The Mystery Genre

1
The Mystery Genre

• Sherlock Holmes is considered the father of what
  is known as the classic Golden Age of English
  murder mystery.

2
The Formula

• A closed setting- an isolated house or train
• A corpse
• A small circle of people who are all suspects
• An investigating detective with extraordinary
  reasoning powers

3
The Formula continued

• All suspects have means, motive, and opportunity
  to commit the crime.
• Clues accumulate and are revealed to the reader
  by an assistant.
• The detective grasps the solution to the crime
  long before anyone else and explains it to the
  Watson at the end.

4
Red Herrings

• A red herring is an item which has no use in the
  story except to distract the reader from the real
  culprit.
• The red herring may take the form of a suspect or
  a clue.

5
English Versus American

• English
• Detective is a gentleman- hero
• Classic setting is a country house
• Action is a series of orderly steps
• Suspects are from a closed group

• American
• Detective is a hard drinking, tough talking
  private eye
• Setting is the brutal and corrupt city
• Action careens from place to place and scene to
  scene
• Suspects could be anyone

6
Sherlock Holmes

• Doyle published his first Sherlock Holmes story
  in 1887.
• A series of the stories appeared in The Strand in
  1891.
• Soon the character was so beloved that many
  people thought he was a real person.
• Doyle grew weary of Holmes and killed him off in
  1893s The Final Problem.

7
Holmess Demise

• People were so upset by the death of Holmes that
  newspapers actually ran headlines about his
  death.
• People wore mourning clothes in the streets.
• Doyle had to bring him back!!!

8
The Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes

• The Hound of the Baskervilles was the first new
  Holmes story to appear after his death.
• Doyle made this story a PREQUEL rather than deal
  with bringing Holmes back to life.

9
The Era of Sherlock Holmes

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about Holmes over a
  40-year period that spanned three distinct eras
  in British life.
• The Holmes stories are always set in the
  Victorian era.
• Holmes is considered the perfect hero for this
  age.

10
The Victorian Age

• Reason above all
• Scientific discoveries/advances
• Typewriter
• Telephone
• Gramophone
• Telegraph
• Electric light bulb
• Through the character of Holmes, Doyle
  popularized the centurys confidence in
  scientific laws.

11
The Victorian Age

• Expanding middle class
• Concern about place in society
• Upper and middle classes feared those below them
  would revolt
• Holmes offered reassurance about traditional
  English values. With each crime solved, order is
  restored.

12
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• Doyles original profession was physician.
• He wrote as a hobby during his spare time.
• Doyle was inspired by one of his professors at
  University of Edinburgh, Dr. Joseph Bell.
• He wanted to kill Holmes to move on to more
  serious writing.