Criminal Convictions: Errant Essays on Perpetrators of Literary License

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Universally recognized as one of today's premier writers of crime fiction, Nicolas Freeling here displays yet another side of his original mind in these "enviably perceptive and lyrical" essays (Kirkus) on other players in the same field. Freeling's definition of "crime fiction" is refreshingly broad, comprising not only the usual suspects - Sayers, Conan Doyle, Simenon, to name but a few of those he discusses - but also such unlikely candidates as Dickens, Kipling, Stendhal, and Conrad. For Freeling, the mystery...
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More About This Book

Overview

Universally recognized as one of today's premier writers of crime fiction, Nicolas Freeling here displays yet another side of his original mind in these "enviably perceptive and lyrical" essays (Kirkus) on other players in the same field. Freeling's definition of "crime fiction" is refreshingly broad, comprising not only the usual suspects - Sayers, Conan Doyle, Simenon, to name but a few of those he discusses - but also such unlikely candidates as Dickens, Kipling, Stendhal, and Conrad. For Freeling, the mystery genre embraces multitudinous forms and an astounding variety of practitioners, from great literary stylists to base hacks. As might be expected, he is never at a loss for words nor diffident in his judgments about either. In his own fiction, Freeling has defied every convention, to the delight of audiences worldwide. An original, unexpected, unfailingly rewarding writer, he here gives further delight with these personal, opinionated, thoroughly provocative essays on his predecessors in mysterious excellence. This is a collection for anyone interested in the literature of crime, and indeed in literature tout court - for, as Freeling says, "The nature of crime is also the nature of art."
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
In these witty, elegant, original essays, Freeling, famous English writer of detective novels, first examines crime themes in major 19th-century writers: Dickens, for whom crime is symptomatic of the Victorian bourgeois world's complacency, corruption and squeezing of the poor; Stendhal, who saw the state as itself criminal; Joseph Conrad, whose crime plots pivot on moral cowardice and guilt. Freeling also investigates Kipling's neglected crime stories, and he blasts Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes as an embodiment of British imperialist arrogance. Turning to our century, Freeling explores Raymond Chandler's reinvention of the tale of sudden violence, Georges Simenon's urgent questioning of the meaning of suffering and redemption, Dorothy Sayers's portrayal of women defending themselves against the encroachments of a sexist society. Freeling's continually surprising essays eloquently support his view that crime is metaphysically bound up with the destruction of the mind, the pathology of the human spirit. (June)
Library Journal
Freeling, the celebrated author of 30 mystery novels (e.g., Flanders Sky, Mysterious Pr., 1992), here offers reflections on, rather than criticism of, his chosen genre. He paints on a broad canvas; his assertion that virtually all major 19th-century novelists are crime writers because ``nobody had then put crime into quotation marks'' allows him to essay Stendhal, Kipling, and Conrad, among others, while leaving later chapters open for Dorothy Sayers and Simenon. His sensibilities are keen, and he calls things as he sees them. The longest chapter, on Dickens, does a dead-on job of spearing Bleak House's glaring faults while also holding it up as one of the great novels of the language. Similarly, on Raymond Chandler he writes, ``While a formidable craftsman tactically...Ray was never good at the overall strategy of a book-length narrative.'' Fun, informed, and full of personal insight, this should appeal to Freeling's many readers and to ``literary'' mystery buffs.-Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Bill Ott
"Nearly all good writers are crime writers, for this is the area where those deep-hidden movements of the heart are seen naked." This sounds like one of those provocative rhetorical statements typical of flashly critics, but by the time we finish reading Freeling's "errant essays," we're ready to agree with his bold premise. Defining crime fiction as concerned with the broad question of "personal responsibility accepted or evaded," Freeling, a master crime novelist himself (see p.1776), discusses such nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century writers as Stendahl, Dickens, Conrad, and Kipling, showing how the metaphysics of criminal behavior is central to each writer's vision. His passionate defense of Stendahl's "Charterhouse of Parma" as the greatest of all crime novels overflows with startling insights, as does his brilliantly developed argument that Dickens, in "Bleak House", "Little Dorrit", and "Great Expectations", overcomes the tendency to be a "coarse prophet of uplift" and achieves his ultimate triumph as a crime novelist. Freeling can be a demanding critic--he assumes the reader is as familiar with the books under discussion as he is--but his boldly personal, throughly idiosyncratic style is a delight.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780879239732
  • Publisher: Godine, David R. Publishers, Inc.
  • Publication date: 1/1/1994
  • Edition description: 1st ed
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 155
  • Product dimensions: 5.74 (w) x 8.54 (h) x 0.72 (d)

Table of Contents

Introduction
Crime and Metaphysics 3
Stendhal 14
Charles Dickens 26
Joseph Conrad 58
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 70
Rudyard Kipling 81
Raymond Chandler 110
Dorothy L. Sayers 121
Georges Simenon 132
Apologia Pro Vita Sua 143
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