Dime Novels and the Roots of American Detective Fiction

This book reveals subversive representations of gender, race and class in detective dime novels (1860-1915), arguing that inherent tensions between subversive and conservative impulses-theorized as contamination and containment-explain detective fiction's ongoing popular appeal to readers and to writers such as Twain and Faulkner.

List of Tables Acknowledgements 1. The Case of the Missing Detectives; or, Reassessing the American Contribution to Detective Fiction 2. The Happy-Ending Deception; or, Uncovering the Subversive Potential of Detective Dime Novels 3. The Case of the Contaminated Icon; or, Allan Pinkerton's Dangerous Detective Doubles 4. Playing with the Ace of Hearts; or, Mentorship, Sportsmanship, and Nick Carter's Epistemological Dilemmas 5. Faulkner, Twain and the Legacy of Dime Novel Detectives 6. Conclusions and Directions for Future Research Bibliography Index