Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction

Concentrating on works by authors such as Fergus Hume, Grant Allen, L.T. Meade and Marie Belloc Lowndes, Pittard explores the complex relation between the emergence of detective fiction in the 1880s and 1890s and the concept of purity. Situating his discussion within the context of Victorian periodicals, advertisements, medical explorations of criminality and social protest movements, Pittard challenges histories of fin-de-siècle detective fiction that have obscured the heterogeneity of this popular form.

Author: Christopher Pittard
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 07/28/2011
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.23lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.63d
ISBN: 9780754668138

About the Author
Christopher Pittard is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK.