Chapter 7 golden age

No era can compete with the golden age. The guiding role of the golden age of short stories to detective novels cannot be ignored.However, with the increasing "spiritual needs" of readers, various drawbacks of short detective stories are gradually exposed, and two points are particularly prominent. First, due to the limited space, it is difficult for the story to unfold "in all directions", and the subtle tricks are also inferior due to the lack of sufficient "inception and transition".If we look at the works of this period, we will find that all the stories stay in the mode of "the incident-the official gives the wrong answer-the detective gives the correct answer".This is not due to the limited level of the creator, but in fact, in short stories, the space for actual combat is very limited.

Second, the reality of the novel has been questioned.As mentioned in the previous section, the golden age of short stories is an era in which "spiritual detectives walk everywhere and miracles happen every day".This mode is okay if it looks fresh; in the long run, when the sense of curiosity fades away, readers will feel disgusted with the novel. "This is simply a fabrication, without any practical significance!"——When readers make such voices, the prospect of short detective stories is indeed worrying.After all, this is creating a novel, not to mention literariness and glorious value, at least you need to ensure that the plot is full and the language is vivid, right?At least the characters in it should have seven emotions and six desires, can cry and laugh, right?At least make readers feel that the story takes place in reality rather than in a different dimension, right?Otherwise, there is no difference between a detective story and a math word problem.

There was a man named E. C．Bentley's journalist and writer was dissatisfied with the detachment of detective stories from reality.He is "Father of Father Brown" G. K．A good friend of Chesterton, but did not give the first chairman of the detective writers club any face. Bentley accused Chesterton publicly and face-to-face more than once: "Your Father Brown is simply nonsense. Such cases will never happen in real life, let alone such logical reasoning." "My dear old friend," Chesterton always replied unhurriedly, "I can only interpret your words as jealousy of my Father Brown."

"Not at all. I can prove that today's detective novels are the product of failure. Your detectives can't do a single step in reality." Bentley's answer was firm. "Okay. I'm looking forward to your proof." Chesterton had nothing to do with this serious friend. Bentley is definitely a socially minded reporter, and he's really starting to deliver on his commitments.He used the method of "returning the other's way to the other", using detective novels to prove the uselessness of detective novels. In 1913, he created a detective novel called "The Last Case of Trent".The protagonist is a reporter named Bentley (very factual basis), good at reasoning, and likes to dig out all the bizarre events.

One day, Bentley participated in the report of a murder case.He rushed to the scene quickly, investigated and collected evidence, interrogated relevant people, and started rigorous logical reasoning.After several twists and turns, Bentley finally revealed the truth to the public.His deduction is very meticulous, and he has the necessary physical evidence. Everything seems to be flawless, and the detective has won a big victory again... Wait a minute... The story is reversed in an instant!The detective's "every move" is completely correct, but the conclusion is far from the truth!why?This is the basis of Bentley's "theory of the uselessness of detectives"-facts are often determined by some random, unexpected, and illogical behaviors, so the detective's reasoning is completely useless in reality.

The novel was published and caused a sensation.For the first time, readers saw a work that dared to attack the "golden age of short stories", and the work just expressed their own voices, so Luoyang was expensive for a while, and "The Last Case of Trent" became a bestseller. As Chairman G. K．Chesterton was speechless! Still, Chesterton's loss doesn't mean Bentley has won.The story develops in a direction that Bentley didn't expect. Bentley's original intention was to let readers understand the "deceptiveness" of detective novels and stay away from such works; unexpectedly, the majority of readers' comprehension went astray.Everyone was amazed to learn that the detective story hadn't been exhausted by the overexploitation of the golden age of the short story.When the length changes from short to long ("The Last Case of Trent" is nearly 200,000 words), the story becomes more twists and turns, the characters become fuller, and the text becomes more beautiful... There is a description of the environment in the story, and there is The rendering of the atmosphere even has elements of love!In short, this book has changed the long-standing impression of "quizzes" left on readers by detective novels, and has become more realistic, more "human" and more like a real novel.

Readers finally shouted: "We still need detective novels, but we want better detective novels!" Such a situation happened, which neither Chesterton nor Bentley expected.Of course the chairman would not be happy, and Bentley had to revise his point of view, and began to write a large number of long detective novels—so, after Mr. Trent dealt with the "last case", he had to deal with many previous "legacy issues" ". What the two of them didn't expect was that this almost joking work opened up a whole new era. The Last Case of Trent became the template that ushered in the "Golden Age of the Long Form". In the years after 1913, although short detective novels were still prosperous, more and more creators were trying long works, trying to usher detective novels into a new era.

1920 was a watershed that cannot be ignored in the history of detective fiction.The real "Golden Age" has officially opened!In this year, two works played a pivotal role. One is the debut novel of Queen Agatha Christie.This work was completed by the Queen during the First World War, and it was locked in a drawer for a long time after it was finalized.After the manuscript saw the light of day again, it was ruthlessly rejected by N publishers.After several twists and turns, the work was finally published in 1920.Regarding the Queen's legendary experience and comments on this work, we will specifically mention it in the next section, so I won't say much here.

We just need to understand that this work inherits the "heart proof" mode of the golden age of short stories, and uses strong storytelling and ingenious layout to carry forward it.This feature of focusing on "psychological construction" and literariness of works runs through Agatha Christie's entire creative career, and also affects almost all works in the "Golden Age". Echoing him from a distance is another Englishman, F. W．"The Barrel" by Krafts.Perhaps because Queen Christie is too popular, many readers have ignored Crofts and his "Barrel", but in terms of contribution and historical significance, "Barrel" is definitely not inferior.

F． W．Crofts (1879-1957) was born in Dublin, the capital of Ireland.He was smart since he was a child and had excellent grades in science. At the age of 17, he worked as a trainee technician in a railway company, and soon became a formal railway engineer. In 1919, Crofts fell ill and was admitted to the hospital.During his recuperation period, to pass the time, he created his first detective novel "Barrel" on scratch paper with a pencil.Even he himself did not expect that this work would become a milestone work. Completely different from the romantic atmosphere and "evidence" mode of "Barrel", "Barrel" is a realist detective novel through and through, and it is a typical "material evidence" reasoning.The core content of the story is actually very simple - how the detective debunked an alibi across Britain and France.In order to achieve this goal, the police traveled across the English Channel, looking through various versions of train, ferry and plane timetables, and conducting investigations with a meticulous and rigorous attitude. .

Clofts quit his job as an engineer in 1929 to specialize in detective stories. In 1939, he was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy of Arts. In 1949, he began to translate the "Gospel" in the "Bible". Died in 1957 at the age of 78. Crawfords' "Barrel" and Agatha Christie's short story "Golden Age" inherited the "material evidence" and "heart evidence" modes, forming two very different creative styles of realism and romanticism.Later works of the "Golden Age" were all influenced by these two styles.Therefore, these two works undisputedly ushered in the golden age of detective fiction. The term "Golden Age" first came from Greek mythology, and it was used to describe the beautiful state of the world in the age of mythology—material prosperity and spiritual comfort.During this period, talents in the field of detective creation emerged in large numbers, and excellent works continued. The number of detective stories published in 1926 was five times that of 1914, and by 1939 it was ten times. Throughout the 30 years, Agatha Christie, Ellery Quinn, John Dickson Carr, Dorothy Sayers, S. S．Van Dyne, Neo Marsh, Margaret Ellingham, Anthony Berkeley, Ronald Knox, Josephine Tey, Rex Stott, etc. Countless genius writers. ,,, "The Mystery of the Greek Coffin", "The Tragedy of X", "The Tragedy of Y", "The Death of a Nobleman", "The Tiger in the Smoke", "The Bishop's Murder",,, "The Murder of Poisoned Chocolate" have all become A peerless classic. It can be said that the "Golden Age" is more than a concept of time, it is a spirit, a symbol, and a realm. As the best era of detective novels, the characteristics of the golden age are concentrated in several aspects. The "Golden Age" is also known as the "Classical Puzzle Age". "Solving puzzles" is the highest purpose of works in this period.Whether it is a realistic style or a romantic style, this ultimate goal is always the same.Unbelievable criminal methods, impeccable misleading methods, earth-shattering reversals... All plots related to mysteries are popular in the "Golden Age". Everyone has an instinctive curiosity and desire to explore, and "solving puzzles" captures this human nature, and thus makes a big splash.Compared with the later exposure of the darkness of society and the ugliness of human nature by the hardliners in Europe and the United States and the Japanese social parties, the advantages of the "Golden Age", which is good at "solving puzzles", are undoubtedly huge and obvious. This point has been mentioned many times before.Many readers tend to overlook this, but it is actually very important. As a type of literature, detective novels should be a "novel" first, and then various elements of "detective".Since it is a "novel", it must meet some basic conditions as a novel, such as the integrity of the story and the layout skills of the plot (the skills here are not the misleading or reversal skills unique to detective novels, but the general skills as literary works) , beautiful words, sincere emotions, and even some deep meanings.Only in this way can this type of works have room to exist and develop. The "literariness" mentioned here does not require the creators to create detective novels according to the standard. That is not the value and significance of the existence of detective novels.However, some basic literary elements are still essential.There's no question that the creators of "Golden Age" have done a good job at this. Now that they have the ultimate goal of "solving puzzles above all else", the creators naturally need to rack their brains and lay out all kinds of incredible tricks in order to surprise readers at the last moment.During this period, a great deal of original sleight of hand emerged.Throughout the history of the development of detective novels, the "Golden Age" has exhausted almost all the tricks that human beings can think of (this also directly led to the forced transformation of the later creators), and truly achieved "nothing unexpected". Among them, the trick modes worthy of attention include Impossible Crime, Blizzard Villa, Death Message, Faceless Corpse, Narrative Trick and so on.Genius creators have their own strengths, and they have created great works in their own field of tricks.For example, Agatha Christie, creator of Blizzard Hills and narrative subterfuge; Ellery Quinn's penchant for death messages; and John Dickson Carr for his accomplishments in impossible crimes. Earned the title of "King of the Chamber of Secrets"... These will be discussed in more detail in later chapters. Challenge the reader is a setting that emerged and belongs only to the "golden age", and it is the most typical portrayal of this golden age, so it deserves a separate treatment here. "Challenging the Reader" is an invention of Ellery Quinn.In Quinn's works, there is a chapter called "Challenging the Reader" before the mystery is revealed.Proud Quinn will confidently say to the readers: "All the clues are in front of you. Who is the real murderer? Please use your brain again! I wish you a happy hunting!" Faced with such a naked challenge, which reader can not be tempted? "Challenging readers" is the embodiment of Quinn's flamboyant personality, and also Quinn's confidence in the rigorous logical structure of his works."Challenging the reader" only makes sense if every detail is clearly presented to the reader.It can be said that "challenging readers" is a symbol of prosperity and self-confidence in the "golden age" and a manifestation of absolute strength. Later, many authors also used the bridge of "challenging readers", which has been tried and tested.But only the works of the "Golden Age" can best demonstrate the indescribable charm of this bridge. Why is there such an anti-creation law setting as "challenging readers"?Because the works of the "Golden Age" all adhere to the highest criterion-fairness.Fairness is the basis for creating infinite brilliance in the "Golden Age". As a special type of novel, detective novel is an intellectual game.If the author can deceive all readers and lead the truth to an unknown corner, it will undoubtedly be a great success of the work.However, there must be a prerequisite for all this-all clues must be open, and all readers must be able to grasp them accurately.Creators can use various techniques to mislead, but they must never intentionally distort or conceal clues. Just imagine, if at the end of a work, the reader finds that everything is a fraud by the author-this kind of fraud is not "technical", but "principle" or "quality", then the reader will probably be wrong. In a fit of rage, Jiuhui never approached detective novels again.If things go on like this, the ending of detective novels is not difficult to predict. Therefore, fairness must be observed by all those who create detective novels, and it is the guarantee for the development of detective novels.A writer's triumph must never be based on information asymmetry, that's mean and untechnical.Every writer who ventures into the realm of detective fiction swears— Can you guarantee that you will not hide clues from readers at any time and will always abide by the principle of fairness? yes!I swear! The above is an overview of the best era of detective fiction. A great era, of course, cannot just stay in theory and on a macro level.In the next section, we'll meet some of the greatest characters in the history of detective fiction, such as the four known as the "Golden Triumvirate"!