Matsudo 1

Kenny Matsudo
Professor Haas
Writing 37
6 November 2014
The Blooming of the Detective Genre
The Victorian Era was the birthplace of the popular detective genre we know today. One
of Conan Doyles first books The Hound of the Baskervilles, helped the detective genre grow to
immense popularity with the Victorian era male middle class. Doyles use of a related narrator,
and the conditions around the Victorian Era gave a great possibility to detective writers around.
According to different literary scholars, like Panek and Dove, the main reason the detective
genre was able to successfully take off was due to the connections Doyle made to his target
audience, the Victorian era male middle class.
Doyles target audience was the middle class. The middle class was the biggest range in
the social hierarchy at the time, and therefore can have more of an impact. What helped the
middle class become engaged in the story, for example in The Hound of the Baskervilles, was
that the narrator, Dr. Watson was related to the readers (middle class). Watson relates the middle
class due to the fact that when in presence with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, he knows absolutely
nothing. As Sherlock says Well, Watson, what do you make of it? (Loc. 85), he tests both
Watson, and the readers, getting the readers involved as well, to try and come to a conclusion
about the cane left in the house. When Watson gives an answer, Holmes uses that to deny his
theory and come up with one of his own, which turns out to be true. Then, in chapters 8 and 9 of
Hound of the Baskervilles, Watson has his own thoughts. The chapters are written as letters to
Holmes from Watson explaining the events going on. This not only connects the readers to the

Matsudo 2
story, but also presents Watson and a middle class, average person. As the story progressed, the
reader becomes more and more involved trying to solve the case as well. He explains his
theories to Watson, but we know that Holmes is way ahead of him. Because of the conventions
set for detective genre, readers are always connected to one of the characters in the story.
For example, one reason that the detective genre was able to succeed was due to society
becoming less agrarian and becoming more technologically advanced. Like Panek mentioned in
Doyle, the passing of the Education Act of 1870 also broadened the reading public (pg.76).
This meant that before the passing of the Education Act of 1870, there were fewer people able to
read, therefore fewer people who were willing to buy a book. Panek also stated that All sorts of
technological innovations, such as electric lights and telephones, began to make life easier in
Britain, and life also became more egalitarian and open (pg.75). The technological advances,
such as the electric lights, allowed people to have time to read at night when no light as
available. Innovations such as the linotype also allowed the printing and distribution of books to
become easier.
Detective stories also became a way of relaxing. In The Different Story by Dove, he
explains that The role of the reader is both recreational and intellectual; the reader voluntarily
accepts the limits (agrees to the rules), in order to permit the game to be played. This means that
its something that the middle class liked to do and were not forced to. Unlike having stories
hundreds of pages long that only the upper class had time to read, detective stories were short
and simple, which the middle class had enough time to read. According to Doves The Different
Story, both the crossword puzzle and the detective novel are free of stress, each offers the
reader a task or set of related tasks, both are shaped by convention, and neither has any goal
beyond itself. By this, Dove means that instead of being something that you had to do, the

Matsudo 3
middle class now could read to relieve stress. They could read in their spare time and still be able
to finish within weeks and not years.
The Victorian era was the prime time to have a detective genre be born. There was crime
present with the police not being able to do anything, there were advances in technology, and
there were different conditions that made the detective genre blossom.

Matsudo 4
Sources:
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Sharon, MA: Higher Read, LLC 20143. Kindle eBook.
Online.

Dove, George N. The Different Story. The Reader and the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling
Green State University Popular Press, 1997. PDF File.

Panek, Leroy. Beginnings. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green
State University Popular Press, 1987. PDF File.

Panek, Leroy. Doyle. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State
University Popular Press, 1987. PDF File.