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.

"It is very rare to come across work that one can describe accurately as original. Happily, this is one such occasion. The author makes an original and important argument about the relation between dime novels and American detective fiction that will have a major impact upon the field." - Garyn G. Roberts, Northwestern Michigan College, USA.

Pamela Bedore is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, USA, where she is an award-winning teacher of American Literature and Popular Culture. Her articles have appeared in such journals as Studies in Popular Culture, Foundations, Writing Program Administrator, and she is the book review editor of Clues.