In the shadow of Holmes

Through the 1890s and up to the 19-teens nearly all detection stories lived in the shadow of Holmes and Baker Street. Nearly everyone used a "Watson" character as a sidekick and narrator, such as Arthur Morrison's "Martin Hewitt" who had a newspaper reporter tell of his exploits.

While there were variations, including female detectives to recapture the female reading public and occult detectives (ghost stories being a close cousin to the genre, valuing 'mystery' yet de-valuing reason), writers stuck to Doyle's formulas.

Perhaps the only distinctive character to rival Holmes was "Raffles." the gentleman-burglar created by Doyle's brother-in-law Ed Hornung. He intended Raffles as a reverse Holmes, having spent years writing about the convict culture of Australia. Doyle urged him not to make a criminal a hero, but Vidocq still cast a long shadow, and Raffles was born.

To Holmes, success meant solving a crime contrived by others, but for Raffles, success meant carrying off a perfect crime. Beginning with "Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman," in 1898, Hornung produced three story collections about his wealthy adventurer before getting himself killed in the Boer War in 1905, the war that Doyle championed and got knighted for.

Meanwhile, the French were busy producing detectives.

Maurice LeBlanc, a journalist, developed "Arsene Lupin," a flamboyant thief (a la Raffles), daring and witty, with a flair for disguising himself as a prince or a duke. In one story, he captures an English detective and poses as him in Scotland Yard.

Gaston LeRoux, also a journalist, wrote about sensational trials. When he turned to fiction, he employed surprises, such as having the detective in the case turn out to be the sought-after criminal in disguise unmasked by -- who else -- the reporter covering the story.

Back in England, a French detective created by Englishman Robert Barr also became popular. In "The Trials of Eugene Valmont," we meet a natty little Frenchman with sublime self-assurance, a quick wit, and a poor opinion of the police. He is sometimes a comic figure, and perhaps an inspiration for Christie's Hercule Poirot.

While it may appear that all fiction in this period was derivative by imitating Doyle, Dupin or Vidocq, the period saw three developments in the genre:

a. the scientific detective (Futrelle, for example)

b. the intuitive detective (such as Chesterton and Bentley)

c. the master criminal (Sax Rohmer). 

I'll consider a. and b. in the next postings; c. pulls us toward 'superhero' and 'spy' tales.

I really don't know if anyone is reading this short course in Detective Fiction. I'm certainly not as complex or complete as a site such as Crimereads.com, but, hey, it's free, and I hope this little overview increases your appreciation of the genre.