The mysterious case of the Victorian female detective / Sara Lodge.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lodge, Sara (Sara J.), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Detective and mystery stories, English--History and criticism.

Detective and mystery stories, English.

Women and literature--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Women and literature.

English fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Women detectives in literature.

Women detectives--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Women detectives.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 359 pages) : illustrations, map

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Victorian female detective

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2024]

Summary:

A revelatory history of the women who brought Victorian criminals to account--and how they became a cultural sensation From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realise that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves. Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women's lives. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine who got the better of love rats, burglars, and murderers alike. How did the morally ambiguous work of real women detectives, sometimes paid to betray their fellow women, compare with the exploits of their fictional counterparts, who always save the day? Lodge's book takes us into the murky underworld of Victorian society on both sides of the Atlantic, revealing the female detective as both an unacknowledged labourer and a feminist icon.

Contents:

Prologue: The vanishing lady

Introduction

Searchers and watchers: female detectives working with the police 1850-1900

Home truths: divorce, domestic violence and the fictional female detective

Sensation and the stage: the Victorian female detective in the limelight

Sex and the female dick: the secrets of the private enquiry agency

Political PIs: newspapers and the new woman detective

Mrs Warne's profession: inventing the female detective

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780300280517

0300280513

OCLC:

1456761863