I deduce therefore I write
Jun. 21st, 2005 06:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threemonkeysOver the last few weeks I have been working my way through Mystery Quartet - a box set of four (obviously) volumes each containing four mystery novellas. I have been reading a story or two between other books. The stories span the '20s to the '70s and are by some pretty famous names in the field - Simenon, McBain, Charteris, Sayers for example. Each volume has a theme - Women Sleuths, Procedurals, Locked Room, British.
All the stories were worth reading for their own sake but it was also interesting reading these as a study of the changes in social attitudes across the time span of the stories. The most obvious and probably expected example is the attitudes to gender roles, but other smaller things are interesting too. Changes in the attitude to smoking is quite evident for example, as is the notion of class. I was also interested in the change to the attitude to the purity of spirit and purity of intellect of the investigator. The more recent, the more flawed personality of the "good guy". The lack of Hammett or Chandler from the collection may skew the validity of this particular observation however.
All the stories were worth reading for their own sake but it was also interesting reading these as a study of the changes in social attitudes across the time span of the stories. The most obvious and probably expected example is the attitudes to gender roles, but other smaller things are interesting too. Changes in the attitude to smoking is quite evident for example, as is the notion of class. I was also interested in the change to the attitude to the purity of spirit and purity of intellect of the investigator. The more recent, the more flawed personality of the "good guy". The lack of Hammett or Chandler from the collection may skew the validity of this particular observation however.