In crime novels the mysteries seen in detective stories are retained, but the investigation focuses more on character than on physical clues or on fooling the reader. Police officers had been detectives in fiction ever since Dickens, but with the police-procedural novel, beginning with V as in Victim by Lawrence Treat, the focus became the grim realities of police work-- corruption, bribes, lying, and the necessity for informers.
An emphasis on police work and on criminal psychology (understanding the motivation for a crime) characterized much British detective fiction beginning in the 1920s. This can be seen in the works of P. D. James, who introduced Inspector Adam Dalgliesh in Cover Her Face (1962); Ruth Rendell, with Inspector Reginald Wexford in From Doon with Death (1964); and Colin Dexter with Inspector Morse in Last Bus to Woodstock (1975). Other successful writers in this school, including Catherine Aird, Reginald Hill, Patricia Moyes, and June Thomson, have at the center of their works an imperfect though sensitive detective whose life and attitudes are of almost equal importance to the mystery. This style. became so popular that the formula has occasionally been reversed, most notably in the darkly comic novels of Robert Barnard and in the works of Joyce Porter, whose Inspector Wilfred Dover is as unsympathetic as he is slovenly.
Contemporary crime-fiction writers have been strongly influenced not only by Ross Macdonald, but by Mickey Spillane and John D. MacDonald. MacDonald's stories about salvage expert Travis McGee shed light on the corruptions of modem life. In the 1970s many American writers of detective fiction began to focus, at least in part, on their detective's personal life. Among the most notable creators of private investigators whose character extends beyond the case they are probing are Bill Pronzini, Robert B. Parker, Lawrence Block, and Loren D. Estleman.
At the same time, some writers have avoided graphic violence and explorations of the criminal mind, and have returned to the time-honored device of hooking the reader by slowly revealing a series of clues. Works of this kind, most of which have a lighthearted flavor, have been granted cozies. Charlotte MacLeod's two series about Peter Shandy and Sarah Kelling made her one of the most popular of the cozy writers. Other writers in this school include Carolyn Hart, Nancy Pickard, and Jane Langton.
The crime novels of the 1980s saw increasing numbers of female investigators who, like their male counter- parts, were quick-witted and capable of dealing with dangerous situations. Marcia Muller was described by fellow writer Sue Grafton as the "founding mother" of the form. for her creation of Sharon McCone in Edwin of the Iron Shoes (1977). Grafton' s wisecracking private detective Kinsey Millhone is featured in a series of alphabetically titled mysteries, starting with "A" Is for Alibi, which was published in 1982, the same year that the self-reliant private eye Victoria Iphigenia ("V. I.") Warshawski made her first appearance in Indemnity Only, written by Sara Paretsky. Patricia Cornwell brought autopsy analysis to the forefront of detective fiction with Postmortem (1990), centering on medical examiner Kay Scarpeta.
The combination of crime fiction with other popular types, long a popular practice, gained new favor in the late 20th century. The historical detective story has several pioneers, including Christie' s Death Comes as the End (1944), set in ancient Egypt, but the true progenitors were Lillian de la Torre with Dr. Sam Johnson, Detector (1946) and John Dickson Carr with The Bride of Newgate (1950) and other novels. The Brother Cadfael stories of Ellis Peters (a pseudonym for Edith Pargeter), which take place in 12th-century Britain, are filled with warmth, humor, and young love, as well as sleuthing. The Name of the Rose (1983), also set in medieval Europe and written by Italian author Umberto
A. The investigation focuses more on character than on physical clues or on fooling the reader.
B. Police officers had been detectives in fiction.
C. An emphasis on police work and on criminal psychology.
D. The focus became the grim realities of police work -- corruption, bribes, lying, and the necessity for informers.
But in fact, Paris in the 20th Century is a tragedy. It describes the life of an idealistic young man who struggles to find happiness in the fiercely materialistic dystopia that Paris has become by 1920. Like George Orwell's 1984, Verne's novel is a grim and troubling comment on the human costs of technological progress.
That such a message should come from Jules Verne proves surprising to many. Most people – particularly in America -- assume that Verne wrote about the wonders of technology because he was himself an optimistic scientist. Many also believe Verne wrote primarily for children, crafting novels that were invariably exciting but intellectually shallow. These misconceptions show how Verne's current status has completely shadowed the reality of his life and writings. They are part of the continuing misunderstanding of this author, a result of some severely abridged translations and simplified adaptations for Hollywood cinema.
In troth, Verne was neither a scientist nor an engineer: he was simply a writer -- and a very prolific one. Over his lifetime, Verne produced more than 2 novels. Yet his works were carefully grounded in fact, and his books inspired many leading scientists, engineers, inventors and explorers, including William Beebe (the creator and pilot of the first bathysphere), Admiral Richard Byrd (a pioneer explorer of Antarctica), Yuri Gagarin (the first human to fly in space) and Neil Armstrong (the first astronaut to walk on the moon). Verne's novels were thus profoundly influential, and perhaps uniquely so.
Although novels with scientific foundation had been written before, Verne raised the technique of scientific description to a fine art. And this type of science fiction, based on accurate descriptions of science and technology, has tended to dominate the trend ever since. But Verne's devotion to technical detail does not reflect an confidence in the virtues of science. Indeed, his earliest writings -- a mixture of plays, essays and short stories -- were distinctly critical of science and technology.
It was only the strict monitor of his publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, that steered Verne toward what eventually made him famous: fast-paced adventure tales heavily flavored with scientific lessons and an optimistic ideology. And although his own attitude was quite different, Verne offered little resistance to Hetzel. After the release of his initial book in 1863, the first in a series of novels published under the banner "Extraordinary Voyages: Voyages in Known and Unknown Worlds", Verne explained to his friends at the Paris stock market (where he had been working part-time to make ends meet) about his accomplishment. "My friends .... I' ye just written a novel in a new style... If it succeeds, it will be a gold mine." He was right.
Under Hetzel' s continual guidance, Verne created one novel after another, each fundamentally of this same type. But most of the works published after Hetzel' s death in 1886 show Verne returning to his original themes -- championing environmentalism, anticapitalism and social responsibility while questioning the be
A. He thinks it is a comedy.
B. This 19th-century vision of the future describes life among skyscrapers of glass and steel, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, fax machines and a global communications network.
C. It describes the life of an unidealistic young man who struggles to find happiness in the fiercely materialistic dystopia that Paris has become by 1920.
D. He thinks the Jules Verne has once again managed to fire the imagination of people around the world and it is a grim and troubling comment on the human costs of technological progress.