Judith PughMarking Tutor: Mark Brown To what extent are writers also detectives in the novels you have studied?

Judith Pugh Marking Tutor: Mark Brown To what extent are writers also detectives in the novels you have studied? The crime and the detective novel and their conventions have changed considerably over the last century. As societies have changed, these genres have adapted and branched out to meet the needs of writers attempting to express new concerns. Edgar Allen Poe's detective novel, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) follows conventions we would now consider to be traditional in mystery writing. Bearing a close resemblance to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, we find a detective who relies on reasoning and deduction to solve a mystery that to all intensive purposes appears unsolvable; a locked room mystery such as Doyle's The Speckled Band (1892). In America, between the world wars, emerged the 'hard-boiled' private eye novel, featuring tough private investigators, often themselves outcasts from society. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are examples of authors from this school of detective fiction. After the Second World War there was increasingly a feeling that literary fiction was an inadequate means of accurately describing the horrors of the modern world. 'New journalism' emerged, a term coined by Tom Wolfe to describe non-fiction novels by authors such as Truman Capote. His true crime novel, In Cold Blood (1965) is one of the texts

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  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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The Real Final Problem.

The Real Final Problem After my friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle buy the detective story plots from Agatha Christie, it is a near scandal, imagine what if this is exposed. Anyway, this problem is solved, by using large amount of money. He writes the story according the plots, it is another popular press. He still, however, has a 10 books contract with the press, and now he is upset about finishing other stories. One day, while he was thinking about the story plots, although he was clueless, Agatha Christie came in the office, she opened the door and walked in the office elegantly. "Hi, Dr. Doyle, nice to see you again." said Christie. "Do you still remember the plots that I sold you last time? I know it was a great success; it is on the top 5 sales rank in the bookstores for weeks after it being published. Are you satisfied with the plots?" "Yes, but what do you want? I have already paid you 100 pounds for each plot!" said Doyle, and with a bad presage about what is going to happen. "Just calm down, I know you have trouble on the 10 books left for your contract with the press, let me show you something. Without any idea, you cannot write anything, here are my new plots, you want to have it?" "New plots? That is great! But wait a minute, how much for these this time?" "They are not very expensive, just 150 pounds each," she said. "150 pounds each? That is extortion! Do you

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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The Woman In White and the birth of the detective novel.

WILKIE COLLINS. THE WOMAN IN WHITE AND THE BIRTH OF THE DETECTIVE NOVEL A/ The detective novel and the interactive nature of literature, culture and society Indeed, the Nineteenth Century saw the rise of the detective novel. W.P.Day1, quoting Albert D.Hunter2, points out that it "coincides with the appearance of real detectives and police forces" a point which reinforces "the interactive nature of literature, culture and society". The crime novel, or detective novel, is thus, said to be the product of modern life. a) The transport revolution and the creation of the Metropolitan Police The novel of the Eighteen-Forties corresponds to an evolution in people's taste. One of the most important reasons for this evolution is the extraordinary change brought about by the transport revolution, which was indeed the paramount economic event of the age. The building of the railway system drew thousands of men away from the country into the towns. The hundred of miles of line opened by the end of 1850 "produced a tremendous acceleration in the whole tempo of human affairs"3, and upon the travelling habits of Londoners. This increasingly urban and industrial society was posing new problems which were quite beyond the capacity of the old local institutions. Inefficiency and danger could no longer be endured. Thus, the government decided to intervene "anxious to secure a better

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Mr. Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 1. Mr. Sherlock Holmes Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, was sat with his back to me at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up a stick which someone had left behind him the night before. It was a solid, sturdy stick with a silver band with an inscription that read "To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was engraved upon it, with the date "1884." "Well, Watson, what do you make of it?" "How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head." "I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front of me," said he. "Tell me, Watson, what do you make of our visitor's stick? Since we missed him we can only guess who it was and what was his business. "I think, that Doctor Mortimer was an elderly gentleman practitioner that is well thought of his pantients hence the presentation." "Good!" said Holmes. "Excellent!" "I think also that the probability is in favour of his being a country practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot." "Why so?" "Because has been so knocked and worn down, that it seems fairly clkear that he has done a great deal of walking. "Perfectly sound!" said Holmes. " Then there is the C.C.H., I would say that this was some kind of hunt whose members the Doctor had helped medically, hence their gift" "Really,

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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How does Holmes use his extraordinary powers of observation to solve the mystery of the day?

Jade Parkinson 10H Mr Forder How does Holmes use his extraordinary powers of observation to solve the mystery of the day? This essay will compare the following four stories; 'The Blue Carbuncle', 'The Red Headed League', 'A Scandal in Bohemia', and 'The Man with the Twisted Lip', from the collection of stories, by Arthur Conan Doyle, called the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. While looking at and comparing these four stories, we will discover how Holmes uses his extraordinary powers of observation to solve the mystery of the day. It will do this by investigating and analysing the cultural, historical and social values of the era. In 'The Blue Carbuncle', the crime involves theft. The four stories chosen all have a lot in common, for example, the fact that a murder never occurs, apart from a staged murder in the man with the twisted lip. This may have been because the author, Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to create less severe crimes, in case it scared people too much. At that period in time, there were many murders and crimes taking place. Jack the Ripper, was a man who murdered women, mostly prostitutes, in 1888. The corruption within the police force at that time meant that the killer was never caught, leaving the public constantly worried that there could be a possible reoccurrence in the future. The ineffectiveness of the police force is shown in 'The Blue Carbuncle' when

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Both Lamb to the Slaughter and The Speckled Band havesimilar features. Compare and contrast the presentation of the centralcharacters in the two stories. Consider how far the detectives and thevillains are 'typical' of the genre and how read...

Both Lamb to the Slaughter and The Speckled Band have similar features. Compare and contrast the presentation of the central characters in the two stories. Consider how far the detectives and the villains are 'typical' of the genre and how readers might respond to them. I am going to compare and contrast the central characters in the two stories, 'Lamb to the Slaughter' and 'The Speckled Band', the detectives and the villains. The author of 'The Speckled Band' is Sir Arthur Doyle an experienced writer and doctor. His murder mystery stories have familiar features, the story was written in 1892. Sir Arthur Conan detective always solves the crimes, saves the intended victim-usually a female, and faces the villain who is a worthy opponent and reasonably clever. The murder is also mysterious and the murderer is unknown. We come to expect this from the murder mystery genre because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is known as it's creator and was the first writer to concentrate on one detective, Sherlock Holmes. The author of the 'Lamb to the Slaughter' is Roald Dahl and this story was written in 1954. This story of his has been changed, it does not follow the usual trend of the Murder Mystery. Roald Dahl has taken everything and turned it upside down, he has sub-verted the story, which now does not follow the lines of the murder mystery. The murderer turns out to be a female and the victim a

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This shot show's Doyle in an open space leaving him very vulnerable as he walks past windows of the building revealing young children watching on, adding to the sense of vulnerability that "Popeye" would be feeling.

The chase scene begins it's build up with a shot of Brooklyn's El train, this not only establishes the location of the scene but is almost an omen of what is about to take place. In the same shot the camera titles down to an image of a child riding a tricycle, a clear sign of vulnerability then zooming forward to introduce "Popeye" Doyle, an NYPD cop, played by Gene Hackman, whose body language suggests he is very hardboiled. In the same shot, giving this scene a very documentary realist style, we follow Doyle walking until we're cut to another angle now looking at Hackman from the right hand side as he walks past another image of vulnerability, a mother pushing her a buggy. By now it is clearly established to be winter through the characters costume and setting, the trees in Brooklyn are empty and all actors are wearing winter coats. By this point the scene has consisted of long shots with just one cut, and judging from the previous uneventful scenes of the movie the audience are likely to feel calm and secure that nothing dramatic is about to happen. The viewer's security, built by Friedman, is then shattered when a gunshot from nowhere hits the mother with the pram. We then see a match on action cut when Doyle rolls to the cover of the tree, we now assume that the shot was meant for him. As Doyle takes aim at the sniper the intensity of the scene if heightened with a

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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In each era, the multimedia's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are reflections of that particular society's boundaries of acceptance.

In each era, the multimedia's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are reflections of that particular society's boundaries of acceptance. The characteristics of these individuals and this partnership have been filtered and diffused into hundreds of films and plays. The original depiction of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was consistently appealing to the audiences. Conan Doyle was very well aware of what the public adored and detested as he incorporated several of the everyday elements into his stories. Throughout the canon, Doyle often depicted the London police force in a surly light, reflecting the public's disdain at the crimes running rampant in the city and the official task force's lack of respect for the poorer population. Most of the stories dealt with crimes that circulated in the higher classes, reflecting the public's scorn for the rich. The language used in the stories was mainly in standard English with little dialect. The stories were first published in 1887, at the age of newfound literacy amongst the commoners, thus reading standard English would have been easier for them to grasp than Doyle writing in the form of public vernacular. In 1899, during the turn of the century, William Gillette brought the character of Sherlock Holmes to America and adapted his play for American audiences by marrying the

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Jack The Ripper - Source related study.

Jack The Ripper . Source A shows that the murder of Polly Nicholls was totally unprovoked and was the work of a 'demented being'. It is an article describing the murders of both Polly Nicholls and Martha Tabram which say that both of the victims 'have been of the poorest of the poor' which might have been a more polite or formal way to describe prostitutes at that time. This meant that the killer didn't really have any reasons or motives to kill them. It says that the killer used an 'excess of effort' in each murder which meant that Jack the Ripper didn't leave the body or flee straight away, he concentrated on the disfigurement of the corpse and creating carnage with the bloodbath. The source is only part of the article which could have included more gruesome details of the murder, the whereabouts, more about the victims and more about the location of east London. The source also says that the murders startled London, which shows that this was turning out to be the first serial killer case ever and brought great shock and fear to people in London. 2. Source C shows the report of the third victim, Elizabeth Stride. The report suggests that the ripper spent a long time on the corpse. I can see this from the second sentence, 'her legs were drawn up, her feet close against the wall of the right side of the passage'. It also shows the Jack the Ripper might have attempted to

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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