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Article: The rise and fall of the detective novel.
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- April 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN this day and age of the crime novel, the who-dunnit, the detective hero; when half the novels, plays and T,V programmes (or so it seems) consist of the genre; when Agatha Christie's lucubrations run for years in the West End, and spatter the TV programmes; and when a whole clutch of fiction purveyors have made their names and fortunes by turning out nothing else, it is interesting and instructive to look back and trace the origins of such a state of affairs.
The first essays in the art of deduction and ratiocination per se must go to the French. As early as the 18th century the Chevalier de Mailly, in his Le Voyage et les Aventures des Trois Princes de Serendip ...