The Best American Mystery Stories of the Nineteenth Century
Otto Penzler, ed.
book reviews:
· general fiction
· chick lit/romance
· sci-fi/fantasy
· graphic novels
· nonfiction
· audio books

Click here for the curledup.com RSS Feed

· author interviews
· children's books @
   curledupkids.com
· DVD reviews @
   curledupdvd.com

newsletter
win books
buy online
links

home

for authors
& publishers


for reviewers

click here to learn more




Buy *The Best American Mystery Stories of the Nineteenth Century* by Otto Penzleronline

The Best American Mystery Stories of the Nineteenth Century
Otto Penzler, editor
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover
624 pages
October 2014
rated 5 of 5 possible stars

buy this book now or browse millions of other great products at amazon.com
previous reviewnext review

Walk into any bookstore in America, and the mystery genre will hold a place of prominence. There are bookstores dedicated to only mystery. However, a long-term glimpse into literary history shows the mystery story as a rather recent phenomenon.

The 19th century was the beleaguered launching pad of the mystery genre. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is widely considered the first detective story--a genre unto itself--and it was published in 1841. It was almost 50 years later when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced his eccentric genius detective Sherlock Holmes, using many of the story tropes Poe introduced in 1841.

Otto Penzler has collected an impressive glimpse into the stories and authors who helped shape the mystery story in North America. The collection includes well-known writers who found fame outside the mystery genre--Washington Irving, Nathanial Hawthorne, Mark Twain, and Louisa May Alcott--along with writers who pioneered the genre but faded away in the grand literary scheme. The stories collected here run the gamut of mystery conventions, including detectives, dames, good, evil, riddles, crime and intrigue.

Penzler’s introduction shapes the gestation of mystery in North America and compares it to other countries where the genre found a foothold more readily. Penzler is quick to point out the mystery and crime fiction of the 20th century is far superior and supremely more vast, but this is an excellent collection featuring the infancy of what is now required reading for many.



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Zane Ewton, 2015

Also edited by Otto Penzler:

buy *The Best American Mystery Stories of the Nineteenth Century* online
click here for more info
Click here to learn more about this month's sponsor!


fiction · sf/f · comic books · nonfiction · audio
newsletter · free book contest · buy books online
review index · links · · authors & publishers
reviewers

site by ELBO Computing Resources, Inc.