mystery fiction - wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mystery fiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_fiction[27/02/2012 09:21:35]

Mystery fictionFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction in other words a novel or shortstory in which a detective (either professional or amateur) investigates and solves a crime mystery.Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction. The term "mystery fiction" may sometimes be limited to thesubset of detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle/suspense element and its logicalsolution (cf. whodunit), as a contrast to hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and grittyrealism.

2.Although normally associated with the crime genre, the term "mystery fiction" may in certainsituations refer to a completely different genre, where the focus is on supernatural or thriller mystery(the solution doesn't have to be logical, and even no crime is involved). This usage was common inthe pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, where titles such as Dime Mystery, Thrilling Mysteryand Spicy Mystery offered what at the time were described as "weird menace" stories supernaturalhorror in the vein of Grand Guignol. This contrasted with parallel titles of the same names whichcontained conventional hardboiled crime fiction. The first use of "mystery" in this sense was by DimeMystery, which started out as an ordinary crime fiction magazine but switched to "weird menace"during the latter part of 1933.[1]

Contents [hide]

1 Beginnings2 Classifications3 See also4 References5 External links

An early work of modern mystery fiction, Das Frulein von Scuderi by E.T.A. Hoffmann (1819), wasan influence on The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe (1841). Wilkie Collins' epistolarynovel The Woman in White was published in 1860, while The Moonstone (1868), is often thought tobe his masterpiece. In 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes, whose mysteries aresaid to have been singularly responsible for the huge popularity in this genre. The genre began toexpand near the turn of century with the development of dime novels and pulp magazines. Bookswere especially helpful to the genre with many authors writing in the genre in the 1920s. Animportant contribution to mystery fiction in the 1920s was the development of the juvenile mystery byEdward Stratemeyer. Stratemeyer originally developed and wrote the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drewmysteries written under the Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene pseudonyms respectively (and

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were later written by his daughter, Harriet Adams, and other authors). The 1920s also gave rise toone of the most popular mystery authors of all time, Agatha Christie, whose works include Murder onthe Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile (1937), and the world's best-selling mystery And ThenThere Were None (1939).[2]

The massive popularity of pulp magazines in the 1930s and 1940s increased interest in mysteryfiction. Pulp magazines decreased in popularity in the 1950s with the rise of television so much thatthe numerous titles available then are reduced to two today: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine andEllery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The detective fiction author Ellery Queen (pseudonym of FredericDannay and Manfred B. Lee) is also credited with continuing interest in mystery fiction.

Interest in mystery fiction continues to this day because of various television shows which have usedmystery themes and the many juvenile and adult novels which continue to be published. There issome overlap with "thriller" or "suspense" novels and like authors in those genres may considerthemselves mystery novelists. Comic books and like graphic novels have carried on the tradition, andfilm adaptations have helped to re-popularize the genre in recent times.[3]

Mystery fiction can be divided into numerous categories, among them the "traditional mystery", "legalthriller", " medical thriller", "cozy mystery", "police procedural", and "hardboiled" (for instance,Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon's main detective, Sam Spade).

Detective fictionList of crime writersList of female detective charactersArt theftCategory:Mystery novelsList of mystery writersList of thriller authorsMystery filmThe Top 100 Crime Novels of All TimeGiallo

1. ^ Haining, Peter (2000). The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines. Prion Books. ISBN 1-85375-388-2.

2. ^ Davies, Helen; Marjorie Dorfman, Mary Fons, Deborah Hawkins, Martin Hintz, Linnea Lundgren, DavidPriess, Julia Clark Robinson, Paul Seaburn, Heidi Stevens, and Steve Theunissen (14 September 2007)."21 Best-Selling Books of All Time" . Editors of Publications International, Ltd.. Retrieved 2009-03-25.

3. ^ J. Madison Davis: How graphic can a mystery be?, World Literature Today, July-August 2007

Mystery genre at the Open Directory ProjectMystery Fiction at TV Tropes.

Narrative

Crime fiction

Categories: Mystery fiction Crime fiction

[edit]Classifications

[edit]See also

[edit]References

[edit]External links



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