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Kestner, J. A. (2017). Sherlock’s sisters: The British female detective, 1864–1913. New York: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2020-6-290-295

Abstract

The monograph of the American scholar Joseph A. Kestner is devoted to Victorian novels and stories that feature a female detective protagonist. The author introduces a large volume of little studied texts written in the period from 1864 to 1913, which he explores to follow the process of the female detective character taking shape, noting its specific structural and sociocultural traits as well as features of narration. As a literary example and a starting point, the author considers the character of the amateur detective Sherlock Holmes: it is in comparison and polemic with him that the character of a female detective is formed in the subsequent literary tradition. In recognizing realistic prose as documentary evidence, the author painstakingly reconstructs the historical context, mostly in the area of gender issues. This enables him to shed a new light on the origins of English detective writing, while not without certain limitations.

About the Author

E. I. Samorodnitskaya
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
Russian Federation

Ekatirina I. Samorodnitskaya – Candidate of Philology

82/1 Vernadsky Av., Moscow, 119571



Review

For citations:


Samorodnitskaya E.I. Kestner, J. A. (2017). Sherlock’s sisters: The British female detective, 1864–1913. New York: Routledge. Voprosy literatury. 2020;(6):290-295. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2020-6-290-295

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ISSN 0042-8795 (Print)