Mystery (fiction) definition of Mystery (fiction) in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

mystery or mystery story, literary genre in which the cause (or causes) of a mysterious happening, often a crime, is gradually revealed by the hero or heroine; this is accomplished through a mixture of intelligence, ingenuity, the logical interpretation of evidence, and sometimes sheer luck.

History

Although some critics trace the origins of the genre to such disparate works as Aesop's fables, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and the Apocrypha, most agree that the Western mystery, complete with all its conventions, emerged in 1841 with the publication of Edgar Allan Poe Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809–49, American poet, short-story writer, and critic, b. Boston. He is acknowledged today as one of the most brilliant and original writers in American literature.
..... Click the link for more information. 's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." This and all of Poe's "tales of ratiocination" feature the chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, a brilliant amateur detective, who, by a keen analysis of motives and clues, solves crimes that are baffling to the police.

The first full-length mystery novels were probably Wilkie Collins Collins, Wilkie (William Wilkie Collins), 1824–89, English novelist. Although trained as a lawyer, he spent most of his life writing, producing some 30 novels.
..... Click the link for more information. 's The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868), which continued Poe's concept of the brilliant detective—although Collins's rose-growing Sergeant Cuff is a policeman—and added an emphasis on the sleuth's idiosyncrasies. Charles Dickens Dickens, Charles, 1812–70, English author, b. Portsmouth, one of the world's most popular, prolific, and skilled novelists.

Early Life and Works

The son of a naval clerk, Dickens spent his early childhood in London and in Chatham.
..... Click the link for more information. 's The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) is a detective novel that is both intriguing and frustrating because, since the novel is unfinished, its crime is never solved. In 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan (kō`nən, kŏn`ən), 1859–1930, British author and creator of Sherlock Holmes, b. Edinburgh.
..... Click the link for more information. published "A Study in Scarlet," which introduced Sherlock Holmes, destined to become the most famous of all literary detectives. This vain and aloof amateur sleuth, with a fondness for pipes, violins, and cocaine, solves crimes through extraordinarily perceptive recognition and interpretation of evidence.

Like Conan Doyle, subsequent mystery writers often featured the same detective in several works. Especially popular are G. K. Chesterton Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton), 1874–1936, English author. Conservative, even reactionary, in his thinking, Chesterton was a convert (1922) to Roman Catholicism and its champion.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Father Brown, E. D. Biggers's Charlie Chan, S. S. Van Dine's Philo Vance, Raymond Chandler Chandler, Raymond Thornton, 1888–1959, American author, b. Chicago, educated in England. After World War I, he entered the oil business in California. Bankrupt during the Depression, he published his first of many detective stories in The Black Mask
..... Click the link for more information. 's Philip Marlowe, Rex Stout Stout, Rex, 1886–1975, American writer, b. Noblesville, Ind. He served in the navy and worked in New York City as founder and director of the Vanguard Press.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Nero Wolfe, Agatha Christie Christie, Dame Agatha, 1890–1976, English detective story writer, b. Torquay, Devon, as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. Christie's second husband was the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan , and she gained much material for her later novels during his excavations in
..... Click the link for more information. 's Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, Georges Simenon Simenon, Georges (zhôrzh sēmənôN`), 1903–89, Belgian novelist.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Inspector Maigret, Dorothy Sayers Sayers, Dorothy Leigh (sā`ərz), 1893–1957, English writer, grad. Somerville College, Oxford, 1915.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Lord Peter Wimsey, Leslie Charteris's "The Saint," Robert van Gulick's Magistrate Dee, Harry Kemelman's Rabbi David Small, Emma Lathan's John Putnam Thatcher, Ellery Queen in the works of Frederic Dannay and M. B. Lee, P. D. James James, P. D. (Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park), 1920–, English mystery novelist, b. Oxford. From 1964 to 1979 she worked in the criminal department of the Department of Home Affairs.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Adam Dalgleish, and Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins.

Types of Mysteries

Many authors incorporate the conventions of the mystery into the novel, producing works that are warm, witty, often erudite, and filled with interesting characters and atmosphere. Such authors include Dorothy Sayers, Michael Innes Innes, Michael, pseud. of John Innes Mackintosh Stewart, 1906–94, British writer and scholar, b. near Edinburgh. From 1969 to 1973 he was a reader in English literature at Oxford.
..... Click the link for more information. , Josephine Tey, Nicholas Blake, Edgar Wallace, Ngaio Marsh Marsh, Dame Ngaio (nī`ō), 1899–1982, New Zealand detective story writer.
..... Click the link for more information. , Philip McDonald, Anna K. Green, Carolyn Wells, Mary Roberts Rinehart Rinehart, Mary Roberts (rīn`härt), 1876–1958, American novelist, b. Pittsburgh. A graduate nurse, she married Dr. Stanley M.
..... Click the link for more information. , Elizabeth Daly, Peter Dickinson, and Hilda Lawrence. Some detective novels focus on the actions of the police in solving a crime; notable "police procedure" novelists are Freeman Wills Crofts, George Bagby, Ed McBain, and Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.

Dashiell Hammett Hammett, Dashiell (dəshēl`), 1894–1961, American writer, b. St. Mary's co., Maryland.
..... Click the link for more information. initiated the "hard-boiled" detective genre, featuring tough, brash, yet honorable "private eyes" living on the seedy criminal fringe and involved in violent and incredibly complex crimes. Other such writers are Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain Cain, James Mallahan, 1892–1977, American novelist, b. Annapolis, Md., grad. Washington College, 1910. He taught journalism (1924–25) and wrote political commentaries for the New York World (1924–31).
..... Click the link for more information. , Chester Himes, Ross Macdonald Margaret Millar, 1915–94, b. Kitchener, Ont., Canada, was a mystery writer. Her works include The Invisible Worm (1941), The Murder of Miranda (1979), and Banshee (1983).
..... Click the link for more information. , and Elmore Leonard and, adding lurid sex and brutality, James Hadley Chase and Mickey Spillane. There has been a resurgence of interest in hard-boiled stories, with such popular authors as Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford.

An extension of the detective novel is the espionage tale, which became very popular in the 1960s. Usually convoluted in plot, these novels emphasize action, sex, and innovative cruelty and sometimes stress the moral ambiguity of the spy's world. Noted authors of espionage novels are Graham Greene Greene, Graham (Henry Graham Greene), 1904–91, English novelist and playwright. Although most of his works combine elements of the detective story, the spy thriller, and the psychological drama, his novels are essentially parables of the damned.
..... Click the link for more information. , Eric Ambler Ambler, Eric, 1909–98, English novelist. An advertising executive, he turned exclusively to writing after his realistic and innovative suspense novels became popular. Ambler has often been called the first thriller writer whose work succeeded as literature.
..... Click the link for more information. , Ian Fleming, Len Deighton, John le Carré le Carré, John (lə kärā`), pseud. of David John Moore Cornwell, b.
..... Click the link for more information. , Alan Furst, and Tom Clancy.

In the subtle and perceptive works of writers such as Georges Simenon and Nicholas Freeling the psychological reasons behind a crime are often emphasized more than the crime's solution. Other writers, notably Julian Symons, have extended this emphasis, maintaining that early mysteries, with their country-house settings and aristocratic characters, are snobbish and escapist. Attempting to be contemporary and meaningful, these authors probe the psychological and sociological aspects of a crime, often producing grim and uncomfortable conclusions. The courtroom drama has also been popular, as seen in the success of Erle Stanley Gardner's many Perry Mason books, Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent (1987), The Pelican Brief (1992) and other thrillers by John Grisham, and other tales of legal suspense.

Despite its conventions, good writers can make the mystery novel their own. For example, Agatha Christie is noted for her clever plots, John Dickson Carr for his ingenious "locked room" mysteries, Dick Francis for his depiction of the horse-racing world, and Ruth Rendell for her novels combining character and atmosphere with absorbing police procedure, perceptive sociological and psychological analysis, and a sense of life's tragedy. Other popular detective novelists include Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, and Amanda Cross (all of whom feature heroines), the humorous Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block, Walter Mosley, and Tony Hillerman.

See also Gothic romance Gothic romance, type of novel that flourished in the late 18th and early 19th cent. in England. Gothic romances were mysteries, often involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and they were usually set against dark backgrounds of medieval ruins and
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See W. Albert, ed., Detective and Mystery Fiction: An International Bibliography of Secondary Sources (1985); J. Barzun and W. H. Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime (1971); H. Haycroft, The Life and Times of the Detective Story (1984); J. Symons, Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel (1986); B. A. Rader and H. G. Zettler, ed., The Sleuth and the Scholar (1988); T. J. Binyon, Murder Will Out (1989); S. Oleksiw, A Reader's Guide to the Classic British Mystery (1989); T. Hillerman, ed., The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century (2000).

mystery¹

1. a story, film, etc., which arouses suspense and curiosity because of facts concealed

2. Christianity any truth that is divinely revealed but otherwise unknowable

3. Christianity a sacramental rite, such as the Eucharist, or (when pl.) the consecrated elements of the Eucharist

4. any of various rites of certain ancient Mediterranean religions

5. short for mystery play

mystery² Archaic

a guild of craftsmen

Mystery

abominable snowmen

the yeti of Tibet; believed to exist, yet no sure knowledge concerning them. [Asian Hist.: Wallechinsky, 443–444]

Bermuda Triangle

section of North Atlantic where many planes and ships have mysteriously disappeared. [Am. Hist.: EB, I: 1007]

Big Foot

(Sasquatch) man ape similar to the yeti; reputed to have been seen in northwestern U.S. [Am. Hist.: “Yeti” in Wallechinsky, 443–444]

closed book

medieval symbolism for the unknown. [Christian Symbolism: Appleton, 13]

Dark Lady, The

mentioned in Shakespeare’s later sonnets; she has never been positively identified. [Br. Lit.: Century Cyclopedia, I: 1191]

E = mc²

physical law of mass and energy; arcanum to layman. [Am. Hist.: Flexner, 298]

Easter Island’s statues

origin and meaning of more than two hundred statues remain unknown. [World Hist.: Wallechinsky, 443]

Eleusinian Mysteries

ancient religious rites; its secrets have never been discovered. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 305]

Lady or the Tiger, The

Stockton’s tale never reveals which fate awaits the youth who dared fall in love with the king’s daughter. [Am. Lit.: Benét, 559]

Loch Ness monster

supposed sea serpent dwelling in lake. [Scot. Hist.: Wallechinsky, 443]

Man in the Iron Mask

mysterious prisoner in reign of Louis XIV, condemned to wear black mask at all times. [Fr. Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 460]

Mary Celeste

ship found in mid-Atlantic with sails set, crew missing (1872). [Br. Hist.: Espy, 337]

Mona Lisa

enigmatic smile beguiles and bewilders. [Ital. Art: Wallechinsky, 190]

Roanoke

fate of colony has never been established (1580s). [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 430]

Sphinx

half woman, half lion; poser of almost unanswerable riddle. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 258; Gk. Lit.: Oedipus Rex]

Stonehenge

huge monoliths with lintels in Wiltshire, England, have long confounded modern man as to purpose. [Br. Hist.: Wallechinsky, 442]

U.F.O.

unexplained and unidentified flying object. [Science: Brewer Dictionary, 1112]