Victims or Villains: Jewish Images in Classic English Detective Fiction

Portrayed as dubious moneylenders, underworld operatives, megalomaniacs, Bolshevik saboteurs, or unscrupulous war-profiteers, Jewish characters have surfaced in English detective fiction from the very beginning. Starting with Conan Doyle, and focusing on the Golden Age of the genre, Tunrbull uses multiple examples to trace the evolution of Jewish caricature in British crime writing, and examines fictional representations of Jews in relation to burgeoning antisemitic sentiment within British society. Attention is paid to crime writers as wide-ranging as Baroness Orczy, Sydney Horler, R. Austin Freeman, Ngaio Marsh, and S. T. Haymon, and the depiction of Jews by Golden Age giants Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Anthony Berkeley Cox.

Author: Malcolm J. Turnbull
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 01/01/1998
Pages: 210
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.63lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.44d
ISBN13: 9780879727840
ISBN10: 0879727845
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
- Social Science | Popular Culture