In crime novels the mysteries seen in detective stories are retained, but the investigation focuses more on character
than on physical clues or on fooling the reader. Police officers had been detectives in fiction ever since Dickens, but with the police-procedural novel, beginning with V as in Victim by Lawrence Treat, the focus became the grim realities of police work—corruption, bribes, lying, and the necessity for informers.
An emphasis on police work and on criminal psychology (understanding the motivation for a crime) characterized
much British detective fiction beginning in the 1920s. This can be seen in the works of P. D) James, who introduced Inspector Adam Dalgliesh in Cover Her Face (1962); Ruth Rendell, with Inspector Reginald Wexford in From Doon with Death (1964); and Colin Dexter with Inspector Morse in Last Bus to Woodstock (1975). Other successful writers in this school, including Catherine Aird, Reginald Hill, Patricia Moyes, and June Thomson, have at the center of their works an imperfect though sensitive detective whose life and attitudes are of almost equal importance to the mystery. This style. became so popular that the formula has occasionally been reversed, most notably in the darkly comic novels of Robert Barnard and in the works of Joyce Porter, whose Inspector Wilfred Dover is as unsympathetic as he is slovenly.
Contemporary crime-fiction writers have been strongly influenced not only by Ross Macdonald, but by Mickey Spillane and John D) MacDonald. MacDonald's stories about salvage expert Travis McGee shed light on the corruptions of modern life. In the 1970s many American writers of detective fiction began to focus, at least in part, on their detective's personal life. Among the most notable creators of private investigators whose character extends beyond the case they are probing are Bill Pronzini, Robert B) Parker, Lawrence Block, and Loren D) Estleman.
At the same time, some writers have avoided graphic violence and explorations of the criminal mind, and have returned to the time-honored device of hooking the reader by slowly revealing a series of clues. Works of this kind, most of which have a lighthearted flavor, have been granted cozies. Charlotte MacLeod's two series about Peter Shandy and Sarah Kelling made her one of the most popular of the cozy writers. Other writers in this school include Carolyn Hart, Nancy Pickard, and Jane Langton.
The crime novels of the 1980s saw increasing numbers of female investigators who, like their male counterparts, were quick-witted and capable of dealing with dangerous situations. Marcia Muller was described by fellow writer Sue Grafton as the "founding mother" of the form. for her creation of Sharon McCone in Edwin of the Iron Shoes, (1977). Grafton's wisecracking private detective Kinsey Millhone is featured in a series of alphabetically titled mysteries, starting with "A" Is for Alibi which was published in 1982, the same year that the self-reliant private eye Victoria Iphigenia ("V. I. ") Warshawski made her first appearance in Indemnity Only, written by Sara Paretsky. Patricia Cornwell brought autopsy analysis to the forefront of detective fiction with Postmortem (1990), centering on medical examiner Kay Scarpeta.
The combination of crime fiction with other popular types, long a popular practice, gained new favor in the late 20th century. The historical detective story has several pioneers, including Christie's Death Comes as the End (1944), set in ancient Egypt, but the true progenitors were Lillian de la Torre with Dr. Sam Johnson, Detector (1946) and John Dickson Cart with The Bride of Newgate (1950) and other novels. The Brother Cadfael stories of Ellis Peters (a pseudonym for Edith Pargeter), which take place in 12th-century Britain, are filled with warmth, humor, and young love, as well as sleuthing. The Name of the Rose (1983), also set in medieval Europe and written by Italian aut
A．The investigation focuses more on character than on physical clues or on fooling the reader.
B．Police officers had been detectives in fiction.
C．An emphasis on police work and on criminal psychology.
D．The focus became the grim realities of police work—corruption, bribes, lying, and the necessity for informers.
Students of United States history, seeking to identify the circumstances that encouraged the emergence of feminist movements, have thoroughly investigated the mid-nineteenth century American economic and social conditions that affected the status of women. These historians, however, have analyzed less fully the development of specifically feminist ideas and activities during the same period.
Furthermore, the ideological origins of feminism in the United States have been obscured because, even when historians did take into account those feminist ideas and activities occurring within the United States, they failed to recognize that feminism was then a truly international movement actually centered in Europe. American feminist activists who have been described as "solitary" and "individual theorists" were in reality connected to a movement—utopian socialism—which was already popularizing feminist ideas in Europe during the two decades that culminated in the first women's rights conference held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Thus, a complete understanding of the origin and development of nineteenth century feminism in the United States requires that the geographical focus be widened to include Europe and that the detailed study made of social conditions be expanded to include the ideological development of feminism.
The earliest and most popular of the utopian socialists were the Saint-Simonians. The specifically feminist part of Saint-Simonianism has, however, been less studied than the group's contribution to early socialism. This is regrettable on two counts. By 1832 feminism was the central concern of Saint-Simonianism and entirely absorbed its adherent's energy; hence, by ignoring its feminism, European historians have misunderstood Saint-Simonianism. Moreover, since many feminist ideas can be traced to Saint-Simonianism, European historians' appreciation of later feminism in France and the United States remained limited.
Saint-Simonian's followers, many of whom were women, based their feminism on an interpretation of his project to reorganize the globe by replacing brute force with the rule of spiritual powers. The new world order would be ruled together by a male, to represent reflection, and a female to represent sentiment. This complementarity reflects the fact that, while the Saint-Simonians did not reject the belief that there were innate differences between men and women, they nevertheless foresaw an equally important social and political role for both sexes in their Utopia.
Only a few Saint-Simonians opposed a definition of sexual equality based on gender distinction. This minority believed that individuals of both sexes were born similar in capacity and character, and they ascribed male-female differences to socialization and education. The envisioned result of both currents of thought, however, was that women would enter public life in the new age and that sexual equality would reward men as well as women with an improved way of life.
The author considers those historians who describe early feminists in the US as "solitary" to be
A．insufficiently aware of the ideological consequences of the Seneca Falls conference.
B．overly concerned with the regional diversity of feminist ideas in the period before 1848.
C．insufficiently concerned with the social conditions out of which feminism developed.
D．insufficiently familiar with the international origins of 19th-century American feminist thought.
