardian Review's short article about Marchmont is (HERE).
OUR CRITIC isn't condemning detective fiction here, just BAD ("second rate") detective fiction. This one should be of interest to anyone who cares about the genre.
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"As Defaulters and Detectives":
"Every now and then we hear of people being in trouble for petty thefts in shops, and that seems to suggest a new kind of detective story. It would be a detective story in which women played the chief part, alike as defaulters and detectives. This brings us to the other suggestion that such a detective story could best be written by a woman novelist. Who is going to try this new departure in fiction, because it would be that. It would be curious to see whether women, who do not like detective stories as a rule, would read one on those lines." — The Book Monthly (1913; HERE)
"According to Fiction the Criminal Is the Best-intentioned of All of Us":
"Villains! O Where and O Why Have They Gone?"
By C. E. Lawrence (1870-1940; HERE).
First appearance: The Book Monthly, September 1913.
Article (4 pages).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).
AS FAR as really bad guys are concerned, our critic thinks the advent of Sherlock Holmes "hastened the deterioration" of true villainy—or does he have his tongue-in-cheek?
.................................................................................………………………………………………"Cry Out Against the Age":
"Old Friends and New."
By Margaret Sherwood (1864-1955).
First appearance: The Atlantic Monthly, 1911.
Book reviews article (1 page highlighted).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE; SPOILERS) and
"In placing the poorer work of some of our contemporary authors side by side with the better, one is sometimes inclined to cry out against the age for the way in which it drags down talent. Why does the author of Peccavi turn to writing clever but mischievous tales of burglar life? Why does the man who could create The Four Feathers begin to write mere detective stories? That earlier book was a genuine contribution to art, an unusual interpretation of human character, worked out through a plot which kept alive the finer sort of suspense that comes from wondering which way the human will will turn. Countless people are writing detective stories; many can write them worse, and some can write them better than Mr. Mason does. To readers of this species of fiction, who enjoy the clever processes of reasoning by which, in logical succession, the many wrongfully suspected people are eliminated, and attention is fixed on the guilty one, it will prove a disappointment in this story to find that [SPOILER IN TEXT DELETED]. There proves to be [SPOILER IN TEXT DELETED], but the artistic as well as the ethical balance is better when [SPOILER IN TEXT DELETED]. Interesting as the book is in many ways in its foreign setting, one cannot help wishing that Mr. Mason would leave to lesser people the mystery and murder stories, and express in his earlier manner his rather remarkable insight into character and his subtle moral sense."
Resources:
- Wikisource tells us about Margaret Pollock Sherwood: "American author, feminist and Professor of English at Wellesley College, 1889-1931. Pen names: Margaret Sherwood, Elizabeth Hastings."
- See the ONTOS article (HERE) and follow the links therefrom; other Mason works are highlighted (HERE) and (HERE).
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