A friend was kind enough to point out a fascinating article in this past Sunday's New York Times book Review about the book said to be the first mystery novel - and identifying its hitherto unknown author as the first mystery novelist.
I say "hitherto unknown" author because the 1864 book, "The Notting Hill Mystery," was written by someone using the pen name "Charles Felix." The author's identity has remained unknown until now, but the author of this article, Paul Collins, believes he has sufficient evidence to identify the person who deserves the credit (or blame) for the first mystery novel. Interesting stuff indeed. Meanwhile, I see that "The Notting Hill Mystery
I posted about this too, Les. Great minds think alike, ha!
But I didn't know it was being made available, I'll have to update. Thanks.
By the way, I reviewed CASTLE SKULL by Dickson Carr today. Part of the Vintage Challenge. FUN!
Posted by: Yvette | January 12, 2011 at 04:50 PM
Les,
You will be interested to learn that I wrote a review of this book and it's published over at Mystery*File. It goes into much greater detail about the plot than Collins' article did, but without giving much away. The book is well worth reading. I had thought of selling my copy last year, but now I'm holding onto it for dear life.
Since Collins' article was published, however, there was much emailing and discussion about whether or not this is the absolute first detective novel. I argue that it is the first in English. Brian Stableford argues that the first is a French novel. This kind of literary posturing can go one indefinitely. We let it rest after about four days.
In any case, I found it all very exciting especially since my review was posted on the internet on December 19, 2010 and Collins had recently finished his research at about the same time. How's that for Victorian coincidence!
Link for the review:
http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=6777
Posted by: J F Norris | January 29, 2011 at 01:36 AM
It's probably no surprise that there are several novels around which may (or may not) be thought of as the first mystery novel. I do plan to get myself a copy of "The Notting Hill Mystery" and add it to the towering pile of to-be-reads that probably will overturn one day and bury me.
By the way, let me recommend two blogs to my readers. One is Mystery*File at http://www.mysteryfile.com/blog where there are all kinds of fascinating articles and reviews of all kinds of mysteries. The other, which may be of particular interest to classic mystery readers, is J F Norris's blog, at http://prettysinister.blogspot.com where you'll find a growing number of reviews of excellent mysteries. Both are highly recommended.
Posted by: Les Blatt | January 29, 2011 at 09:24 AM