(1) Combine social crime with political system and moral concept. Conan Doyle's detective novels reflect the problems existing in British society from many aspects. The study of the scarlet letter and the four symbols reveals Britain's invasion and plunder of India. The Bruce-Partington Plan reflects the espionage cases in Europe. The Hound of the Baskerville and Six Busts of Napoleon both involve making money, doing evil and committing crimes for a living, while other criminal phenomena, such as extortion, adultery, betrayal, greed, arrogance and conspiracy, are all related to the darkness of the political system and the corruption of moral concepts. Conan Doyle also revealed various loopholes and irrationalities in the law and the police. Because these works advocate humanitarianism, retribution of good and evil, and the idealistic view of "justice is long and not leaking", they are undoubtedly widely welcomed by readers, and also fully show Conan Doyle's progressive outlook on life and the social significance of his works.
(2) Created a distinct literary model. Conan Doyle's works successfully express the view that "literature is human studies". Sherlock Holmes, written by him, is a flesh-and-blood private detective who lives in English society with his feet on the ground. He is the descendant of a squire, and his grandmother is the sister of the French painter Horace Verne. He likes country life, likes to take carriages or trains familiar to the British, and often haunts the foggy city of London. He reads the Daily Telegraph every day. His appearance is unique. He is proficient in chemistry and anatomy, obsessed with horror novels, can play the violin, likes smoking a pipe, is good at fencing and boxing, and is familiar with law and geology. When he didn't receive a case, he relied on cocaine for pleasure. His knowledge of astronomy, philosophy and modern literature is almost zero. These descriptions make readers feel that this detective is not a god, but an ordinary and special character living in the real world. Conan Doyle made Holmes take a wrong turn in his study of the word "blood". In The Yellow-faced Woman, Holmes made a mistake in judgment. On the contrary, these descriptions make this artistic model more authentic. And Dr. Watson is also very suitable for his identity, and his wrong judgment in the case detonated Holmes' accident. In Signs of Four, Dr. Watson is afraid to have sex with Miss Morstan because she has millions of inheritance. When the treasure fell into the river, Dr. Watson decisively expressed his love for Miss Morstan, which fully showed Dr. Watson's noble character and honest man. Holmes' opponents are various, including hypocritical gentlemen, vicious criminals, eccentric perverts and schemers, and their criminal methods are never the same. One of the most dangerous opponents is Professor moriarty, who uses his intelligence to commit crimes and has a huge underworld organization behind him. But Holmes is not afraid. He would rather die with the other side than let the criminal go. The Last Case shows Holmes' fearless spirit, so it is no wonder that readers should protest loudly when they read that Holmes fell into the torrent with the criminals. Your hero can't just die. In Conan Doyle's works, there are also monkey crimes and hunting dog crimes. The plot of Wrath of Jaguar adds thrilling color and interest to the work, and deeply criticizes the people behind the scenes who manipulate these animals to commit crimes. As for the other characters in the book, those kind and naive people also left a deep impression on the readers. Their fate holds the readers' heartstrings, and it is not until the final danger is saved and the criminals are arrested that the stones in readers' hearts fall to the ground. It can be seen how lifelike the characters in his works are.
(3) Created the rigorous structure of detective stories. The most common failure of detective novels is that the case seems magical, but it lacks logical reasoning. There are often "wonderful pens and flowers", which make readers feel that the case is not credible in the aftertaste. And Conan Doyle's 70 detective novels are all based on logical reasoning. He is good at paving the way in conception and layout, making the whole story more twists and turns and fascinating. Some incredible plots, once the truth comes out, will be interpreted according to logical reasoning, and you will find that the author is unexpected and charming in layout. In writing, it is not a single line, but several lines. Several doubts are intertwined, reaching a climax in suspense and uncovering the mystery in climax, so it is very convincing. For example, the mystery of Hunting in Baskerville was exposed because Holmes paid attention to investigation and study; Another example is Dancing Girl, in which Holmes cracked a strange code. For example, in The Second Blood, Holmes found the key to solving the case from the movement of the carpet. These seemingly ordinary details are actually powerful manifestations of Holmes' meticulous observation and rich imagination. These descriptions make clever preparations for strict conception. Therefore, Conan Doyle's detective novels are not only unique in literature, but also apply science to the field of literature to serve the theme and conception of literature. Expanded the content of detective novels, and objectively expanded the knowledge for readers.
(4) In terms of plot and language, it has formed a unique style of detective novels. Reading Conan Doyle's novels, the first thing that attracts readers is the strange and mysterious feeling. Almost every case is incredible, and in the development of the case. There are many changes, which are dizzying. Some plots in Signs of Four and The Hound of the Baskerville are breathless, and the murderer looms, which makes readers sweat for Sherlock Holmes. This kind of expression has achieved a groundbreaking artistic effect, and we cannot but admire Conan Doyle's ability to control the story. In terms of language, Conan Doyle is quite mature and sophisticated. His writing is concise and fluent, and his explanation is delicate and not procrastinating. The dialogue in the book sticks to the center, cleverly puts some flaws and doubts in front of the readers, and misleads the readers' thinking with confusing plots. This literary technique can be said to have successfully created the basic pattern of detective novels, and also formed the unique style of Conan Doyle's detective novels. Conan Doyle not only showed Holmes' success, but also wrote his mistakes. While writing his cheerful and humorous side, he also wrote his loneliness and indifference. Conan Doyle also introduced sociology, pathology, geology and ethnology into detective art, which showed the sociality, scientificity and literariness of detective novels.
Because of this, Conan Doyle became a master of detective stories. Due to the readers' favor for his works, the remuneration of Conan Doyle's works reached the highest level of literary remuneration at that time, far higher than that of his contemporary pure literary novelists. An American publishing house was willing to buy 6,543,800 words of The Hound of Baskerville at a price of 5,000 dollars, and the remuneration of 50 dollars per thousand words was sky-high at that time. However, a British magazine bought the copyright of Conan Doyle at a price of ￡ 0/00 per thousand words, which was a miracle in the British publishing industry at that time. It can be seen how popular detective novels were at that time.
Conan Doyle initiated the era of detective stories, and his contribution to detective stories is immeasurable. However, his works also have some shortcomings. These shortcomings can be discussed from three aspects.
First of all, the background of Conan Doyle's detective novels is the upper aristocratic society. The victim of the silver horse is a colonel; The deceased in hunchback is also a colonel: the protagonist in musgrave's bar mitzvah is a nobleman, and the protagonists in Second Kinship and The Crown Jewel Case are the prime minister and ministers. Most of these people who ask for help from Holmes are nobles and capitalists with status, and many criminals and criminals are nobles and celebrities. Therefore, Holmes is a private detective in the upper class. This can be analyzed from the social situation in Britain at that time, because people who can afford to hire private detectives can't be ordinary civilians. Of course, Holmes can only serve them. Conan Doyle himself is a private doctor, and most of the people he contacts are upper class, which has left an indelible mark on his creation.
Secondly, judging from the 70 detective stories created by Conan Doyle, there are only three novellas with 65,438+10,000 words, and most of them are short stories, which is not enough to show the capacity of crime literature. Due to the limited space, the plot of the crime can be clearly explained, but the description of criminal psychological activities is not delicate enough. The key to solving a case is often a certain detail, lacking an in-depth description of the ins and outs of the intertwined case. Too many detective stories can make people feel unsatisfied. This is because Conan Doyle's detective stories are mostly written for magazines, and short stories of about 10 thousand words are more suitable for magazine publication. In contrast, Conan Doyle's three novellas, especially Four Signs and The Hound of the Baskerville, are more popular with readers. Unfortunately, novellas are too few in Conan Doyle's whole creation.
Thirdly, many detective novels of Conan Doyle (especially his later works) are written with a kind of contingency, and the coincidence of plot becomes a pattern, while the explanation of background is often ignored. Only The Hound of the Baskerville deals with the deep-seated crimes of criminals better, and other short stories are a little vague to read. If we read japanese mystery first and then Sherlock Holmes' detective stories, we will find that the gap between them is obvious. Of course, we can't force Conan Doyle's works at the beginning of detective novels.
In a word, Conan Doyle created a new situation and creative method of detective novels. As for how to improve and develop it, Qi Xin, a writer of later generations, needs to work together. Conan Doyle's works influenced agatha christie, Maurice Le Blanc, Seicho Matsumoto and Seiichi Morimura. In their creation, they all learned from their own crime mode and crime-solving mode intentionally or unintentionally, and added new contents according to their own background, thus making detective novels really mature and develop. For this, Conan Doyle's achievements are obvious to all.
The era of Sherlock Holmes has gone far away from us, but Sherlock Holmes' detective experience and methods still have certain reference significance, which not only gives us inspiration in literature, but also has reference in the judicial field. Some police schools in Europe and America often choose Sherlock Holmes' case for students to learn and use as examination questions. Sherlock Holmes pays attention to the spirit of investigation and the story of handling cases, which has become a learning content of the police academy. Being a contemporary Sherlock Holmes has become the slogan of police in various countries, which may be unexpected for a detective novelist.
If Conan Doyle initiated the first golden age of detective stories, then Christie is the representative of the second golden age in the history of world detective stories. Analyzing her detective novel art can help us understand the new style of this literary magician.
Agatha christie was first and foremost a literary magician. Her works are distinctive in layout and plot. As soon as the work is opened, it is full of doubts, which makes people curious and confuses readers. In the first novel The Mystery of stiles, Emily, a 70-year-old rich widow, suddenly fell in love with Alfred, the cousin of the manor housekeeper, and married this man who was 20 years younger than her, which caused dissatisfaction and hostility among Mrs. Emily's sons and relatives. Then Mrs. Emily died suddenly, and the cause of death was taking poison, so a murder case was presented to the readers. The detective novel "Witnesses to Murder" wrote that Mrs. Mike Gillica was sightseeing on the train and happened to find a tall man with his back to himself strangling a woman alive on another train. The mysterious disappearance of bankers wrote that Mr. Dai, a famous financier, went out for a walk on a weekend afternoon, but he disappeared mysteriously. Someone stole huge stocks from his safe. Mysterious Villa describes the young and beautiful Miss Gwenda Reed who bought a Victorian villa after she got married. When decorating the house, she found a series of incredible strange things. The layout and decoration of the villa are almost the same as what she had imagined. These opening descriptions make people feel that the peaks are rising and falling from the sky, which aroused the readers' strong interest, so you were trapped in one cake after another at Christie's suggestion. Then, Christie used a new trick. In the ups and downs of the plot, everyone is a murderer and there are mazes everywhere. When you just vaguely realized that someone was the murderer, Christie's pen turned and made you doubt your judgment. Your conclusion has been denied again and again, and the murderer standing in the fog always makes you confused. Miss Rinnet ridgway, who wrote about the Nile tragedy, married her girlfriend Jacqueline's lover, Saimon Dole. When they started to travel on the Nile in a gorgeous tourist boat, Rinnet was suddenly killed. The murderer can be eight passengers on board, and they all have the possibility and motive to commit crimes. Murder happened again and again, but one suspect after another was denied. When readers read this novel for the first time, they were caught by Christie's magical structure, resulting in a big accident. Saimon Dole and Miss Jacqueline, who have no time to commit crimes, are the real murderers. Leona, an 85-year-old businessman, was poisoned in a deformed house. The murder involved his son, granddaughter, his first wife's sister and his widow ... in short, everyone could be a murderer. These confusing plots cast a mysterious veil over the murder case. The Mystery of Golf Course describes the murder of monopoly paul reynaud. The deceased had an affair with many women before his death, and there was a mysterious man beside his wife. The plot is complicated. In a word, readers can't stop looking at Christie's works, and staring at her at close range can't guess what medicine Christie's gourd sells. When the reader is a little careless, she will surprise you. This magical magician is very familiar with history and geography. She also worked in a hospital during the two world wars, and she was very good at drugs (especially poison), which also provided conditions for Christie to design a murderer to commit crimes. Clever Christie regards murder as an intellectual guessing game, which makes readers fall into a maze without distinguishing things. After the truth came out, she had to admire her careful analysis and lament her lack of thinking ability.
Agatha christie is a psychologist. Each of her detective novels is a clever use of psychology in literature. There are countless "grey cells" in Poirot's mind, which is the factor for short detectives to make scientific reasoning about everyone's psychological actions. Poirot is good at comprehensively analyzing each other's clothes, manners, hobbies, experiences and outlook on life, and then making logical reasoning. Poirot hardly fought with any murderers. He is always leisurely, like an experienced old cat observing a group of playful mice, finding out which "mouse" committed the crime and bringing it to justice. Miss Ma Puer, another female detective in Christie's works, is an old girl who likes to make trouble on the surface. Her nickname is "Old Cat". In fact, Miss Ma Puer uses small talk to reason. She always associates irrelevant gossip with intentional homicide, spying on criminals' inner secrets through some details and unusual behaviors. Like Poirot, she is a psychologist. In Murder on the Orient Express, Poirot speculated on the psychological activities of 12 passengers, learned about everyone's history, and concluded that 12 people * * * killed Rachel. It turned out that they wanted to avenge the innocent children. In the book Mist, Dr. Bai Xue performed extremely well, but Poirot was not confused by hallucinations. He was good at reasoning and finally brought Dr. Snow to justice. In The Cat Who Stole the Gem, Poirot made a detailed investigation of the Medobank School, and revealed the true face of Ann Chaplan by using rigorous reasoning. Miss Ma Puer made an amazing performance in two cases, the murder of the priest's house and the dead body in the study. With her wisdom and psychological knowledge, the real murderer in the fog came from behind the scenes to the front of the curtain. It fully shows the struggle of psychological reasoning in detective novels. In particular, it is worth pointing out that although Christie's detective novels are about murder and love between men and women, her creative attitude is serious, there is no exaggerated atrocities, and there is no pornographic description, and her writing is quite clean.
Agatha christie is an excellent writer. Although she has never been to a formal school, her writing is exquisite and beautiful, and her language is fluent and natural, which is obviously influenced by Dickens' novels. Her novels surpass Conan Doyle in structure. Conan Doyle is good at writing short stories, while Christie deals with many characters and complex plots, and is committed to conceiving long detective novels. Her novels have more foreshadowing and clues than Conan Doyle's novels. Christie is good at reflecting social reality with various expressions, and inserting descriptions of the background of the times and customs and human feelings behind each murder case. For example, in "The Massacre on the Nile", water customs and places of interest are described with beautiful writing; In the book Cat Stealing Gems, the geographical environment and customs of the Middle East are described with a strong flavor of life. Especially after the murder, the psychological activities of everyone involved are vividly described. These descriptions and narratives strengthen the literariness of detective novels. If it doesn't involve homicide, her novel language can rival pure literature. In addition, Christie is also an expert in writing dialogues. The dialogue between the characters in her works is a clever hint, which gives readers an artistic enjoyment and is also a clever foreshadowing. What is particularly rare for agatha christie is that she not only cooked detective stories for the purpose of writing murders, but also showed her literary talent by using the themes of detective stories, which raised the artistry of detective stories to a new height, thus producing positive social effects and practical significance.
It is obvious to all that agatha christie's detective stories have reached the peak and are still enduring. However, her works also have some shortcomings. Specifically, it is mainly for whom to read.
Looking at Christie's 70 detective works, we can easily find that the background of these stories almost takes place in the upper class, and both the perpetrators and the victims are mostly nobles. The crime scene is either a manor or a villa, and its motive is to compete for inheritance and family business. The Silent Witness tells the story of 300,000 pounds left by Emily arundel, a rich old maid, so the motive for murder is related to the struggle for this huge legacy. The Mystery of Golf Course tells the story of the murder of millionaire paul reynaud, because his family fortune aroused the greed of many people. The Big Four is about a blackmail case, and criminals are also desperate for money. The danger of old houses by the sea. A lunch at H Manor, mysterious events and bizarre deaths in stiles. Memories of death and deformed houses are all about people left behind by the legacy thinking about murder. These victims are the targets of criminal attacks and murders because they have money. Although this reveals the money worship in capitalist society, the social aspects reflected in the works are relatively narrow, and the motives for committing crimes are similar, which may be related to Christie's own life experience and the projection of literature by British society at that time.
Secondly, there are many coincidences in Christie's works, and many cases are too bizarre. In order to attract readers, she designed a tortuous and complicated plot to attract readers without discussing its advantages. Careful readers can find some flaws in her detective novels, some details can't stand repeated scrutiny, and sometimes there are some far-fetched emotional entanglements in her novels. Just because Christie is good at spreading suspicion, people will let it go. Her elegant language is also appreciated by the upper class. Although a large number of readers of her novels belong to civilians, her style is close to aristocratic literature. This is also the reason why agatha christie was appreciated by the supreme ruler of British aristocratic society.
As a detective novelist, agatha christie's detective novels have great influence. On the basis of Conan Doyle, she designed various killing modes. For example, she tells the story in the first person "the perpetrator", and in Murder on the Orient Express, she designs 12 people to plot to kill a real criminal. The end of the story is that Poirot released 12 murderers, giving people a perfect ending. There is also a couple's complicated psychological activities in the Nile Massacre. Although they are a pair of criminals, on the one hand, the confusion caused by the inequality between the rich and the poor in capitalist society is the reason that drives them to commit crimes. On the other hand, it is human greed that leads to crime.
Christie's success also lies in that she designed the murder scene in a very small scope, such as Murder on the Orient Express on the train, the Nile tragedy on the cruise ship, and the murder of a broken mirror at a cocktail party, with the same characters and places, creating a specific range of reasoning. Readers do their best, but they go astray every time. In the end, Poirot cleared the fog and eliminated the confusion. This reasoning is conclusive and impressive. It has become a model of detective novels, which has promoted the development of detective novels in the world, and has led to many "Christie-style" detective novelists around the world, and promoted the crime model created by Christie as a model. Because of the popularity and popularity of her novels, she also extended the detective theme to movies and TV series. The outstanding Japanese reasoners, such as Edgwa Rabol, Seicho Matsumoto, Seiichi Morimura and Jiro Akagawa, were all influenced by agatha christie's novel style to varying degrees, which can be said to have influenced a generation's reading interest and literary creation. This influence is enormous and far-reaching. The international literary world called her "the queen of crime novels", and Christie deserved it. At the same time, agatha christie's autobiography also opened the theoretical research of detective stories, which aroused the interest of many literary critics, thus raising the creation of detective stories to a new theoretical level.
1976, in the year of agatha christie's death, The Tragedy on the Nile, which was adapted from her novel, won an Oscar, which was not only her personal honor, but also showed the recognition and affirmation of detective film by the international film circle.
There is a detailed introduction in A Brief History of World Detective Stories. Although many of them are enlightening and some are too subjective, they are not bad on the whole. You can have a look.
This is the source of my answer.