Mystery and mayhem

 

    "But perhaps the most interesting example of a mainstream novel which is also a detective story is the brilliantly structured Emma by Jane Austen. Here the secret which is the mainspring of the action is the unrecognised relationships between the limited number of characters. The story is confined to a closed society in a rural setting ... and Jane Austen deceives us with cleverly constructed clues (eight immediately come to mind) - some based on action, some on apparently innocuous conversations, some in her authorial voice. At the end, when all becomes plain and the characters are at last united with their right partners, we wonder how we could have been so deceived."

     That's P.D. James in Talking about Detective Fiction, and is in answer to yesterday's small tease - well done to everyone who guessed. That's a brief digression in what is a beautifully lucid and logical analysis of the detective novel from Sherlock Holmes to the present day, an essay on a genre which paradoxically, given its subject matter, is the escapist reading of choice for many. Written by a master of the art, a woman of sharp, deep-thinking intelligence, it is both a fascinating introduction to the subject and a busy crossroads of strands, themes and ideas. 

      It's also a book which any writer - not just one working in this field - would do well to read as some of the points Baroness James makes with regard to the elements and mechanics of the successful detective novel apply equally to almost any other area of fiction. For example, "setting ... characterisation, narrative and structure; all four must be held in creative tension and the whole story written in compelling language." Other tools in the writer's box might be a memorable hero, perhaps psychological subtlety (Sayers' Gaudy Night), "romance and numinousness in commonplace things" (Chesterton's Father Brown), "the creation of emotion through dialogue and description" (Raymond Chandler).

      This book, while being extremely enjoyable in itself, will broaden its readers' reading should they follow its signposts to writers of all periods, and it may increase their vocabulary, too, as here's a word I hadn't come across before, to watsonize, as coined by A. A. Milne: "Let us know from chapter to chapter what the detective is thinking. For this he must watsonize or soliloquize; the one is merely a dialogue form of the other, and, by that, more readable."

     P. D. James is eminently readable; she is an admirable woman, and her book is a treat.

Comments

[Simon (Savidge Reads)]

I already really wanted this and now I want it even more!!! This sounds utterly brilliant and is one that I am now going to be covetting. I must read some P.D James as have seen her talk a lot on the telly and seen some of the TV adaptations.

I had no idea the link was Emma, I just though she was comparing Austen to another author. Oops.

[Juxtabook]

I am trying to sell books and you keep tempting me to buy them!

[anne]

I like the idea that we might discover more detective fiction. I also think Baroness James is "an admirable woman"

[Barbara]

Thank you, I must read this!

[Becky]

Hooray! I gave this to my mother for Christmas, and now I remember that I want to 'borrow it back' and try it myself!