NINETEENTH-CENTURY SUSPENSE

Transcription

1 NINETEENTH-CENTURY SUSPENSE

2 INSIGHTS General Editor: Clive Bloom, Lecturer in English and Coordinator of American Studies, Middlesex Polytechnic Editorial Board: Clive Bloom, Brian Docherty, Jane Gibb, Keith Shand Insights brings to academics, students and general readers the very best contemporary criticism on neglected literary and cultural areas. It consists of anthologies, each containing original contributions by advanced scholars and experts. Each contribution concentrates on a study of a particular work, author or genre in its artistic, historical and cultural context. Published titles,clive Bloom, Brian Docherty, Jane Gibb and Keith Shand (editors) NINETEENTH-CENTURY SUSPENSE: From Poe to Conan Doyle Brian Docherty (editor) AMERICAN CRIME FICTION: Studies in the Genre Further titles in preparation Serie. Staadlal Order If you would like to receive future tities in this series as they are published, you can malte use of our standing order facility. To place a standing order pie ase contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address and the name of the series. Please state with which titie you wish to begin your standing order. (lf you live outside the UK we may not have the rights for your area, in which case we will forward your order to the publisher concemed.) Standing Order Service, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG212XS, England.

3 Nineteenth-Century Suspense From Poe to Conan Doyle Edited by Clive Bloom, Brian Docherty, Jane Gibb and Keith Shand M MACMILLAN PRESS

4 the Editorial Board, Lumiere (Co-operative) Press Ltd 1988 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1988 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG212XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library CataJoguing in PubJication Data Nineteenth-century suspense: from Poe to Conan Doyle.-(Insights) 1. EngJish fiction-19th century-history and criticism I. BJoom, C1ive 11. Series 823'.872'09 PR871 ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI /

5 Contents Preface Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors vii viii ix 1 Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Dark Heat 1 David Punter 2 Capitalising on Poe' s Detective: the Dollars and Sense of Nineteenth-Century Detective Fiction 14 Clive Bloom 3 Figuring out the Signalman: Dickens and the Ghost Story 26 Gary Day 4 Wilkie Collins in the 1860s: the Sensation Novel and Self-Help 46 Nick Rance 5 Sexual Politics and Political Repression in Bram Stoker' s Dracula 64 Anne Cranny-Francis 6 The Vampire in the Looking-Glass: Reflection and Projection in Bram Stoker' s Dracula 80 Philip Martin 7 Arthur Conan Doyle' s The Parasite: the Ca se of the Anguished Author 93 Anne Cranny-Francis 8 The Lost World: Conan Doyle and the Suspense of Evolution 107 floward Davies

6 vi Contents 9 The House that Jack Built: Jack the Ripper, Legend and the Power of the Unknown 120 Clive Bloom Index 138

7 Preface This volume presents nine concise essays by literary authorities. Each essay combines, in a clear and understandable way, contemporary literary theory and sound practical criticism. Articles cover Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, the detective genre, the ghost story and arguments about the emergence and importance of detective fiction, the conditions governing the relationship between sexuality and meaning in Dracula, and concepts of colonialism and evolution. This volume comprehensively covers and combines contemporary debates over post-structuralism, the politics of the body and notions of gender with formal questions about genre and its social significance. The volume finishes with a consideration of the significance of Jack the Ripper and real murder in the nineteenth century. vii

8 Acknowledgements Thanks are due to David Green for all his help and advice, to Graham Greenglass for his artistic guidance, to Frances and Leon Kacher for their invaluable assistance, and to llana Scott and Lesley Bloom for patiently typing the manuscript. Special thanks are also due to Frances Arnold, to Graham Eyre and to Mary Shakeshaft, whose careful work helped the project reach completion. viii

9 Notes on the Contributors Clive Bloom is Lecturer in English at Middlesex Polytechnic. He is author of The 'Occult' Experience and the New Criticism, and has just completed a book on Edgar Allan Poe and Sigmund Freud. Anne Cranny-Francis lectures in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the New South Wales Institute of Technology, Sydney, Australia. She is an authority on Victorian and Australian literature, and is preparing a study on Christina Stead. Howard Davies is Senior Lecturer at the Polytechnic of North London and has numerous published artic1es on French literature. At present he is preparing a history of Les Temps modernes. Gary Day teaches English and Drama in Brighfön, and is a contributor to The Dickensian. Philip Martin is Lecturer at King Alfred's College, Winchester, and is the author of Mad Women in Romantic Literature. David Punter is Lecturer in English and American studies at the University of East Anglia and is the author of numerous articles and books, inc1uding The Literature of Terror. Nick Rance is Lecturer in English at Middlesex Polytechnic and is the author of The Historical Novel and Popular Politics in Nineteenth Century England. He is now preparing a book on Wilkie Collins. ix