Routledge - Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction

Explore the deep connection between morality and mystery in this scholarly study by Christopher Pittard. Published by Routledge, this book examines how the rise of detective fiction in the 1880s and 1890s interacted with Victorian ideas of purity. Through a close look at works by legendary authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Fergus Hume, Grant Allen, L.T. Meade, and Marie Belloc Lowndes, Pittard investigates how themes of material and moral cleanliness shaped the genre. The text explains how detective stories reflected and satirized contemporary fears regarding social degeneration. Readers will learn how Victorian literature linked criminality to concepts of dirt and disease. The book also looks at how national boundaries were viewed through the lens of protecting against the perceived threat of the criminal foreigner. This is an essential resource for students and scholars interested in literary theory, history, and the evolution of crime fiction.