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134 [SAYERS, Dorothy L.] “Vogue of Detective Fiction”. [undated; c.1927–28] Quarto, 4 leaves. Ruled paper, closely written on rectos in black ink, approx- imately 500 words. Some toning and tiny chips or nicks to edges, paper clip stain at top left corner. In very good condition. Original autograph manuscript by Sayers , with corrections and emendations, in which this “Queen of Crime” analysises the gen- re of detective fiction. Sayers traces its evolution from “the ‘Tale of Wonder’, designed only to surprise, excite, &/or horrify”, to the emergence of detective figures in the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Émile Gaboriau, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Wilkie Collins. In the most finished section, she relates the genre to a changing relationship between police and citizens. She discusses the “gentle- man detective” archetype and argues that the genre relies on an as- sumption of an ordered society. “Full development of Detective-story proper follows on development of a police-system that has the sup- port of the ordinary citizen”. She notes the work of Vidocq in France and Peel’s reforms of the police in England. She suggests that detec- tive fiction demands a sense of “fair play” by the police. Physical force should be tempered by “sporting instinct”. “There must be... suffi- cient trust in the efficacy of the police system to permit the criminal a good run for his money... and so outwit the criminal by deductions and proofs that will hold good in a court of law fairly administered”. She contrasts British and American police methods, suggesting how they have influenced their respective detective fictions. The practice of detective fiction had been in Sayers’s mind since 1919, when she was part of a group, with G. D. H. and Margaret Cole and Michael Sadleir, “who were deliberately preparing to create a vogue in detective novels” (Mann, p. 165). The manuscript has similarities to Sayers’s celebrated Introduction to Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror (1928). Haycraft considers this “the finest single piece of analytical writing about the detective story” ( The Art of the Mystery Story , 1946, p. 71). Say- ers here uses many of the same tropes, such as the quartet of Poe, Gaboriau, Conan Doyle, and Collins, and a discussion of the “fair play” rule. It is not a full draft of that introduction, though it may represent first thoughts and jottings.
Sayers’s reference to “a remark made by Herr Lion Feuchtwanger when broadcasting during his visit to London in 1927” dates the composition. Sayers notes on the third page: “‘Great attention paid by the Englishman to the external details of men and things’ (Lion Feuchtwanger). Love of material, as against psychological, exacti- tude.” In her 1928 Introduction , Sayers expands this: “Contrasting the tastes of the English, French, and German publics, [Feuchtwanger] noted the great attention paid by the Englishman to the external details of men and things. The Englishman likes material exactness in the books he reads; the German and the Frenchman, in different degrees, care little for it in comparison with psychological truth”. Haycraft, Howard, The Art Of The Mystery Story , Simon & Schuster, 1946; Mann, Jessica, Deadlier Than The Male: An Investigation into Feminine Crime Writing , David and Charles, 1981. £3,750 [131381] 135 SAYERS, Frances Clarke. Anne Carroll Moore. A Biography. New York: Atheneum, 1972 Octavo. Original white cloth backed red boards, titles gilt to spine, top edge dyed yellow, yellow endpapers. With the dust jacket. Plates illustrated with photographs. Slight tanning to spine ends, minor surface tear to front paste- down from removed bookplate, an excellent copy in the price-clipped jacket, spine somewhat tanned, small chips to ends and tips.
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