The Mystery Genre Of Novels Essay - 1477 Words

The mystery genre of novels has always been fraught with terror, suspense, and the unknown. One category of the mystery genre is reserved for detective novels. Normally those such novels are subject to the public eye under the scrutiny of just how much of it is real or simple superstition and science fiction – just sensational writing. Sensational writing in and of itself is not supposed to be thought provoking to the reader but instead plays off the reader’s baser emotions that center around adrenaline like fear and excitement. Such sensational writing is cheap and reserved for what was considered trashy magazines back in the day, or ‘penny dreadfuls’. Penny dreadfuls to Victorian England is similar to the modern American equivalent of pulp fiction in that there was a no overarching moral but writing for the sake of entertainment, the basis of what sensational writing is reserved for. While A Study in Scarlet is still considered sensational writing, it bro ught not only fame to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but respectability to detective novels – if those novels had Sherlock Holmes. By creating the great amateur detective Sherlock Holmes, Sir Doyle changed detective novels forever and forever deeply impacted the literary world. This placed Sir Doyle alongside other great classical authors such as Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley for his Victorian detective novel A Study in Scarlet. In so doing, when Sir Doyle, normally an author who dabbled in writing historical or spiritual works,Show MoreRelatedThe Mystery Of Detective Fiction1648 Words   |  7 PagesFiction exists as one of the most popular fiction genres of all-time. Detective fiction uses facts and other details to solve a mystery which surrounds a perplexing murder in a novel. Many people gain excitement over a challenge or a test of knowledge when solving a puzzle. 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All these stories were completed by the mid to late eighteenth hundreds. The Signalman is set by a railway in Britain, along a lonely stretch of a railway line in a steep cutting. An Arrest is set in America and for the most part in a forest. NapoleonRead MoreJ.b. Priestley s An Inspector Calls1524 Words   |  7 PagesEssay An Inspector Calls vs A Study In Scarlet This essay will explore the representation of the mystery genre through J.B Priestley’s play An Inspector Calls and Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet. The extent to which the detectives are shown to be archetypal characters of the genre will be discussed, as well as the various ways different literary conventions add to the tone of suspense and mystery. The way in which An Inspector Calls and Study in Scarlet are written creates impact and tensionRead MoreJane Eyre by Emily Bronte747 Words   |  3 Pageswhat mystery, that broke out, now in fire and now in blood, at the deadest hours of the night? What creature was it, that masked an ordinary womans face and shape, uttered the voice, now of a mocking demon, and anon of a carrion-seeking bird of prey? (Brontà « 221). A brief synopsis of Charlotte Brontà «s novel, Jane Eyre, is present in this short quote, which describes the mystery that is present within the novel. As well as its gothic sensation, romance is present as well, giving the novel its feminineRead MoreThe History of the Hard-Boiled Detective Essay883 Words   |  4 PagesThere are many sub-genres of detective fiction and hard-boiled fiction is one of them. What exactly is hard-boiled detective fiction? Hard-Boiled detective fiction is fiction that features tough, cynical, urban private eyes who expose corruption and f requently get injured in the course of their investigations (Detective Fiction, Literary). Hard-Boiled fiction is considered one of the more popular sub-genres of detective fiction; there have been numerous films and novels about urban detectivesRead MoreThe Mystery Of Mystery Stories1349 Words   |  6 PagesMystery as a literary genre finds its roots in the writings of the 19th century. During this century great writers of the literary fiction utilises their brilliance to lay the foundations of various aspects of the mystery writing. Many fictional characters who were born in the 19th century,are still the most famous personalities of today s fiction. It s interesting to note that US President Abraham Lincoln also wrote a mystery story in the 19th century, based on a real case once he defended(1)