Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #251312 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Really Mixed Collection Curious Selection of the Tales with Detective
Dover's 'Classic Mystery Stories' edited by Douglas G. Greene contains the following 13 short stories:

The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
Three "Detective" Anecdites by Charles Dickens
The Biter Bit by Wilkie Collins
A Singular Abduction by Rodrigues Ottolengui
The Leopaard Man's Story by Jack London
The Phantom Motor by Jacques Futrelle
The Million-Dollar Dog by Samuel Hopkins Adams
The Bag of Sand by Baroness Orczy
The Denton Boudoir Mystery by Gelett Burgess
Naboth's Vineyard by Melville Davisson Post
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell
The Ordinary Hairpins by E. C. Bentley
The Archduke's Tea by H. C. Bailey

One of the characteristics of the collection is its way of selecting the pieces. The book's selection, it is suggested, is compiled on the strength of the sleuths they depict. The result is a curious mixture of well-known classic stories and very obscure tales.

The book begins with Poe's classic, one of the most famous detective stories in the world. Then, comes Dickens' journalistic work (published in his own magazine) about the accounts told by the three police detectives who recounts their strange experiences during their jobs. Next comes Collins' comic short (written in his trademark epistle style).

I don't intend to give too mcuh information here, but let me say a little bit more. Post's story features Uncle Abner (very American) while Bailey's Reggie Fortune (very English). The contrast of their method of 'solution' is interesting, but you might have already read either, or both of them. Orczy's is about a lady detective (and narrated by anoher female), but fails to fully capitalize on the gender role. Maybe she will be remembered better as the creator of 'The Man in the Corner.' Bentley's tale here is about sleuth/painter Philip Trent. But of course, Trent was once unwittingly involved in half-jokingly titled 'Trent's Last Case' which is actually Trent's first, and best case.

As I explained so far, though I do not question the qualities of the tales themselves, this book has a very inconsistent tone. On the one hand you have Susan Glaspell's story, which sounds more like a feminism writer's drama (maybe it is), in which a murder per se is not the real concern of some characters (and the author). On the other, you get Jacque Futrelle's superhuman The Thinking Machine, who solves a 100 % pure puzzle (Do you believe in the story of a car that virtually vanishes like that???).

Though I enjoyed reading this book, I kept thinking -- Who are the target readers of the book? So I suggest that you read the content of the book above before buying. Several of the tales here are easily available elsewhere, or probably you have already read them. And the book has no notes, and the biographical commentary about each writer is adequate but thin.