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The Simple Art Of Murder
''The Simple Art of Murder'' is the title of several quasi-connected publications by hard-boiled detective fiction author Raymond Chandler: *The first, and arguably best-known, is a critical essay on detective fiction, originally published in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in December 1944. A revised, expanded version was included in Howard Haycraft's 1946 anthology ''The Art of the Mystery Story''. *The second is a separate, shorter essay, mostly describing Chandler's personal experiences writing for pulp magazines, originally published in ''Saturday Review of Literature'', April 15, 1950. *The third is a short story collection, also originally published in 1950 (by Houghton Mifflin Co.), which contains eight of Chandler's stories pre-dating his first novel ''The Big Sleep'', that he wanted remembered. **While first editions of this collection feature an abridgement of the ''Saturday'' essay as an introduction and the ''Atlantic'' essay as an afterword, later editions tend to featur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, " Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in '' Black Mask,'' a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, ''The Big Sleep'', was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but '' Playback'' have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other ''Black Mask ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Realism (arts)
Realism in the arts is generally the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding speculative and supernatural elements. The term is often used interchangeably with naturalism, although these terms are not synonymous. Naturalism, as an idea relating to visual representation in Western art, seeks to depict objects with the least possible amount of distortion and is tied to the development of linear perspective and illusionism in Renaissance Europe. Realism, while predicated upon naturalistic representation and a departure from the idealization of earlier academic art, often refers to a specific art historical movement that originated in France in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1848. With artists like Gustave Courbet capitalizing on the mundane, ugly or sordid, realism was motivated by the renewed interest in the common man and the rise of leftist politics. The realist painters rejected Romanticism, which had come to dominate Fre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Age Of Detective Fiction
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The Golden Age proper is, in practice, usually taken to refer to a type of fiction which was predominant in the 1920s and 1930s but had been written since at least 1911 and is still being written today. In his history of the detective story, ''Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel'', the author Julian Symons heads two chapters devoted to the Golden Age as "the Twenties" and "the Thirties". Symons notes that Philip Van Doren Stern's article, "The Case of the Corpse in the Blind Alley" (1941) "could serve ... as an obituary for the Golden Age."Symons, Julian, ''Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History''. London: Faber and Faber, 1972 (with revisions in Penguin Books, 1974). . Page 149 (Penguin edition). Authors Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh have b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freeman Wills Crofts
Freeman Wills Crofts FRSA (1 June 1879 – 11 April 1957) was an Irish mystery author, best remembered for the character of Inspector Joseph French. A railway engineer by training, Crofts introduced railway themes into many of his stories, which were notable for their intricate planning. Although outshone by Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler and other more celebrated authors from the golden age of detective fiction, he was highly esteemed by those authors, and many of his books are still in print. Birth and education Crofts was born at 26 Waterloo Road, Dublin, Ireland. His father, also named Freeman Wills Crofts, was a surgeon-lieutenant in the Army Medical Service but he died of fever in Honduras before the young Freeman Wills Crofts was born. In 1883, Crofts' mother, née Celia Frances Wise, married the Venerable Jonathan Harding, Vicar of Gilford, County Down, later Archdeacon of Dromore, and Crofts was brought up in the vicarage at Gilford. He attended Methodist College ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the ''Mary Celeste''. Name Doyle is often referred to as "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" or "Conan Doyle", implying that "Conan" is part of a compound surname rather than a middle name. His baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between the First and Second World Wars that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. As a crime writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Sayers was considered one of its four " Queens of Crime", alongside Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. Sayers is also known for her plays, literary criticism, and essays. She considered her translation of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' to be her best work. Sayers's obituarist, writing in ''The New York Times'' in 1957, noted that many critics at the time regarded her mystery ''The Nine Tailors'' as her finest literary achievement. Biography Childhood, youth, and education Sayers, an only child, was born on 13 June 1893 at the Headmaster's House on Brewer Stree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery ''The Mousetrap'', which has been performed in the West End since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. ''Guinness World Records'' lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with six co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropical Fish
Tropical fish are generally those fish found in aquatic tropical environments around the world. Fishkeepers often keep tropical fish in freshwater and saltwater aquariums. The term "tropical fish" is not a taxonomic group, but rather is a general term for fish found in such environments, particularly those kept in aquariums. Aquarium fish Tropical fish is a term commonly used to refer to fish that are kept in heated aquariums. Freshwater tropical fish are more commonly kept than saltwater tropical fish due to the common availability of fresh water sources, such as tap water, whereas salt water is not commonly available and has to be recreated by using fresh water with sea salt additions. Salt water has to be monitored to maintain the correct salinity because of the effects of evaporation. Freshwater tropical aquariums can be maintained by simply topping up with fresh water. Tropical fish are popular choices for aquariums due to their often bright coloration, which typically ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curare
Curare ( /kʊˈrɑːri/ or /kjʊˈrɑːri/; ''koo-rah-ree'' or ''kyoo-rah-ree'') is a common name for various alkaloid arrow poisons originating from plant extracts. Used as a paralyzing agent by indigenous peoples in Central and South America for hunting and for therapeutic purposes, curare only becomes active when it contaminates a wound. These poisons cause weakness of the skeletal muscles and, when administered in a sufficient dose, eventual death by asphyxiation due to paralysis of the diaphragm. Curare is prepared by boiling the bark of one of the dozens of plant sources, leaving a dark, heavy paste that can be applied to arrow or dart heads. In medicine, curare has been used as a treatment for tetanus or strychnine poisoning and as a paralyzing agent for surgical procedures. History The word 'curare' is derived from ''wurari'', from the Carib language of the Macusi of Guyana. It has its origins in the Carib phrase "mawa cure" meaning of the Mawa vine, scienti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duelling Pistol
A duelling pistol is a type of pistol that was manufactured in matching pairs to be used in a duel, when duels were customary. Duelling pistols are often single-shot flintlock or percussion black-powder pistols which fire a lead ball. Not all fine, antique pairs of pistols are duelling pistols, though they may be called so. Design A pair of American flintlock duelling pistols made by Simeon North, ca. 1815–20. Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession Number: 96.5.36, .149 They are fitted with spurs on the trigger guard to improve the shooter's grip. They also have octagonal barrels, often seen on later duelling pistols. The barrels are long and are calibre Until the mid-18th century, duels were typically fought with swords. In London, the first recorded pistol duel was in 1711, but the use of pistols was unusual until the 1760s. Thereafter they quickly took over, and after 1785 it was rare for a sword duel to be fought in London. From about 1770 onwards, gunsmiths were produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leatherstocking Tales
The ''Leatherstocking Tales'' is a series of five novels (''The Deerslayer'', ''The Last of the Mohicans'', '' The Pathfinder'', '' The Pioneers'', and ''The Prairie'') by American writer James Fenimore Cooper, set in the eighteenth-century era of development in the primarily former Iroquois areas in central New York. Each novel features Natty Bumppo, a frontiersman known to European-American settlers as "Leatherstocking", "The Pathfinder", and "the trapper". Native Americans call him "Deerslayer", "''La Longue Carabine''" ("Long Rifle" in French), and "Hawkeye". Publication history The story dates are derived from dates given in the tales and span the period roughly of 1740–1806. They do not necessarily correspond with the actual dates of the historical events described in the series, which discrepancies Cooper likely introduced for the sake of convenience. For instance, Cooper manipulated time to avoid making Leatherstocking 100 years old when he traveled to the Kansas p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Red House Mystery
''The Red House Mystery'' is a whodunnit by A. A. Milne, published in 1922. It was Milne's only mystery novel (except for Four Days Wonder). Plot introduction The setting is an English country house, where Mark Ablett has been entertaining a house party consisting of a widow and her marriageable daughter, a retired major, a wilful actress, and Bill Beverley, a young man about town. Mark's long-lost brother Robert, the black sheep of the family, arrives from Australia and shortly thereafter is found dead, shot through the head. Mark Ablett has disappeared, so Tony Gillingham, a stranger who has just arrived to call on his friend Bill, decides to investigate. Gillingham plays Sherlock Holmes to his younger counterpart's Doctor Watson; they progress almost playfully through the novel while the clues mount up and the theories abound. Literary significance and criticism ''The Red House Mystery'' was immediately popular; Alexander Woollcott called it "one of the three best mystery s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
