From providence to police: the development of the literary detective figure in the long eighteenth century

This dissertation establishes a new chronology for the development of the detective figure in English literature. In opposition to the traditional view of detective literature as a nineteenth-century innovation, this study argues that the roots of the literary detective figure can instead be found considerably earlier, during the long eighteenth century (1688-1832). As rationalist scientific knowledge increased during the Enlightenment, people no longer believed that an omniscient providence directly intervened in human affairs to detect criminal activity. During this period, providentially motivated criminal texts of the early modern period were gradually replaced by human-driven detective narratives.The first chapter examines how popular works about two real-life criminals contributed to the growth of detective fiction. The thief-taker Jonathan Wild (1683-1725) was depicted as both a criminal and a successful investigator who maintained methodical records and managed a network of deputies. The dual nature of Wild as a criminal and a detective would influence the portrayal of the detective as a potentially untrustworthy figure throughout the century. The prolific body of texts on the trial of Elizabeth Canning (1734-1773) highlighted the problem of evidence in criminal trials: through their consumption of these chapbooks and pamphlets, readers trained themselves to analyze texts critically and to perform detailed literary investigations.The second chapter analyzes the activities of two early fictional investigative figures: Emily St. Aubert of Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and Caleb Williams of William Godwin's Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794). Both of these novels feature proto-detective figures who actively investigate by collecting evidence, piecing together clues, and drawing conclusions based on the facts they have gleaned through these detective activities.The third chapter details the emergence of two literary detectives who appeared in novels near the end of the long eighteenth century. The anonymously published Richmond; or, Scenes in the Life of a Bow Street Officer, Drawn Up from his Private Memoranda (1827) was the first English novel to feature a professional detective as the main character. Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman (1828) introduced the first aristocratic detective in English literature, thus adding respectability to counteract the roguish origins and criminal connections of the detective figure.The conclusion details how this collection of foundational eighteenth-century narratives influenced the development of the mystery novel genre in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It considers how these early texts affected the depiction of a variety of later prominent detective characters, including Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade, Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew, and Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey.

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