Cracking the Hard-Boiled Detective: A Critical History from the 1920s to the Present

Cracking the Hard-Boiled Detective: A Critical History from the 1920s to the Present

by Lewis D. Moore
Cracking the Hard-Boiled Detective: A Critical History from the 1920s to the Present

Cracking the Hard-Boiled Detective: A Critical History from the 1920s to the Present

by Lewis D. Moore

eBook

$14.99  $19.99 Save 25% Current price is $14.99, Original price is $19.99. You Save 25%.

Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

The hard-boiled private detective is among the most recognizable characters in popular fiction since the 1920s--a tough product of a violent world, in which police forces are inadequate and people with money can choose private help when facing threatening circumstances. Though a relatively recent arrival, the hard-boiled detective has undergone steady development and assumed diverse forms.

This critical study analyzes the character of the hard-boiled detective, from literary antecedents through the early 21st century. It follows change in the novels through three main periods: the Early (roughly 1927-1955), during which the character was defined by such writers as Carroll John Daly, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler; the Transitional, evident by 1964 in the works of John D. MacDonald and Michael Collins, and continuing to around 1977 via Joseph Hansen, Bill Pronzini and others; and the Modern, since the late 1970s, during which such writers as Loren D. Estleman, Liza Cody, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton and many others have expanded the genre and the detective character. Themes such as violence, love and sexuality, friendship, space and place, and work are examined throughout the text.

Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780786482399
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date: 01/24/2015
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 306
File size: 592 KB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Lewis D. Moore, a retired professor of English, taught at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington for thirty years. He is also the author of Meditations on America: John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee Series and Other Fiction (1994).
Lewis D. Moore, a retired professor of English, taught at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington for thirty years. He is also the author of Meditations on America: John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee Series and Other Fiction (1994).

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface     
Introduction     

1. Poe, Conan Doyle, and the Hard-Boiled Detective Novel     

EARLY PERIOD
2. History as Recovery     
3. The Creation of Character     
4. Violence: Direction and Control     
5. Decaying Worlds     
6. Work: Discourse and Danger     
7. Sexuality and Discovery     
8. Friendship: The Absent Theme     

TRANSITIONAL PERIOD
9. Character in Conflict     
10. Pervasive Violence     
11. Expanded Space     
12. Needed Work     
13. Love and Sexuality     
14. Friendship: Faint Stirrings     
15. The Quality of Change: Individual Lives and Social Transformation     

MODERN PERIOD
16. Character and Wholeness     
17. Violence: Echoes and Conversions     
18. Better Places     
19. Necessary Work     
20. Sexuality and Diversity     
21. Surviving Friendship     
22. Multiples of Change     
23. The Uses of Memory     
24. Lies and Deceit: Family     
25. Conclusion: Expanding the Word     

Bibliography     
Index     
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews