Bachelor Thesis - Michaela Veselsk PDF

PALACKY UNIVERSITY OLOMOUC
PHILOSOPHICAL FACULTY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES
Michaela Veselská
History, Development and Characteristics of British Detective Novel

and the Significant Representatives of the Genre
Bachelor Thesis
Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Libor Práger, Ph.D.
Olomouc 2014
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Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně a uvedla úplný seznam
citované a použité literatury.
V Olomouci dne........................... Podpis ............................
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I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Libor Práger, Ph.D. for his guidance,
encouragement and advice he provided while I was writing my thesis. I would also like to
thank Carol Anderson for her time and patience and last but not least I would like to thank
to my family for their patience and love.
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Table of Content
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5
2. Historical Development of the Detective Genre ............................................................. 7
2.1 From the Ancient Detective Literature to the Modern Detective Genre ....................... 7
2.2 Definition of the Detective Genre and its Subgenres .................................................. 12
2.3 Specifics of the British Detective Fiction ................................................................... 13
3. Analysis of the Characteristic Traces of English Detective Fiction ........................... 17
3.1 The Great and Eccentric Detectives ............................................................................ 17
3.2 The Figure of the Woman Detective ........................................................................... 26
3.3 Religion and Detective Fiction in the Figure of the Priest Detective ......................... 28
3.4 The Figure of the Omnipresent Companion and the Narrator .................................... 31
3.5 Typical Setting of the Story ........................................................................................ 35
4. Traditional Tendencies in Modern Adaptations .......................................................... 38
5. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 44
6. Resumé ............................................................................................................................. 46
7. Appendix .......................................................................................................................... 47
8. Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 54
9. Annotation ....................................................................................................................... 59
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1. Introduction
The aim of this bachelor thesis is to define and describe the genre of the detective
fiction and prove that detective fiction, especially its English branch, is a complex and
fully-fledged genre with all the properties of a respectable literary genre. The detective
fiction was for the long time considered as the lower style of literature. The works of this
type were seen as not worth writing, neither worth reading but nevertheless, they were able
to attract people´s attention and later also great popularity. At the beginning of the
nineteenth century this opinion was very wide-spread but in spite of these attitudes there
are stories containing the detection of a crime as their main story line.
In the first chapter of this thesis we would like to prove that the history of the detective
fiction is much more complicated and longer as it may seem. The thesis will try to trace the
origin of the first detective stories throughout the literary history and point out the most
significant works of this genre. To establish the milestones in the detective literature would
not be possible without the proper definition of the detective fiction genre and, therefore,
the definition of the genre and the subgenres will be provided. The first chapter will also try
to distinguish the British detective genre from the American genre. The comparison of
these two types of detective literature will be based on the most significant distinctive
elements of both styles, focusing mainly on the English detective fiction.
The following chapter will be describe in more detail the characteristic traces of the
English detective fiction considering mostly the works written at the turn of the centuries,
the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, and the period between the World War I and World War
II. This era of the detective literature is known as the Golden Age of detective fiction. The
analysis of the particular elements of the English detective genre will be based on the
samples from the novels and short stories of the chosen authors, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
Gilbert Keith Chesterton and Dame Agatha Christie. Beside the figure of the Great
detective the thesis will focus on the description of the fearless woman detective in the
dangerous male world of criminals, the figure of the detective´s companion and his
function in the story. Another examined element of English detective genre will be the
position of the religion and the figure of the religious amateur detective and finally the
setting of the stories that is very characteristic of the English detective genre.
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The last chapter will outline the trends in the adaptations of the Golden age detective
stories with respect to the changes made to the character´s appearance and character traits.
Further, the focus will be laid on the maintenance of time and place of the setting of the
original stories. This chapter is will be accompanied by the pictures of the actors portraying
the fictitious book characters on screen. The pictures will point out the differences between
the earliest adaptations and the modern versions of the stories.
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2. Historical Development of the Detective Genre
Despite of the fact that the boom of detective fiction started in the nineteenth
century, the origins of the modern detective novel can be traced back to the centuries
Before Christ. In this period appeared the first stories of solving the crime of unknown
criminals. These stories are noticeable since the first Biblical stories, where all acts against
the moral code of the society are finally revealed and offenders punished.
2.1 From the Ancient Detective Literature to the Modern Detective Genre
One of the first tales concerning the detection of the criminal act is written in The
Old Testament, in the book of Prophet Daniel. The story “Susanna and the Elders” tells the
story of a woman falsely accused of adultery and executed for committing this crime
against God. “The story exposes the folly of assessing the truth of witnesses' testimony on
the basis of their rank and reputation.”1Following the fact that the witnesses are at the same
time her judges, young prophet Daniel intervenes into the process and reveals the
inaccuracies in their testimonies. This tale contains the marks of a modern detective story
represented by an individual interested in the destiny of innocent humans. By thorough
investigation, analytic approach and final presentation of all collected facts in front of the
audience, Daniel reveals the truth.
Proceeding in time, located approximately in the eight century After Christ, another
collection of stories bearing marks of detective genre was written, the Arabic tales One
Thousand and One Nights. From all the tales, “The Three Apples” is the best example. The
tale begins with finding a chest containing a corpse of an unknown woman. Caliph Harun
al-Rashid orders one of his viziers to find the killer within three days. The tangled story
with unexpected plot twists is, at the beginning, unsuccessful, but with the shortening of
time leading to the punishment of the vizier, he unexpectedly finds the final key to the
crime. Again, there can be found the figure of a higher authority demanding the
punishment of the murderer and the man ordered to collect the clues, to find the witnesses,
and finally to untangle the mystery. These are undoubtedly the traces of the detective
genre.
1
Lasine, Solomon, Daniel, and the Detective Story: The Social Functions of a Literary Genre, 257.
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Based on the publications of literary historians, there is another famous work from
the sixteenth century, which bears the traces of detective investigation. The Tragedy of
Hamlet by William Shakespeare, according to the literary theorists, has beside the revenge
story also the detective story. Hamlet´s revenge is postponed and the proper detective work
comes to the forefront. “Hamlet accepts his filial obligation, but before killing Claudius he
takes the precaution of first proving his uncle’s guilt, and his investigations.”2 The
detective in this play is young Prince Hamlet who tries to accuse his uncle Claudius of
murder of Prince´s father and King Hamlet. The aim of his investigation is to bring the real
criminal to justice and relieve the soul of his dead father. Whether this story can be
expressly denoted as a predecessor of modern detective fiction is disputable.
Other disputable works from the eighteenth century are the collections of the
French barrister François Gayot de Pitaval (1675–1743). The collection named Causes
célèbres et intéressantes, avec les jugements qui les ont décidées recueillies par Mr. Gayot
de Pitaval, avocat au Parlement de Paris published in around 1740, is by some critics
marked as one of the milestones in development of detective genre. There are, however,
some discrepancies pointing against this statement. The Causes celebres do not represent
stories of investigation of an individual and they are not fictional. These are records of real
crime cases from France written down by Mr Pitaval. Despite the existence of the word
pitaval, appearing in Central Europe used to describe a person solving crimes or a
collection of criminal stories, the French collections cannot be unanimously described and
specified as examples of detective fiction. Supporting the argument, one can say that the
proper description of crime in the initial part and following description of investigation in
the second part fulfils the criteria for the detective genre. The emphasis is put on the story
of crime and not on the detective; this trend is visible in later detective works.
One of the first authors of detective genre, writing the stories with the detective as a
main character and the investigation of crime as a plot is Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). In
1841, a century after François Gayot de Pitaval, Poe published his first true detective short
story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” where he introduces the figure of the genius male
detective C. Auguste Dupin. The story begins with the double murder in an inaccessible
locked room on the fourth floor, which enables the murderer to get in from neither outside
2
Scaggs, Crime Fction, 12.
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of the building, nor from the insight. The murder of the mother and her daughter is without
an apparent motif. An unprofessional eccentric detective Dupin decided to solve the crime
not for the monetary reward, not because the police had ordered him; he investigates the
murders for his amusement and desire to find the real murderer.
Poe established the conventions for writing detective literature. The first one is the
figure of the great detective. He solves the mystery by thorough observation of the crime
scene, collects all the relevant information about the victim and performs the profound
analysis. This method is described as ratiocination and Poe himself, therefore, called his
stories the tales of ratiocination. The second important aspect established by Poe´ s short
story is the nameless narrator. In “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, the close friend of
Dupin presents the story to the reader, describes the investigation and compares Dupin´s
deductive method to the game.
“Let us suppose a game of draughts where the pieces are reduced to four
kings, and where, of course, no oversight is to be expected. It is obvious that
here the victory can be decided (the players being at all equal) only by some
recherché movement, the result of some strong exertion of the intellect.
Deprived of ordinary resources, the analyst throws himself into the spirit of
his opponent, identifies himself therewith, and not unfrequently sees thus, at a
glance, the sole methods (sometime indeed absurdly simple ones) by which
he may seduce into error or hurry into miscalculation.”3
This extract from the story demonstrates the purely intellectual engagement without any
divine insights. Dupin´s investigation is based on intuition, observation and rationality. The
last aspect creating a frame for later detective stories is the final revelation of the culprit
followed by the presentation of collected facts and information leading to the real criminal.
August Dupin appeared altogether in three detective short stories “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue”, “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” and in the mystery of “The Purloined Letter”.
This eccentric man C. Auguste Dupin whose characteristic live style, unusual way of
thinking and his omnipresent companion became a prototype for later great detective and
his assistant. Poe´s contribution to the genre of detective fiction is, therefore, the most
3
Poe, The Complete Stories, 474.
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significant and can be marked by right as the first milestone in the development of the
classic detective fiction.
While Poe called for the shorter form of fiction, French novelist Émile Gaboriau
(1832-1873) wrote the first full-length detective novel. He prolonged the form of the
detective story and twenty-five years after Poe´s publication of “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue” considered the detective story as a complex work, with its psychology and
descriptions, not only of crime but also of characters and their thinking. This step towards
nowadays-popular form of detective stories was not a very popular decision. Josef
Škvorecký in his work described the elements of prose in short story as “elements
distracting the attention from the real problem, tempting the author to mouthiness,
longwindedness, emotionalism and the form of novel is considered almost a degeneration
of the short story.”4 On the contrary, the longer form enabled Gaboriau to pay attention to
the development of characters but at the same writing a detective novel demanded more
craftsmanship and persistence in preserving the tension in the story and attention of the
reader.
Gaboriau created two memorable detectives. The first one was an amateur detective
Mister Tabaret, whose nickname was Père Tireauclair. He represents the figure of the great
detective who leaves all the manual work to the assistant. His method is therefore called an
“‘armchair detection’, in which the detective (normally an amateur detective, rather than a
professional) solves a crime through a process of logical deduction, or ratiocination, from
the evidence that is presented to him or her by others.”5 The second amateur detective,
whose character was more developed and who appeared in numerous Gaboriau´s novels,
was Monsieur Lecoq. Tabaret together with Lecoq appeared for the first time in the 1866
novel L’Affaire Lerouge. Lecoq represented an amateur detective and a prospective police
officer of the French Sûreté. The figure of Lecoq was based on the historical police officer
Eugène François Vidocq. As a former criminal who became the first director of La Sûreté
Nationale and one of the first civil police forces in the field of criminal investigations in
the world, Vidocq had the knowledge of the criminal forces and knew how to locate them.
4
Škvorecký, Nápady čtenáře detektivek, 35.
5
Scaggs, Crime Fiction, 20.
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Like Dupin, Tabaret and Lecoq are more instinctive and rational in their pursuit of the truth
rather than strict followers of the tangible evidence.
One interesting fact in the world of detective fiction is that the boom of detective
literature started in the nineteenth century. “The paradox that there is nevertheless no
detective fiction before the 19th century [...] adducing the obvious reason that you cannot
have detective fiction before you have detectives. It is a curious fact that the institution of
the modern metropolitan police force as we now know it did not exist before the nineteenth
century.”6 This statement corresponds with the year of establishment of French Sûreté in
1812 by Eugène François Vidocq and soon followed by The Metropolitan Police in
London formed by Robert Peel in 1829.
Returning to English writers, one of the first English detective novel writers is
William Wilkie Collins with his 1868 novel The Moonstone. The role of the great detective
is in this novel given to a professional police officer, which makes this detective novel
different from those previously mentioned. Sergeant Cuff was as a detective, charged with
finding the stolen valuable diamond called the Moonstone. By questioning the witnesses
from the party where the Moonstone was last seen in possession of young heiress, and
thorough investigation, Cuff finally reveals the theft´s identity and returns the precious
stone to its real and legal owners. “Cuff has the typical characteristics of a great detective:
eccentric passion for roses, which interest him the most during the most dramatic
moments; his contempt for representative of the local police force, Superintendent
Seegrave and an appearance of a pater or a blackcoat rather that of a detective.”7 His
unordinary characteristics hide the fact that Cuff himself is a police Sergeant.
According to Josef Škvorecký, there is another author, Collins´s contemporary and
close friend, who wrote detective novels. This statement corresponds with the theory of
Zdeněk Stříbrný who similarly proclaimed Charles Dickens to be a detective fiction writer.
While Stříbrný wrote that Dickens´s Bleak House (1852-53) is the pioneering work in the
field of British detective fiction, Škvorecký writes: “Collins and Dickens did not even
know they are writing detective novels, so they wrote them like they wrote their other
novels; they wanted to capture what they were capturing elsewhere, and moreover, one
6
Holquist, Whodunit and Other Questions: Metaphysical Detective Stories in Post-War Fiction, 139.
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novelty of their era: the detective and his struggle with crime.” These contradictory
statements say on one hand that Dickens wrote his Bleak House intentionally as a detective
story, while on the other hand Škvorecký proposes Dickens to write only a novel
containing an element of detective stories.
2.2 Definition of the Detective Genre and its Subgenres
The analysis of the history of detective genre demands the proper definition of this
genre. To define the detective novel is from many aspects difficult. Tzvetan Todorov in his
study “The Typology of Detective Fiction” described three main sub-categories of this
genre. For the first type, Todorov establishes the novel containing a mystery called
whodunit. The second subgenre is the genre of a thriller and the final type is so-called
suspense novel combining elements of the first and the second type. This classification
does not describe the development of completely distinct forms. They are all types of
detective fiction coexisting together but following different rules. Their development is
therefore not diachronic but each of the subgenres bears similar signs with one distinctive
trace.
The completely distinct forms of the detective genre, placing the emphasis on the
criminal part of the story, are hard-boiled mode and police procedural. These styles were
spread and popular in the United States. In Britain, the emphasis was placed on the pure
detective investigation and tension arising from uncertainty of revealing the real criminal.
Numerous authors represent the American hard-boiled mode. From the American authors
for illustration Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler or John Dickson Carr. John Scaggs
defines the police procedural as the most popular style in the United States after the World
War II. “The police procedural is a sub-genre of detective fiction that examines how a team
of professional policemen (and women) work together.”8 The distinction from British
traditions is visible in the dominant work of a police team, not an individual detective. The
police procedural is a typical writing style of authors like Ed McBain9 or Chester Himes.
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9
Ed McBain is one of the many pseudonyms of Evan Hunter who was born with the name Salvatore Albert
Lombino. At the age of 26 Lombino legally adopted the name Evan Hunter but many of his novels were
still written under the pseudonyms.
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As mentioned before, the British writing style is different from the American in
many aspects, which will be described in detail in the following chapters. The definition of
detective genre is represented in the rules created to guide authors writing in this style. The
strictest defendants of rules forming good detective stories were Gilbert K. Chesterton and
Ronald A. Knox. According to Škvorecký, the rules were formulated for the first time from
the knowledge of detection like a game and then as a logical consequence the rules were
compiled. An American literary critic Williard Huntington Wright, better known as S.S.
Van Dine, published “The Twenty Rules For Writing Detective Stories” in 1928. Year
later, Knox revised the twenty rules into ten new ones, which are called the Knox´s
Decalogue.
Chesterton believed in Decalogue as the guide that must be obeyed and his
enthusiasm led to his appointment to the President post of Detection Club, which associated
the authors of detective mystery fiction of the twentieth century. As a president, Chesterton
controlled the oath, that every member must took and helped other writers to compose their
works. The rules consisted of advice and instructions for the writers what they can and
what they should not do with their novels. There was a rule prohibiting the supernatural
intervention, rules prohibiting a detective or his companion to be the murderers and the rule
obliging the detective to present all the clues he finds to the reader. All these rules created a
fair play environment for the writer and his reader.
2.3 Specifics of the British Detective Fiction
The most productive era of the British detective fiction started at the end of the
nineteenth century. The most prolific author of this period is considered Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle with his Sherlock Holmes series. Authors who started their writing career after the
Doyle became known as the authors of The Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The Golden
Age started shortly before the World War I and continued until the World War II. The
typical form used during the Golden Age was the classical whodunit novel, containing
mystery as the introductory part and investigation as the second part of the novel. The
whodunit style is characteristic by the mysterious death violating the natural order of law-
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abiding citizens when “for a time all must live in its shadow, till the fallen one is identified.
With his arrest, innocence is restored, and the law retires forever”10.
Another significant trace of English whodunit is the duality in stories. The first part
of a novel is written as one action in the past that tells the reader who was killed, but when
and how it was done is kept in secret. The presence of the unknown indicates the
importance of a detective to investigate it. This story represents the predominant part of the
whodunit. It is the first story that makes it different from the American hard-boiled genre,
where the crime as the introductory part can be omitted, or the whole story leads to the
crime that is story-final. The exact investigation of the initial crime consists of systematic
assembling of clues, motives and interrogations. The second part of the novel consists of
revealing the identity of the murderer. This part of the novel is written in form of
introspections that explain to the reader the motives of the murderer that led him to crime.
Revealing the identity of the criminal, excluding all the innocent suspects and the final
punishment, form the very last part of the whodunit.
The English detective novel is characterised by incorporating the new scientific
advance. In the nineteenth century there was a massive scientific development in the field
of photography, dactyloscopy and biology. This development influenced also the police
investigation, which was reflected similarly in the novels. Since the ordinary people did not
have the opportunity to explore the new trends, the detective novel explaining and
describing the technique of dactyloscopy or chemical blood testing processes to the readers
became quite popular.
One of the significant traces of English whodunit is its main character, the figure of
a detective. This figure is usually an eccentric man, a drug addict like Sherlock Holmes, a
chronic detailer like Hercule Poirot or an elderly lady observing the world from behind the
knitting needles. The British whodunit developed Poe´s omnipresent companion narrating
the story. Every great detective has his partner who alleviates his extremity and represents
detective´s counterpart. This man explains, records and narrates the story. He adds
additional information that the detective does not consider as important mentioning and
“embodies the social and ideological norms of the period.”11 Like the detective, also his
10
Auden, The Guilty Vicarage, 409.
11
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companion remains apolitical, they do not represent any strong political way of thinking
neither are they members of political parts.
Unlike the American norm, an amateur detective performs the investigation of the
crime. This distinguishes the American crime fiction, where the investigator is mostly a
professional detective, private eye or a police officer. The American tradition is
characterised by “a tough, insensitive, overtly masculine, and sexist detective who solves
crimes with a pistol and his fists, rather than through any deductive reasoning or application
of logic.”12 His investigation consists more of pursuing the suspect rather than revealing the
story lying behind the crime.
Another distinctive trace of American fiction is “in their characteristic settings. The
modern city is generally recognised as the normal setting for hard-boiled fiction, while
Golden Age fiction, at least in its English version, often features a rural or semi-rural
setting.”13 The typical setting in an English whodunit is in the countryside, noble mansions
or in the smaller Victorian villages. In the British traditional whodunit are almost none of
the detective novels are the murders committed in the alley behind a factory or in the
middle of big cities.
The British writing style is nevertheless distinctive in itself. There are authors from
Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Every part of Britain is specific in its culture, mentality and
traditions. The literature of these countries reflects the national specifics and differences.
Beside the fact that the boom of detective fiction written in Ireland, Wales or Scotland is
prominent in the second part of the twentieth century, there are authors who made their
name in the literary world of detective fiction in the early twentieth century.
From the Irish literature there should be mentioned Cathal Ó Sándair (1922–1996)
author of the famous Irish language detective Réics Carló. Purely Scottish background
represents Alfred Walter Stewart (1880-1947) a chemist and part-time novelist, author of
seventeen detective novels writing mostly under the pseudonym J.J. Connington. Stewart
brought to life several detectives, the Superintendent Ross and the Chief Constable Sir
Clinton Driffield.
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13
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The most prolific era of Welsh detective and criminal fiction started in the second
part of the twentieth century. Author Meirion James Trow, a contemporary author, revived
a character from Sherlock Holmes stories and made an interesting collection of novels. All
novels are set between the years 1879 and 1923 and feature Inspector Lestrade from
Scotland Yard as the main character. In Doyle´s stories about Sherlock Holmes Inspector
Lestrad was in a supporting role, representing the official police branch. Beside this
allusion to Sherlock Holmes stories, other Welsh authors of detective novels were Frank
Showell Styles (1908-2005) whose detective fiction was written under the pseudonym Glyn
Carr and Ethel Lina White (1876- 1944).
All these authors represent a part in British detective fiction history but it is the
English fiction, which is undoubtedly distinctive from Irish Welsh or Scottish by its
characteristic setting, characters, plots and structure. The ideal combination of all nations in
Britain is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle was born in Scotland, both his parents were Irish
and Doyle himself spent his whole life in England.
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3. Analysis of the Characteristic Traces of English Detective Fiction
The most important era for the English detective fiction was during the Golden Age
when the pure form of a detective story represented a puzzle or a game. For this type of
mystery fiction was established the term whodunit in nineteen thirties. Many excellent
authors representing whodunit writing style during the Golden Age interwar period
continued in this style after the World War II. Margery Allingham and her amateur sleuth
Albert Campion, E.C. Bentley, G.K. Chesterton and his Father Brown stories, Agatha
Christie and her most popular Belgian detective Hercule Poirot or amateur spinster
detective Miss Marple are an examples of the whodunit detective fiction. Other authors like
Father Ronald Knox and Dorothy L. Sayers and her snobbish amateur detective Lord Peter
Wimsey also illustrate this genre.
To analyse entire works of all English authors would not be possible in the extent of
a bachelor thesis, therefore only the most significant and influential authors will be
discussed. The characteristics of the genre will be exemplified with the samples from the
novels and short stories of Agatha Christie, Gilbert Keith Chesterton and Arthur Conan
Doyle.
3.1 The Great and Eccentric Detectives
The most important part of every story is the main character. In the case of a
detective fiction it is the detective. Every main protagonist of any type of fiction must be
interesting for the reader; he or she must be in some aspect memorable and worth of
following. In the case of Sherlock Holmes, it is his character. Sometimes his almost
egoistic and arrogant behaviour alternates with the moments of happiness and elation, his
unusual habits and interests. Poirot is memorable for his pedantry and moustache to which
he pays more attention that to his friends and his indulgence of gastronomy. Miss Marple is
undoubtedly memorable simply for being an elderly woman who covers her love for
mysteries by knitting and gardening. The earliest example of this type of unordinary
detective is from Edgar Allan Poe´s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”. Chevalier Dupin is
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not an ordinary man in any aspect and who most probably served as the model in creating
Sherlock Holmes and other Great detectives, therefore the character of detective Dupin
should be briefly analysed as the prototypical detective.
Poe created Dupin as a man living his life in a seclusion of the world. He did not
feel the need of spending his free time in social clubs, discussing the novelties, politics or
weather. Dupin, coming from the illustrious family was described as living almost at the
edge of poverty but enriched by his intelligence and wit. Beside the unknown narrator
there is no evidence of any friendships of Dupin neither does he mention his family. Dupin
is an unordinary man in his style of thinking. He has a great ability of observation of the
smallest details that no one else is able to realise. Dupin´s observation skills are described
as analytical and deductive. In the first chapter of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Dupin
is described by the narrator as one of the first analysts.
“The mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are in themselves, but

little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only in their effects. We
know of them, among other things, that they are always to their possessor,
when inordinately possessed, a source of the liveliest enjoyment. As the
strong man exults his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his
muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which
disentangles. He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations
bringing his talent into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums,
hieroglyphics exhibiting in his – solutions of each a degree of acumen which
appears to the ordinary apprehension preternatural. His result, brought about
by the very soul and essence of method, have in truth, the whole air of
intuition.”14
Edgar Allan Poe created a man with excellent observation skills who likes displaying them,
showing his abilities to others but the narrator himself admits that many times this process
of deducting is only a matter of intuition. For Dupin, the deductive analyses represent a
form of game occupying his mind. “The emphasis on method is evident as early as Poe,
14
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who is largely responsible for creating the template of the ‘Genius Detective’ borrowed by
Doyle in the creation of Sherlock Holmes.”15
Probably the most famous fictional detective known for his deductive method
applied to solving crimes and used as a form of an enchantment for his bored mind is
Sherlock Holmes, a fictitious amateur sleuth created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-
1930). There is a visible parallel between the fictitious character and his creator. Doyle
started to write the Holmes stories not for the boredom of his mind but for the abundance
of free time and the scarcity of money.
Doyle was not the first author to write about detective world but it was he who had
established the basic principles of this genre.16 Doyle combined the great unordinary
detective, his more ordinary companion with the specific style of investigation and a great
nemesis. “In creating Holmes, Doyle had been influenced by earlier writers, such as Edgar
Allan Poe and Jules Verne, whose tales linked the processes of ratiocination with an
imaginative sense of wonder.”17 Beside the influence of his predecessors, Arthur Conan
Doyle was strongly influenced by his professor, an eccentric surgeon Joseph Bell. During
his study at the medical school in Edinburgh Doyle was amazed by the deductive ability of
Dr Bell who could analyse his patients after one minute of thorough observation of their
behaviour and appearance. The model for the tempered behaviour of Holmes was another
of Doyle´s close friends. His colleague George Budd who was an excellent student,
“brilliant but mercurial, Budd could talk expansively on subject after subject, than lapsed
into moody silence. The life of the party at one moment, he could turn violent the next.” 18
Holmes, like Budd, is a very tempered man, changing his mind every minute but can be
calm and responsible at the same time. The only thing that could turn, the otherwise calm
man, into desperate lunacy, or the exactly opposite, a state of lethargy, was the lack of the
mental work.
“My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work,
give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants.
15
16
Sýkora et al., Britské detektivky: od románu k televizní serii., 29.
17
Saler, Clap If You Believe in Sherlock Holmes: Mass Culture and the Re-Enchantment of Modernity c.1890
- c.1940, 605.
18
Freeman, General Introduction. In The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. I , xv-xvi.
19
But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is
why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am
the only one in the world.”19
This excerpt from “The Sign of Four” shows his obsessive desire for the occupation of his
mind. Doyle described Holmes as a drug user, taking cocaine and morphine. When he
lacked the stimulating case to untangle, Holmes, against Watson´s disapproval, stimulated
his brain with drugs that were not illegal during the nineteenth century. Another vice, both
of Holmes and Watson is tobacco, on which Holmes wrote a monograph discussing one
hundred and forty different types of tobacco ashes.
Like Dupin, Sherlock Holmes is not very sociable. “Holmes represented the values
of modernity, [...] he yearned for enchantment with his love for bizarre, stood outside the
conventions and every routine imaginations, creativity, unordinary techniques.”20 In no
aspect is Holmes a representative of late Victorian gentleman. Holmes always acts and
speaks straightforwardly; he does not think of the consequences his words might have and,
therefore, does not have many friends. His only real and close friend is Doctor John H.
Watson whose function in the story is to alleviate Holmes´s arrogance and eccentricity. His
arrogance seems omnipresent in every action. Dr Watson inadvertently suggests his human
face by descriptions of Holmes´s attitudes, hidden sights of his personality and finally by
Watson´s friendship, loyalty and admiration. The reader is acquainted with the good and
sincere part of Holmes through the narration of Watson.
Unlike his relationship with Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes is not able to understand
the relationship with woman. “In this famous story [A Scandal in Bohemia] Irene Adler
outwits Sherlock Holmes and escapes the country with the very photograph he was hired to
procure. Watson tells us that Holmes is lucky to be rid of her destructive feminine
influence, the cause of so much grit in the well-oiled wheels of male intelligence.”21
Holmes does not consider women as equal to men; he sees them as a distracting element in
his concentration. Likewise, he is not able to understand the nature, needs and sensibility
19
Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, 100.
20
Saler, Clap If You Believe in Sherlock Holmes: Mass Culture and the Re-Enchantment of Modernity c.1890
- c.1940, 603.
21
Favor, The Foreign and the Female in Arthur Conan Doyle: Beneath the Candy Coating, 402.
20
of women. Holmes without any moral remorse proposes marriage to the housemaid of his
suspect.
“You’ll be interested to hear that I am engaged.”
“My dear fellow! I congrat—”
“To Milverton’s housemaid.”
“Good heavens, Holmes!”
“I wanted information, Watson.”
“Surely you have gone too far?”
“It was a most necessary step. I am a plumber with a rising business, Escott
by name. I have walked out with her each evening, and I have talked with
her. Good heavens, those talks! However, I have got all I wanted. I know
Milverton’s house as I know the palm of my hand.”
“But the girl, Holmes?”
He shrugged his shoulders.22
Holmes, without expressing any kind of shame or understanding, proposes to young

Agatha only to be acquainted with her employer´s routine. Another specific aspect added
to the character of Sherlock Holmes is his strong moral principle.
Despite the expected ending demanding the punishment of the criminal and
restoring the social balance, Doyle in his stories does not urge his fictional detective to this
scenario. There are stories in which the moral principles of Sherlock Holmes prevail over
the social orders. In “The Boscomb Valley Mystery” the culprit is an old man whom
Holmes had not revealed to the police and who took his guilty secret to the grave. A
similar ending appeared in “The Five Orange Pips” where a divine justice intervened and
sank the ship with the killer.
Holmes let many criminals run away or intentionally hid their identity, for example
in “The Blue Carbuncle”, a story where Holmes claims the thief so scared of the crime
itself that he will never repeat it. In “A Scandal of Bohemia” Holmes unravels the mystery
of the picture but ensures his client, the King of Bohemia, about the safety of his picture
that is in the possession of the woman, Irene Adler. Often Holmes has a concern in the
punishment of the murderer not by legal police means. In “The Speckled Band” Holmes
22
Doyle, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, 128.
21
intentionally reverses the murder attempt of a young woman so the poisonous swamp
adder kills his owner and the murderer Dr Roylott. Holmes is, therefore, indirectly
responsible for his death but according to his moral sense, he is not guilty of murder
because he prevented Roylott from committing his second murder. In the last example, “A
Case of Identity”, the mundane justice is not fulfilled but Sherlock Holmes is assured that
once the culprit will be punished. “That fellow will rise from crime to crime until he does
something very bad, and ends on a gallows.”23
Beside Holmes´s caprice, straightforwardness, addictions, human treatment and
vanity gained Sherlock Holmes worldwide popularity. His popularity changed the view of
the readers to the extent that they believed Sherlock Holmes to be a real person. Many
people interchanged the name of the fictitious character for the name of his author.
Therefore, many enthusiastic readers were disappointed when met Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
and he did not fulfilled their idealised image of a tall, athletic man with signs of addiction,
deerstalker hat and a tobacco pipe. Instead, they saw rather plump, not very tall man with a
moustache.
All Sherlock Holmes stories have similar structure. This repetitiveness probably
originates from the fact that Doyle lacked the interest in developing the Holmes stories
because of his desire to write historical novels rather than popular fiction. Therefore, the
typical story can be described in six steps.
1. a scene in the room at 221B Baker Street with the outlining of the unusual situation
by a letter or a client or a police officer introduces a case
2. investigation at crime scene where Sherlock collects the first clues and information
3. Holmes proposes his first deductions
4. further investigation and interrogation
5. Sherlock plans the entrapping of the culprit or tries to avoid the crime, which was
announced or is inevitable
6. the final part of the story includes punishment and the dramatic revelation;
entrapping the culprit provides the reader with explanations of motives leading to
the crime and culprits confession
23
22
The method leading to the successful ending is not based only on the deduction but
also on Holmes´s application of new scientific methods and the knowledge of old criminal
cases, because “"There are no crimes and no criminals in these days," he said,
querulously.”24 According to Holmes there are no crimes that would not copy the old
crimes. He says that there are patterns that are being repeated and Holmes has an extensive
database of these famous old cases.
Another representative of eccentric detective is Hercule Poirot. An elderly bold

Belgian refugee who settled in England and was sometimes unintentionally drawn into a
mysterious murder investigation. “Poirot didn’t even have to arrive to provoke a murder.
Whether traveling by train (Murder on the Orient Express, 1934), plane (Death in the
Clouds, 1935), or ship (Death on the Nile, 1937), Poirot meant certain death to at least one
of his fellow passengers.”25
Hercule Poirot is a sincere man with funny French accent, typical walk,
hypochondriac signs and sometimes almost womanlike behaviour. According to Michal
Sýkora Poirot is “small in appearance, of chubby stature, with egg-like head, always
dressed in perfectly fitting suit with a brooch on a lapel, waxed leather shoes and a hat.”26
Unlike Holmes and Dupin, Poirot has many friends. Hercule Poirot appeared for the first
time in the novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. This is the crucial novel that provides the
readers with the first information about the future famous detective. To picture this unusual
man, several citations from this novel will be used. A narrator of the story, Arthur Hastings,
makes the very first picture about Poirot at the beginning of the story when talking to a
company at Styles.
”I came across a man in Belgium once, a very famous detective, and he quite
inflamed me. He was a marvellous little fellow. He used to say that all good
detective work was a mere matter of method. […] He was a funny little man,
a great dandy, but wonderfully clever."27
24
25
Davis, If it´s Tuesday, There Must Be a Mudrer at the Belgium, 9.
26
Sýkora et al., Britské detektivky: od románu k televizní serii, 67.
27
Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 10.
23
From the very beginning the reader has knowledge about Poirot´s cleverness, intellect and
first notion about his appearance. Following the story, the reader finds another describtion
of Poirot, made again by his old friend Hastings.
“Poirot was an extraordinary looking little man. He was hardly more than five
feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly
the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His
moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost
incredible. I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a
bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see,
now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members
of the Belgian police. As a detective, his flair had been extraordinary, and he
had achieved triumphs by unravelling some of the most baffling cases of the
day.”28
What makes this man so extraordinary in the field of crime solving is, as he himself
explains in many novels, his usage of those little grey cells of brain. Poirot´s method is
based on patient listening to people, he let them talk about the most ordinary things from
their lives and is even able to detect when somebody is lying to him or pretends about their
feeling. He keeps his suspicions and finally, in front of all the people connected to the case,
explains what has really happened and how it was done. Poirot in this style of investigation
is a little bit different from Holmes.
Holmes himself many times followed the criminal and hurried to visit the murder
scene. Poirot is more the type of an “armchair detective”. Another difference between
these two detectives is their approach to scientific novelties. While Holmes is well
acquainted with chemistry, anatomy and physics, and can recognise one hundred and forty
different types of tobacco ashes, Poirot does not express any unordinary knowledge or
interest in these disciplines. His investigation is based on psychological analysis of
suspect´s behaviour and thorough observation of the crime scene revealing the smallest
relationship between facts. The police officer who investigates the same crime with Poirot,
provides the information about the time of death and other forensic information.
28
Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 21.
24
Following the example of Dupin and Holmes, Agatha Christie created her most
famous character as a man who not always thinks of the feelings of others. Hercule Poirot
often makes a comment about the cleverness of others and is not afraid to tell what he
really thinks of them. In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Poirot reminisces about his friend
Hastings who after his marriage left for Argentina: “Also, I had a friend - a friend who for
many years never left my side. Occasionally of an imbecility to make one afraid,
nevertheless he was very dear to me. Figure to yourself that I miss even his stupidity. His
naiveté, his honest outlook, the pleasure of delighting and surprising him by my superior
gifts – all these I miss more than I can tell you.”29 This excerpt proves the statement of his
straightforwardness. Probably the best example is his superiority of his intellect to the
intelligence and functions of the police. The representatives of the Scotland Yard are
according to Poirot, incapable of any logical deductions and proper investigation. Agatha
Christie created Detective Chief Inspector James Harold Japp from Scotland Yard, who is
in Poirot´s eyes a gastronomical amateur with not very brilliant intellect, to be a
counterpart to Poirot. Inspector Japp provides legal frame for Poirot´s investigations,
recommends Poirot to the victim´s family, asks him for advice and after all is one of
Poirot´s closest friends.
Hercule Poirot, unlike Holmes has strong moral principles. Poirot believes in
justice and urges to fulfil it. The typical Poirot story ends with the revelation of murderer´s
identity and bringing the culprit to the justice, represented by the official police force of
Scotland Yard. Before the justice is achieved, Poirot explains the motives of the criminal
act. The revelation of the murderer´s identity is always done in front of all people
connected with the crime. This is a typical trace of Agatha Christie´s detective fiction.
Poirot gather friends and family of the victim and together with his companion and the
police officer submit the clues collected during the case investigation. Poirot gradually
connects motives and clues with the present guests. He explains all the unclear relations
and information and finally, dramatically reveals the identity of the real murderer. The
only novel, which did not fulfil the otherwise typical scenario is The Murder of Roger
Ackroyd. The most possible suspect is accused but to be absolved from the terrible crime,
the real murderer must confess. When Poirot receives the wireless message, his suspicions
29
Christie, Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 22.
25
are confirmed and he dismisses the session for he could talk to the real murderer that
happens to be his friend. Poirot urges him to confess and so the final revelation is
presented between Poirot and the criminal and not as usually done during the session.
3.2 The Figure of the Woman Detective
There is no rule of being a man in the world of detective fiction, nevertheless, to

have a woman detective is very unusual. This atypical feature probably originates from the
notion of detective, and of police work as well, to be a dangerous profession. In the
nineteenth century, the conventionalized idea of a woman was to be kept in safety without
being exposed to danger, which a criminal world of murderers represents.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976) was as a very prolific writer not only by the
numerous books she wrote but also with the number of detectives she had created. Beside
the famous Belgian detective, she created a detective duo Tommy and Tuppence, a married
couple solving mysteries as their hobby. Christie´s love for Commedia dell´ arte inspired
her to create Harley Quin, a curious man helping Mr Satterthwaite solving mysteries.
Another remarkable detective is Parker Pyne, solving not the exact mysteries but
unhappiness in the lives of unhappy people. Agatha Christie´s most famous woman
detective was a lady with no exact profession but with infallible intuition and a great sense
of observation and listening, Miss Jane Marple.
To describe this unordinary female sleuth, the official web site of Agatha Christie
provides original description: “Her powers of deduction occasionally hide behind her three
chief joys in life: knitting, gardening and gossip. Criminals and murderers fail to realise
that with every stitch she is not only making a cardigan, but solving a crime. From her
small house in the village of St Mary Mead she observes every aspect of human nature.”30
This description of Jane Marple corresponds with another characteristic, written by John
Scaggs. In his work about Crime fiction, Scaggs describes the usefulness of surveillance, in
form of cameras and databases or surveillance by an authority of police officers in solving
and untangling the difficult cases. Scaggs proposes that Miss Marple’s surveillance, in
30
“Miss Marple,” The Agatha Christie Archive Trust, accessed March 4, 2014.
http://www.agathachristie.com/christies-work/detectives/miss-marple/3.
26
many ways, fulfils the same function. “In St Mary Mead everyone knows your most
intimate affairs. There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age
with plenty of time on her hands."31 The proper description of Jane Marple is in the first
novel featuring this detective, Murder at the Vicarage from 1930, where Christie wrote,
“Miss Marple always sees everything. Gardening is as good as a smoke screen, and the
habit of observing birds through powerful glasses can always be turned to account.”32
Inhabitants of this fictional village of St Mary Mead represent a diverse variety of
characters that are all connected to each other, through the family relations and friendships
or the most importantly, neighbourhood unity. “Collecting moral and financial support for
all these worthy causes was an important social activity in itself. Appropriate small black
book in hand, one could knock at any door, distributing gossip with the annual Armstice
Day poppies and receiving back what often proved to be valuable piece of information.
Miss Marple found this a particularly helpful method of investigation in some of her more
difficult cases.”33 Jane Marple is not a typical example of an amateur sleuth; firstly, she is a
woman and, secondly, she does not have her own Watson and is not in close contact with
any professional detective or a police officer.
Most of the murders she investigates happened at St Mary Mead. “Fortunately for
St Mary Mead, Miss Jane Marple emerged from the ranks of the ruling spinsters as a first-
class detective, her wits and ingenuity well cultivated on the village grapevine. The mystery
of Miss Wetherby’s missing gill of shrimps, the case of Miss Hartnell’s stolen opal pin, the
affair of the Churchwarden´s separate establishment all prepared Miss Marple well for the
wave of murders, attempted murders, robberies, and embezzlements that were to engulf St
Mary Mead for the next forty years.”34 Miss Marple always somehow gets herself involved
in the investigation or is connected with the victim or his friends and family.
Emeritus professor of English literature, Zdeněk Stříbrný, wrote in his work A
History of English Literature that Miss Marple bases her investigation on the detailed
knowledge of inhabitants of St Mary Mead and her strong female intuition. Firstly, she
offers a hypothesis that she changes and verifies throughout the story by listening to people,
31
Christie, The Murder at the Vicarage, 47.
32
Christie, The Murder at the Vicarage, 26.
33
Hart, Agatha Christie’s Marple: The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple, 7.
34
Hart, Agatha Christie’s Marple: The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple, 9.
27
collecting information and finally proposes the reader her final solution. This type of
ending, description of the crime and clarifying the motives standing behind the murder, is
typical for Golden age whodunits.
3.3 Religion and Detective Fiction in the Figure of the Priest Detective
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) is, as a representative of the Golden Age of

British detective fiction, responsible for one quite unordinary amateur sleuth. In 1910 the
story “The Blue Cross” was published describing the adventure of a priest detective Father
Brown. This great detective was, however, not a random creation. Chesterton´s first
detectives were described a few stories earlier. The first fictional detective was Basil Grant
who appeared in Chesterton´s book The Club of Queer Trades and his later invention,
detective Gabriel Syme who is solving mysteries in his fantastic dream about anarchistic
future. They were predecessors of a great small detective Brown. Characteristics of Syme
and Grant evolved into the unique character of Brown, the “omnipresent solver of tangled
mysteries.”35 Personality of Father Brown is original, as states Mr Stříbrný in his
publication, for its similarity with Chesterton´s spiritual father and close friend Father
O´Connor.36 Brown is not a typical detective; his appearance covers perfectly his genius
mind. Chief of the Paris Police Aristide Valentin describes his appearance in the story “The
Blue Cross” as follows:
“The little priest was so much the essence of those Eastern flats: he had a
face as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling; he had eyes as empty as the
North sea. […] He had a large, shabby umbrella, which constantly fell on
the floor. He did not seem to know which was the right end of his return
ticket. […] His quaint blending of Essex flatness with saintly simplicity
continuously amused the Frenchman.”37
35
Přidal, “Jak postavit detektivku na hlavu aneb Experimenty začínajícího Chestertona.” In Klub podivných
živností Anarchista Čtvrtek, 291.
36
Stříbrný, Dějiny anglické lieratury 2, 616.
37
Chesterton, Father Brown Stories, 5-6.
28
Chesterton exemplifies in his works that the genial mind does not have to rest upon a
handsome tall body and the bright intellect can be hidden behind the small, mild eyes.
Another Brown´s characteristic trace is his faith in good and evil.
Very typical for a detective story is the final punishment of the criminal, but Brown
cares more about the damaged soul of the criminal than bringing the murderer to justice.
W.H. Auden wrote in his critical essay that Brown´s strongest motive of solving the crime
is his own compassion. “Brown investigates murders, not for his own sake, nor even for the
sake of the innocent, but for the sake of the murderer who can save his soul if he will
confess and repent.”38 Auden stated that that the guilty deserves more attention than the
innocent does. From another point of view there is visible his faith in installing the moral
order and restoring the goodness in the society. While Holmes uses his moral principles for
making the decision whether to punish the murderer by arresting him or not punishing him
at all, Brown calls for the punishment of every violation of the Ten Commandments.
Committing murder, stealing or blackmailing is an inexcusable crime against God and
society and must be therefore punished.
Sherlock Holmes has his bright intellect and a science of deduction, Brown has his
own method. Like other fictional detectives, Dupin, Holmes, Poirot or Miss Marple, Brown
solves the crime like a puzzle putting together pieces of information gathered by thorough
listening and observation, into one final picture. His method, however, has a distinctive
trace, which differentiates him from others. Brown not only listens and observes he is
imagining himself in the position of the murderer. “Brown puts himself imaginatively in
the minds of the killers, identifying himself with their desires, their way of seeing, their
wants, their limitations, their falling for crime. But in doing so, he discovers simultaneously
his own capacity for murder; distinct from them, he shares their humanity and, in potential
at least, their sin.“39 This aspect of Brown´s attitude towards criminals shows the reader
that Father Brown was an ordinary human with his flaws but has a strong will and faith that
help him to resist.
““You see, I had murdered them all myself,” explained Father Brown
patiently. “So, of course, I knew how it was done.” […] “I had planned out
38
39
Newton, Father Brown: the empathetic detective, 20.
29
each of the crimes very carefully,” went on Father Brown. “I had thought out
exactly how a thing like that could be done, and in what style or state of mind
a man could really do it. And when I was quite sure that I felt exactly like the
murderer myself, of course I knew who he was.””40
It portraits him like a human being not a thinking machine. He is able to detect the
humanity even in the mind of the murderer.
According to the theory of Brown, the crime does not arise from the depraved
behaviour or a vengeful act. Chesterton proposed through his fictional character of Father
Brown that the crime comes from a chance given to an individual. This chance is in his
Brown stories represented by a materialistic society. This is clearly visible in his story “The
Paradise of Thieves” a story of the false richness and capitalism, of the importance, and at
the same time the foolishness, of being rich. As said Ezza Montano, a character from this
story:
“I am going to Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Huddersfield, Glasgow,
Chicago – in short, to enlightened, energetic, civilized society!”
“In short,” said Muscardi,”to the real Paradise of Thieves.”41
In this illustration, one can see the criticism of the society, which values more the material
wealth and technical progress than the richness of culture and soul. The traditional values
of the old era were no longer prevailing but Father Brown with his sincere character and
the vision of the good in everyone was fighting against crime and injustice and always
hoped for the higher justice whenever the mundane justice could not be fulfilled.
Like every good detective story following the rules, the suspect must be mentioned
during the story of investigation. Many times, it happens that the reader has a suspicion
about the right murderer somehow from the beginning. Chesterton mastered another
technique, by the words of Mr Škvorecký, the murderer must be accuses during the first
chapters of the story, later acquitted from all accuses to be finally convicted of
manslaughter after all. This led to the phenomenon that the man with the strongest alibi or,
the other possibility, with no motive for murder, is the killer.
40
Chesterton, The Secret of Father Brown, 6.
41
Chesterton, Father Brown Stories, 156-157.
30
3.4 The Figure of the Omnipresent Companion and the Narrator
Every hero needs a companion. The fictional world of detectives is not an

exception. In any type of the story, there is a hero and someone who represents hero´s
opposite. It is someone who emphasises the positive features of hero´s character and
alleviates the negative ones. Usually is this companion the narrator of the story providing
the reader with the information, clues and explanations. When one thinks of Sherlock
Holmes he will find Dr Watson or similarly Hercule Poirot and his Captain Hastings. This
tradition of a narrator – companion started as early as Edgar Allan Poe publishing of “The
Murders in the Rue Morgue”. This detective story is narrated by an unknown character
about whom is known only that he is male and lives with Dupin because living in Paris is
expensive and he needs to share the costs.
“Seeking in Paris the object I then sought, I felt that the society of such a man
would be to me a treasure beyond price. […] It was at length arranged that we
should live together during my stay in the city.”42
This nameless man describes Dupin and the adventurous live they share. According to
Josef Škvorecký, Poe inspired Arthur Conan Doyle in creating Dr Watson. “He borrowed
Poe´s nameless narrator and, other inadvertently genial act, enriched him with a name. He
gave him the name of his neighbour and a friend from medical practice, James H. Watson.
After a short consideration he left him with the profession of his friend and his own.”43
Doyle´s Watson became popular and the name became a designation to a narrator
or a companion of a detective. Therefore, there are numerous Watsons helping their more
clever friends, the detectives. “Doyle then teamed the character of the remote intellectual
genius with the loyal, honest, admiring, but less than brilliant narrator Dr Watson, who is
the embodiment of middle-class morality in the stories.”44 When describing Dr John H.
Watson from Sherlock Holmes stories, there should be mentioned the similarity between
Holmes and Watson and Dupin and his unknown friend. Like Dupin and his friend, also
Holmes met Watson under the similar circumstances. In A Study in Scarlet John Watson is
42
43
44
31
troubling with his expenses after returning from Afghanistan, when he met an old friend
who will introduce him to his future close friend Sherlock Holmes.
“Looking for some lodging,” I answered. “Trying to solve the problem as to

whether it is possible to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable price.”
“That´s a strange thing,” remarked my companion; “you are the second man
today that has used the same expression to me.”
“And who was the first?” I asked.
“A fellow who is working at the chemical laboratory up at the hospital. He
was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get someone to go
halves with him in some nice rooms which he had found, and which were too
much for his purse.”
“By Jove!” I cried; “if he really wants somebody to share the rooms and the
expense, I am the very man for him.”45
Other similarity between the unknown companion of Dupin and Dr Watson is their
function in the story. They both record the cases they solve with their partners. Watson
writes about their adventures and because he is writing about the cases already solved, he
anticipates the events, which increase the tension in the reader. From the fifty-six short
stories and four novels about Sherlock Holmes´ s adventures written by Arthur Conan
Doyle, John H. Watson does not narrate only four of them. Beside Watson´s personal
narration, there are three other narrating styles.
─ Holmes himself is a narrator: “The Blanched Soldier”, “The Lion’s Mane”

─ third-person narration: “The Mazarin Stone” and “His Last Bow”
─ double narrating style: Watson sets the frame story and Holmes completes it with
his memories: “The Gloria Scott” and “The Musgrave Ritual”
The combination of the intelligent and the more ordinary mind is not represented
only in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Agatha Christie created Hercule Poirot as the man
with the unordinary intelligence, which is accentuated by his side-kick. The best-known
companion in Poirot stories is Captain Arthur Hastings. A soldier retired from front but
45
32
with ambitions to become a detective. Following the pattern of the assistants, Arthur
Hastings is the exact opposite of Hercule Poirot.
Arthur Hastings is the narrator of twenty-six Poirot short stories and of eight novels.
Hastings provides readers with the first person narration. In two cases is the narration split
between the proper narration of Hercule Poirot and of Arthur Hastings. This style of
narration is used in “The Lost Mine” and “The Chocolate Box” short stories.
All together Christie wrote thirty-three novels and fifty-four short stories featuring
the Belgian detective, therefore, the position of the narrator is given to a wide variety of
people. From the number of stories and its narrators is chosen for an example the marine
biologist Colin Lamb in The Clocks or a nurse Amy Leatheran who assists Poirot during the
murder investigation in Murder in Mesopotamia.
Probably the most disputable narrator and an assistant to Poirot is Dr James
Sheppard who investigates the mysterious murder case with Poirot in The Murder of Roger
Ackroyd novel written 1926. Agatha Christie is known and famous for “experiments with
genre rules and dogmas.”46 This novel is one of the most significant mystery novels of
twentieth century due to its innovative approach, originality and finally the break with the
rules. The breaking with rules does not mean to hide information from the reader or solving
the mystery based on non-existent evidence or sudden inspiration. The only rule being
disobeyed is the trustworthiness of the narrator. This manoeuvre is according to some
critics and other detective writers viewed not as “breaking the rules but fulfilling them.”47
There emerges a question, how it is even possible that the reader is not able to find out that
Dr Shepard is the villain during the story? One of the reasons can be the style in which
Christie submits the facts, which can be seen ambiguously or they are intentionally
disguised. They can point at exactly opposite explanation and therefore the reader does not
connect them initially with Sheppard. Another possible explanation is in the style the
narrator tells the story. Other Poirot´s assistants acquaint us, readers, with their feelings,
thoughts and suspicions. In the case of Dr Sheppard, the ideas are deeply hidden in his
mind and he tells us only the visible facts concerning the case.
46
Sýkora et al., Britské detektivky: od románu k televizní serii, 65.
47
Škvorecký, Nápady čtenáře detektivek,118.
33
In other Christies books is, beside other narrative styles, used the multiple narration
when Arthur Hastings shares the narrative parts with third person omniscient narrator. The
last example of Christie´s writing style is from Five Little Pigs where Poirot tries to solve
the sixteen-year-old murder of painter Amyas Crale. This investigation is based on the
narratives of the witnesses of the mystery.
Agatha Christie´s Poirot stories depict one more detective, Poitot´s assistant and
close friend in one person, Ariadne Oliver. Mrs Oliver is a detective storywriter, creator of
her fictional Finnish detective Sven Hjerson with whom she is completely disappointed and
irritated. She discusses Poirot´s cases, helps him with her female intuition to unravel the
murder, and complains to Poirot about Sven. “ʻAnd they say how much they love my awful
detective Sven Hjerson. If they knew how I hated him! But my publisher always says I’m
not to say so.ʼ”48 Similarly, like Christie, Oliver cannot let him die because her readers
already love him. Ariadne Oliver is an alter ego to Agatha Christie. Through the character
of Mrs Oliver, Christie explains her attitude towards Poirot, her readers and publishers.
As Sherlock Holmes has his Dr Watson and the great Hercule Poirot has his Captain
Arthur Hastings, Father Brown has his Gascon assistant Flambeau. It has to be said that
Father Brown does not have only one companion, but beside the Flambeau, the others are
only episodic characters. Brown´s real counterpart and the most mentioned fellow is
converted Gaskon thief, described for the first time in the first Brown´s short story “The
Blue Cross”. Flambeau was not only his intellectual counterpart but the most visible
difference was in their appearance.
While Brown is small, rather chubby intellectual, Flambeau is “of gigantic stature
and bodily daring; […] he (Flambeau) was known to be a startling acrobat; despite his huge
figure, he could leap like a grasshopper and melt into the tree-tops like a monkey.”49 Every
detective of English whodunit has beside his faithful helper also a professional police
officer or a professional detective, who is most often, solving the same crime like the
amateur one, and not unusually asks for help the amateur or is unintentionally led by the
amateur sleuth in his investigation. This is also the case of Father Brown; his counter-
detective is energetic tall Chief of the Paris Police Aristide Valentin.
48
Christie, Third Girl, 12.
49
Chesterton, Father Brown Stories, 4.
34
Jane Marple is in this aspect not a typical example of whodunit detective because
she does not have her own Watson and is not in close and regular contact with any
professional detective or a police officer. Probably the only regular character appearing in
several stories is Sir Henry Clithering, a retired officer of the Metropolitan Police. Only
once directly present in the story but regularly mentioned is Marple´s nephew Raymond
West, a reputable author, and his wife. In all of the twelve novels and twenty short stories
Miss Marple is the narrator of her adventurous cases or there is a nameless third person
narrator. This trace of the stories together with her solitary life underlines her
independency and uniqueness. The fact she never had any companion or a very close
friend can originate from her inborn incredulity.
“Goodness,” said Giles, “I never thought of that.”

“No,” said Miss Marple. “You believed what he said. It really is very
dangerous to believe people. I never have for years.”50
This citation from Sleeping Murder explains the theory of incredulity, which alienated Jane
Marple from the inhabitants of St Mary Mead.
3.5 Typical Setting of the Story
The setting of the story is equally important as the characters of a story. Arthur
Conan Doyle as the predecessor of the Golden Age fiction chose more urban setting for his
novels than the Golden Age representatives. Written and published in the period of growing
working class population and industrial cities and coming of the fin-de-siècle which was
marked by pessimism and disenchantment called for a literature the people can identify
with, describing and capturing the cities they knew and ordinary people as they were.
Conan Doyle mastered the realistic and geographically accurate capturing of
London. The reader could easily imagine the streets, buildings and hidden life of the capital
city. “Doyle is one of those authors who wrote the widely popular suburban tales which
formed the bulk of the literature of the suburbs and which were intended for a largely
50
Christie, Sleeping Murder, The Murder at the Vicarage, 169.
35
suburban audience. In their novels they portrayed apparently uncomplicated domestic and
moral utopias. […] a representative of the suburban fiction produced to satisfy the growing
market for accessible contemporary writing among a new readership, [...] many of whom
were themselves moving out to the suburbs as their finances improved and their leisure
time increased.”51 Although the majority of Doyle´s stories are set in London, there are
stories where Holmes and Watson have to travel all over the Britain and even one story set
in Switzerland where Holmes is believed to die after the fall into the Reichenbach falls.
Agatha Christie and Gilbert Keith Chesterton opted for rural or semi-rural settings
for her books. This decision can be related to the end of World War I, after which people
sought for more peaceful, rural setting, which they found in Christie and Chesterton´s
works. The small village community serves as an eliminating device for a detective fiction.
“Christie’s upper middle-class semi-rural village communities, while they provide the
formal device of offering a closed society and a correspondingly closed circle of suspects,
also reflect Christie’s conservative social vision.”52 The village life is different from the life
of the big cities; here everyone knows everything about everyone, which creates cultivating
soil for all types of gossips and a useful help for the detective.
The more specific type of setting is called a country house mystery where the crime
is committed within the close community of a solitary house. “It provides a restricted
setting from which the various suspects cannot leave, and into which new suspects cannot
enter, providing a microcosm of the larger society which supports it and furthermore
creating the social equivalent of the hermetically sealed environment.”53 Together with the
limiting effect of the rural environment, villages that are considered to be in closer contact
with nature, unlike the urban cities, provides more visible contrast for the murder, which
seems inadequate in the middle of the nature. “Nature should reflect its human inhabitants,
i.e., it should be the Great Good Place; for the more Eden-like it is, the greater the
contradiction of murder. The country is preferable to the town, a well-to-do neighbourhood
(but not too well-to-do or there will be a suspicion of ill-gotten gains) better than a slum.
The corpse must shock not only because it is a corpse but also because, even for a corpse, it
51
Hapgood, The Literature of the Suburbs: Versions of Repression in the Novels of George Gissing, Arthur
Conan Doyle and William Pett Ridge, 1890-1899, 288-289.
52
53
36
is shockingly out of place.”54 This statement from W. H. Auden, who was a fan of detective
fiction, proves the inadequacy of the murder in the idyllic village. The murder, of course, is
not natural for any type of environment for it violates the social order.
From the Golden Age writers using the variations of the rural and country-house
settings, Agatha Christie mastered another unusual setting. The murder-afloat depicts the
mysterious murder in hermetically sealed place, the ship or boat where the possibility of
leaving or entering the board is nil. The example of this type of the novel is Death on the
Nile. The small alternation of this style of novel is the murder in the train, Murder on the
Orient Express or the murder on an aeroplane, Death in the Clouds.
All these novels are similar in terms of limited number of suspects, which excludes
the possibility of the murderer from outside the close community. In these cases, all
passengers are possible suspects and in the case of one very untraditional solving, twelve
out of thirteen passengers are murderers. This scenario was used only once in the history of
detective genre, in the novel Murder on the Orient Express. Agatha Christie´s decision to
write such a story was a reaction to Chesterton´s statement that “one cannot bring six
random people at the crime scene for to every one of them contributes with his bit into one
small murder.” (Chesterton In: Škvorecký 1967, 118) This example as one from many
proves that Christie exhibits an innovative approach to writing a detective fiction.
Christie travelled a lot with her second husband and an archaeologist Max
Mallowan, which was not very typical for a woman of her time and influenced Christie to
the extent she set four novels in the unordinary, Middle East setting. These novels are
Murder on the Orient Express, Murder in Mesopotamia, Death on the Nile and
Appointment with Death.
54
37
4. Traditional Tendencies in Modern Adaptations
In this chapter the tendencies in the adaptations of the classical detective stories of
the Golden Age detective fiction writers will be outlined. The focus will be laid on the
adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle´s Sherlock Holmes stories and Agatha Christie´s Poirot
and Miss Marple stories together with Gilbert Keith Chesterton and his Father Brown.
The popularity of Sherlock Holmes was undisputable since the first short stories.
During the publication history at the end of the nineteenth century when Doyle published
his novels and short stories in Strand Magazine, he increased the sele with regular
publishing of his short stories. When the first novel featuring the future famous Sherlock
Holmes was published in 1887 in the Christmas issue of Beeton's Christmas Annual, no one
supposed the popularity that this novel would bring. A Study in Scarlet “which introduced
us to the immortal Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson”55 started the immense popularity of
the amateur sleuth and his companion and enforced readers to wait for buying the next
issue of The Strand Magazine.
“Fifty-six Holmes stories appeared in the magazine from 1891 to 1927, many of
them illustrated by Sidney Paget's now famous drawings.”56 The man responsible for the
familiar and popular image of Sherlock Holmes as a tall man with the deerstalker hat and a
calabash pipe is Sidney Paget, while in novels and short stories Doyle described Holmes
wearing only the unspecific travelling cap and with several pipes that he changed according
to his mood.
The popularity of the series could have been caused by the tension arising from the
expectations of the next story to be published and the new adventure to be told. After the
publishing of “The Final Problem” in 1893 where Sherlock Holmes died at The
Reichenbach Falls, “twenty thousand readers cancelled their subscriptions to The Strand
Magazine.”57 The popularity of the printed versions of the stories inspired people for their
55
“Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” The Official web site of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary
Estate, accessed February 14, 2014. http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/Biography/biography4.htm
56
“The Story of The Strand,” Strand Magazine, accessed March 29, 2014.
http://www.strandmag.com/htm/strandmag_history.htm
57
“Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” The Official web site of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary
Estate, accessed February 14, 2014. http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/biography/biography7.htm
38
radio and stage adaptations, even musicals and ballets were created featuring the great
detective.
One of the earliest stage actors portraying Holmes was William Gillete, who played
Holmes and wrote some plays featuring Sherlock Holmes. With the boom of the filming
industry almost all of Doyle´s novels and short stories were made into films. One of the
most memorable actors known for playing Sherlock Holmes was Basil Rathbone (see Pic. 1
in Appendix); however, the first actor to represent Sherlock Holmes in the movie was
Viggo Larsen. Holmes was, and still is, very popular theme for directors. Between the first
silent film from 190058 Sherlock Holmes Baffled until 1968 “there were 106 Holmes films
and 17 versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles.”59 Up to now there are more than two
hundred film adaptations played by more than seventy-five different actors world wide.60
All these television versions and movies adhered to the original stories concerning plots,
characters, time, setting and the overall appearance.
In 2009 director Guy Ritchie created completely different type of the Sherlock
Holmes movies, starring Robert Downey Jr. as the legendary detective and Jude Law as Dr
Watson (see Pic. 2), followed by the sequel in 2011. This dynamic version from the
American production depicts Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson fighting against a black
magic follower and a serial killer Lord Blackwood who has risen from the dead and is
threatening London. Beside the dramatic approach to the plot, another discrepancy is the
character of Sherlock. He is not as tall as his book model, more than acknowledged with
martial arts and almost constantly covered with bruises and blood. The film is not based on
any exact book of Arthur Conan Doyle but even though the resemblance is visible. Besides
the obvious match of the names, one can identify Doyle´s stories according to eccentric
behaviour, inclination to scientific experiments, drug addictions and the most significantly
from the cape and a pipe, violin and the omnipresent companion. Although this adaptation
does not follow any concrete story and changes the characters, it respects the time
arrangement of the original stories.
58
The exact release date is not uniformly established due to various approaches to define it. The film was shot
in 1900 and allowed for the Mutoscope machines the same year but registered in 1903.
59
Shaheen, The Detective Film In Transition, 36.
60
Fox, Sherlock Holmes: pipe dreams In The Telegraph, accessed March 28, 2014.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/6789921/Sherlock-Holmes-pipe-dreams.html
39
Another significantly different adaptation of Doyle´s Holmes is the British TV
series Sherlock. “A modern update finds the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving
crime in 21st century London.”61 Released for the first time in 2010, it soon attracted
popularity due to its contemporary character. Sherlock Holmes, played by Benedict
Cumberbatch, and Dr John Watson, played by Martin Freeman, solve crimes with the
newest technical equipment and technology, travelling by black cabs instead of coaches and
Dr Watson writes an internet blog about their adventures. Cumberbatch and Freeman (see
Pic. 3) perfectly identify with the literary characters in characteristics and appearance of
literary Holmes and Watson. Every story bears the changed title of the original Doyle´s
story and the plot comprises plots from several stories.
One more example of the modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes series is the
American TV series Elementary, where Lucy Liu plays Dr Joan Watson and Jonny Lee
Miller plays rehabilitating Sherlock Holmes (see Pic. 4). This TV adaptation does not
follow the original place setting, because this version is set New York and time when set in
the twenty-first century.
One interesting fact about the film adaptations of Doyle´s books is the ability to
distinguish the original in it. Holmes can be a modern man using the newest iPhone or his
companion can be a woman but the viewer can recognize the pattern of Arthur Conan
Doyle´s stories. The careful viewer can recognize one more TV character with the
resemblance to Sherlock Holmes. The fictional character Dr Gregory House, M.D. is
partially based on the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle. Beside the identical addresses and an
addiction to illegal substances, both characters has their less intelligent assistant, both play
the musical instrument and both share similar traces in their appearance and behaviour. The
most significant resemblance to the book is the technique House uses to diagnose his
patients.62
Agatha Christie´s books were also adapted for all types of media, radio, theatre and
film industry. For the first man to portray Hercule Poirot is considered Charles Laughton in
1928 play Alibi. Three years later Austin Trevor played Poirot for the first time on film (see
61
“Sherlock,” Internation Movie Database, accessed March 1, 2014. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1475582/
62
“Hugh Laurie,” Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences, accessed March 13, 2014.
http://www.emmys.com/news/events/hugh-laurie-and-cast-make-house-call
40
Pic. 5). Another reputable actor in the role of Hercule Poirot was Peter Ustinov starring in
six film adaptations of Agatha Christie´s stories (see Pic. 6). The most credited actor
portraying Hercule Poirot on screen is British actor David Suchet (see Pic. 7). Suchet´s first
contact with Poirot series was in 1985 when he played Inspector Japp in Thirteen at Dinner
with Peter Ustinov playing Poirot.
In 1989 the British TV company ITV started the production of Agatha Christie´s
short stories and novels starring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and Hugh Frasier as
Captain Hastings. During the first two year of the production, ITV produced thirty films in
the fifty-minute length. After the one-year production break in 1992, the filming continued
until 2013 with the same cast. All together Suchet portrayed Poirot in seventy films
covering almost all stories by Agatha Christie about the Great Belgian Detective. Suchet is
considered the best actor in the role of Hercule Poirot and one of the few people in history
to remain with the role for almost quarter century and to portray almost every original
story. “Although it is common in music for a pianist to play, for example, a complete
Beethoven cycle […] such completism is almost impossible in television because of the
level of commitment required from both performers – who understandably fear typecasting
– and network executives, who are prone to changes of mind and fashion: ITV is
unrecognisable in personnel and structure from when the first Poirot was shown almost
quarter of a century ago.”63 David Suchet is, therefore, an unique actor who was able to
remain with his fictional character and still be faithful to the original character and setting.
Agatha Christie´s Miss Marple is another successful literary model for many films.
Miss Jane Marple was portrayed altogether by seven actresses. The first lady to take the
role of this unordinary spinster sleuth was Gracie Fields in the 1956 adaptation of Murder
is Announced (see Pic. 8). Other significant actress was Margaret Rutherford, who was
Christie´s good friend (see Pic. 9). “While Agatha Christie disliked Rutherford's
presentation of Miss Marple, they were friends, and Christie even dedicated her novel The
63
Lawson, David Suchet's final Poirot episodes: the end of one of TV's great castings In The Gardian ,
accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/oct/23/david-
suchet-poirot-tv-great-casting
41
Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side "To Margaret Rutherford in admiration".”64 One of the
last actresses portraying the spinster sleuth is Geraldine McEwan (see Pic. 10).
Very problematic element in the newer Miss Marple TV films is the fact that the
producers set Miss Marple to the stories that either were not written by Agatha Christie or
the stories originally did not feature Miss Marple as the character.65
Beside the discrepancies made by the producers, films and movies about the
mysterious adventures of Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple follow the traditional
patterns established in the books the films were based on. There are no switches into
modern England of the twenty-first century or the gender changes of main characters like
the Holmes adaptations. All stories are set in post-Victorian England with its villages and
typical society.
A series of films made for TV, troubling to depict the original stories authentically,
is the TV adaptation of G. K. Chesterton´s Father Brown stories. The first adaptations
based on the short stories started in 1934, called Father Brown, Detective with Walter
Connolly as the amateur sleuth Father Brown (see Pic. 11). During the year 1974, Sir Lew
Grade produced thirteen episodes of Father Brown with Kenneth More in the main role
(see Pic. 12). This TV series adapted original Chesterton´s stories maintaining the setting
and story lines.
In 2013 BBC started the production of new adaptations of popular Chesterton´s
short stories. Films are set in the village of Kembleford during the nineteen-fifties. Father
Brown, played by Mark Williams, serves at St Mary's Catholic Church and during his free
time solves mysterious murder crimes (see Pic. 13). Several stories follow the original plot,
setting and characters while others, like “The Hammer of God”, lacks one of the prime
suspects, who in the original story tangles the story line and makes the solution more
difficult. The article from The Guardian describes this series as follows: “His most
conspicuous feature is his inconspicuousness. Neither film nor TV is a medium built for the
celebration of humility. Its great actors like, naturally enough, to be at the centre, for film
favours the show-off, the celebrity. To base a show on a man who quietly observes others is
64
“Miss Marple,” The Agatha Christie Archive Trust, accessed March 4, 2014.
http://www.agathachristie.com/christies-work/detectives/miss-marple/3.orn
65
“Film a TV,” Společnost Agathy Chriestie, accessed March 29, 2014. http://www.agatha.cz/content/film-tv
42
a challenge the new BBC series perhaps rightly does not attempt to solve.”66 From one
point of view is this statement true, but there are still people who want to relax during the
Sunday afternoon with a good film, which reveals that the goodness still exist in the world
and someone there is someone to defend it.
66
Newton, Father Brown: the empathetic detective In The Guardian, 20.
43
5. Conclusion
This thesis was written with the intention to capture the important literary works of
the detective genre. The thesis described tales, stories, novels and a play progressing from
the very first texts of the Old Testament through the Shakespearian period up to the
nineteenth century. The most significant works written in Britain and bearing the traces of
the detective stories were found in the period around the turn of the century, represented by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his undoubtedly most famous amateur sleuth Sherlock Holmes
and his little bit less intelligent friend Dr John Watson. Beside Sir Conan Doyle, the thesis
focused on two more chosen authors to be the representatives of the detective fiction of the
twentieth century. This choice is based on the fact that the Golden Age of detective fiction,
representing the period before and between the two World Wars, is marked with the boom
of the writers of the detective genre. The first chosen writer is Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa
Christie and her two best known detectives, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and the
nosy lady Miss Jane Marple. The last author that was analysed in details was Gilbert Keith
Chesterton and his empathetic priest Father Brown.
The thesis tried to point out the most significant traces of the English detective
fiction genre. One of these traces is the unordinary figure of the detective. This detective
can be represented as an eccentric detective like Sherlock Holmes with all his addictions,
vices and with extraordinary intellect or Hercule Poirot, the pedant little Belgian refugee
solving the most tangled cases with his little grey cells of brain. The innovative approach in
forming the detective is visible in Christie´s amateur sleuth Miss Marple, an elderly lady
with love for mysteries, solving the crimes that any gentle lady should not come in touch.
The last example of a detective described in this thesis was Father Brown who represents
the morally strongest detective. He does not solve the crimes with the help of a bright
intellect or a science but with the help of imagination. The priest detective is able to
imagine himself in the mind of the criminal and admit that a part of his mind can be also
sinful, as the mind of the criminal is, but with the strong will and faith he is able to resist.
Beside the figure of the detective, this thesis tried to describe the omnipresent
companion of the detective. His function in the story was in most cases the function of the
narrator of the detective story, while in some stories, like Miss Marple, there is not only one
exact companion present in the stories. The last discussed trace of the English detective
44
fiction is the setting. During the turn of the centuries, the stories were more concentrated on
the cities and rural areas; Sherlock Holmes solved his mysteries in London, but after the
World War I, the setting moved more to the urban areas, peaceful villages and lovely
English gardens.
The last chapter of the thesis focused on the adaptations of the detective stories of
the analysed authors. The thesis tried to aim at the preservation of the traditional elements
of English detective genre of the nineteenth and twentieth century, mostly in the setting of
the stories, the characteristic traits of each detective and their overall appearance. To
illustrate the changes of the actors and actresses portraying the literary characters we
decided to attach the appendix containing the pictures from the films and movies. This part
of the thesis was only outlined because to analyse the smallest details of the film
adaptations would take another thesis.
We hope that the thesis fulfilled all the aspects that were determined in the
introduction and maybe will be useful for the possible readers interested in the field of
detective literature.
45
6. Resumé
Cílem této bakalářské práce je zachycení historického vývoje detektivního žánru od

prvních zmínek, které se objevují již v Biblickém Písmu, až po moderní detektivní román
devatenáctého a dvacátého století, jeho nejdůležitějších představitelů a nejznámějších děl.
Dále se zaměřuje na analýzu anglického detektivního žánru s jeho specifiky a zvláštnostmi.
V první kapitole se práce snaží definovat zařazení detektivního žánru mezi
jednotlivými druhy románu s napětím a kriminálním příběhem. Bližší specifikace byla
nutná i při definici a rozlišení anglického detektivního žánru od amerického stylu psaní,
kde se rozšířil takzvaný hard-boiled styl, na rozdíl od anglického stylu preferujícího typ
nazývaný whodunit. Americký styl se vyznačuje rychlejším a akčnějším spádem příběhu a
postavami, které jsou obvykle profesionální detektivové nebo jsou členy policejního sboru.
Anglický detektivní román naopak klade důraz na logiku, dedukci a detektiva, který není
svým povoláním profesionální detektiv nebo policista a často je svým fyzickým zjevem
nenápadný.
Druhá kapitola této bakalářské práce se zabývá hlubší analýzou vybraných aspektů
anglického detektivního žánru, které jej odlišují zejména od detektivního románu
amerického a které jej činí zajímavým a netypickým v oblasti světové detektivní tvorby.
Zaměřuje se na postavu netradičního detektiva a jeho charakteristiky a metody vyšetřování.
Dále se soustředí na funkci a pozici vypravěče těchto příběhů, kde se prokázalo, že ve
většině zkoumaných příběhů byl vypravěčem detektivův společník a přítel. V příbězích
Sherlocka Holmese je tímto vypravěčem jeho přítel doktor Watson, nebo v příbězích
Gilberta Keitha Chestertona je často společníkem a vypravěčem příběhů o Otci Brownovi
vysoký Gaskoněc Flambeau. Práce se také zabývá specifickým zasazením příběhu do
anglického prostředí a jeho vlivem na samotný příběh.
V poslední kapitole této bakalářské práce je nastíněn vývoj adaptací analyzovaných
románů a povídek v médiích. Zaměřuje se zejména na vizuální adaptace pro film a televizi.
Snaží se zachytit různé podoby jednotlivých představitelů ve vztahu k literární předloze,
zejména změny ve vzhledu, povaze a časově-prostorovém zasazení dané adaptace. Pro
názornou ukázku je proto na konci práce zařazená obrazová příloha zachycující herce a
herečky v rolích fiktivních detektivů v průběhu let.
46
7. Appendix
The following pictures represent the illustrations of various actors in the adaptations
of famous fictional detectives. Though the detective stories are a good source for the film
industry every above mentioned detective has his on-screen counterpart. The chosen
pictures show the differences between the single representatives of fictitious detectives
throughout the years.
Sherlock Holmes
Pic. 1 Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in 1943
47
Pic. 2 Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law , 2009
Pic. 3 Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in the BBC series from 2010
48
Pic. 4 Lucy Liu as Dr Joan Watson and Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes, 2012
Hercule Poirot
Pic. 5 The first TV adaptation of Hercule Poirot with Austin Trevor (on the left) from 1931
49
Pic. 6 Peter Ustinov in Thirteen at Dinner from 1985
Pic. 7 David Suchet – the most credited actor in the role of Hercule Poirot , 2006
50
Miss Jane Marple
Pic. 8 Gracie Fields - the first actress in the role of Jane Marple, 1956
Pic. 9 Margaret Rutherford in 1963 as Miss Marple

51
Pic. 10 Geraldine McEwan in the typical pose of Miss Marple – observing the world from
behind the knitting needles, 2007
Father Brown
Pic. 11 Walter Connolly - the first actor to portray Father Brown on screen, 1934
52
Pic. 12 Kenneth More in the 1974 adaptation of Father Brown stories
Pic. 13 The latest adaptation with Mark Williams as the priest detective, 2013
53
8. Bibliography
Primary Literature
Doyle, A. Conan. The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Vol. I. New York: Barnes & Noble,
2003.
—. The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Dover Thrift Editions. New York: Courier Dover
Publications, 2012.
Chesterton, G. K. The Secret of Father Brown. Cornwall: House of Stratus, 2000.
—. Father Brown Stories. London: Penguin Books, 1994.
Christie, A. Murder of Roger Ackroyd. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
—. Sleeping Murder, The Murder at the Vicarage. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company,
1976.
—. The Murder at the Vicarage. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002.
—. The Mysterious Affair at Styles. New York: Cosimo Classics, 2007.
—. Third Girl. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1967.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Complete Stories. London: Campbell, 1992.
Secondary Literature
“Agatha Christie,” agathachristie.com, accessed March 4, 2014.

<http://www.agathachristie.com/christies-work/detectives/>
“Agathy Christie,” agatha.cz, accessed March 29, 2014.

<http://www.agatha.cz/content/film-tv> Accessed March 29, 2014.
54
Auden, W.H. “The Guilty Vicarage.” Harper´s Magazine, May 1948: 406-412.
Davis, J. Madison. “If it´s Tuesday, There Must Be a Mudrer at the Belgium.” World
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58
9. Annotation
Author: Michaela Veselská
Faculty - department: Philosophical faculty - Department of English and American

studies
Title: History, Development and Characteristics of British Detective Novel and the
Significant Representatives of the Genre
Supervisor: PhDr. Libor Práger, Ph.D.
Number of pages: 60 (89 471 characters)
Key Words: detective genre, novel, short story, whodunit, Edgar Allan Poe, Chevalier
Dupin, English detective fiction, deduction, Golden Age, detective, companion, Agatha
Christie, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, nineteenth century, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Father
Brown, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson, TV and film adaptations
Description:
The thesis depicts the historical development of the detective literary genre from the first
manuscripts to the nineteenth century. The focus of this thesis lies on the description of the
English detective story and on the analyses of the most significant authors of the genre and
their works, namely Arthur Conan Doyle, Gilbert Keith Chesterton and Agatha Christie.
The last chapter of this thesis briefly depicts the tendencies in on screen adaptations, mainly
the contrast between the original stories and their modern adaptations.
59
Anotace
Autor: Michaela Veselská
Fakulta - katedra: Filozofická fakulta - Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky
Název práce: Historie, vývoj a charakteristika britského detektivního románu a

významných představitelů tohoto žánru
Vedoucí práce: PhDr. Libor Práger, Ph.D.
Počet stran: 60 (89 471 znakov)
Klíčová slova: detektivní žánr, román, povídka, whodunit, Edgar Allan Poe, Chevalier
Dupin, anglická detektivka, dedukce, Zlatý věk detektivky, detektiv, společník, Agatha
Christie, Hercule Poirot, Slečna Marplová, devatenácté století, Gilbert Keith Chesterton,
Otec Brown, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson, televizní a filmové
adaptace
Popis práce:
Bakalářská práce zachycuje historický vývoj detektivního žánru od počátků písemnictví až
do devatenáctého století. Hlavním cílem této práce je popis anglické detektivky a
významných představitelů tohoto žánru a jejích tvorby, zejména děl Arthura Conana Doyla,
Gilberta Keitha Chestertona a Agathy Christie. V poslední kapitole se práce zabývá
nastíněním problematiky filmových a televizních adaptací klasických děl detektivního
žánru, především kontrastem mezi předlohou a adaptací.
60

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PALACKY UNIVERSITY OLOMOUC

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES

History, Development and Characteristics of British Detective Novel

Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Libor Práger, Ph.D.

V Olomouci dne........................... Podpis ............................

2. Historical Development of the Detective Genre ............................................................. 7

2.2 Definition of the Detective Genre and its Subgenres .................................................. 12

2.3 Specifics of the British Detective Fiction ................................................................... 13

3. Analysis of the Characteristic Traces of English Detective Fiction ........................... 17

3.1 The Great and Eccentric Detectives ............................................................................ 17

3.2 The Figure of the Woman Detective ........................................................................... 26

3.5 Typical Setting of the Story ........................................................................................ 35

4. Traditional Tendencies in Modern Adaptations .......................................................... 38

2.2 Definition of the Detective Genre and its Subgenres

2.3 Specifics of the British Detective Fiction

3.1 The Great and Eccentric Detectives

“The mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are in themselves, but

Holmes, without expressing any kind of shame or understanding, proposes to young

Another representative of eccentric detective is Hercule Poirot. An elderly bold

3.2 The Figure of the Woman Detective

There is no rule of being a man in the world of detective fiction, nevertheless, to

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) is, as a representative of the Golden Age of

Every hero needs a companion. The fictional world of detectives is not an

“Looking for some lodging,” I answered. “Trying to solve the problem as to

─ Holmes himself is a narrator: “The Blanched Soldier”, “The Lion’s Mane”

“Goodness,” said Giles, “I never thought of that.”

3.5 Typical Setting of the Story

Cílem této bakalářské práce je zachycení historického vývoje detektivního žánru od

Pic. 1 Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in 1943

Pic. 9 Margaret Rutherford in 1963 as Miss Marple

Chesterton, G. K. The Secret of Father Brown. Cornwall: House of Stratus, 2000.

—. Father Brown Stories. London: Penguin Books, 1994.

Christie, A. Murder of Roger Ackroyd. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.

—. The Murder at the Vicarage. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002.

—. The Mysterious Affair at Styles. New York: Cosimo Classics, 2007.

—. Third Girl. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1967.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Complete Stories. London: Campbell, 1992.

“Agatha Christie,” agathachristie.com, accessed March 4, 2014.

“Agathy Christie,” agatha.cz, accessed March 29, 2014.

Holquist, M. “Whodunit and Other Questions: Metaphysical Detective Stories in Post-War

International Movie Database. IMDb.com, accessed March 17, 2014.

Knox, A. Ronald. Essays in Satire. London : Sheed and Ward, 1936.

Malgrem, Carl D. “Anatomy of Murder: Mystery, Detective, and Crime Fiction.”Journal of

Marshall, Bill. Books in Scotland. accessed March 19, 2014. <http://www.books-in-

Oliveriusova,E., Grmela,J., Hilský,M., Marek,J. Dějiny anglické literatury. Praha: Státní

Přidal, Antonín. “Jak postavit detektivku na hlavu aneb Experimenty začínajícího

Scaggs, John. Crime Fiction. Oxford: Routlege, 2005.

“Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” sherlockholmesonline.org, accessed February 14, 2014.

—. Britské detektívky: od románu k televizní sérii 2. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v

Škvorecký, J. Nápady čtenáře detektivek . Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1967.

Bibliography for the Pictures in Appendix

“Agatha Christie,”agathachristie.com, accessed March 24, 2014.

Filmbug.com. 1998. http://www.filmbug.com/db/344701/photos Accessed: April 2, 2014.

International Movie Database. IMDb.com. 1990. http://www.imdb.com/?ref_=nv_home

Jessen, Marcia. BasilRathbone.net. 2012. http://www.basilrathbone.net/films/ Accessed:

Leeman, Sergio. A Certain Cinema.com 2012. http://acertaincinema.com/media-

Moviemail.com. 1996. http://www.moviemail.com/film/dvd/Father-Brown-The-Complete-

The Guardian.com. January 13, 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-

The Official Gracie Fields. graciefields.org. http://graciefields.org/miss-marple-a-murder-