ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARTS, LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCES OPERATING OUTSIDE THE LAW: DETECTIVES AND SPIES, 1880 - 1920. KATE MORRISON A thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Anglia Ruskin University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature Submitted: January 2017. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor John Gardner for his invaluable intellectual advice, encouragement and support throughout the course of my research. His positive and informed engagement with a subject I found particularly stimulating gave me the confidence to pursue my research and expand the horizons of my study with new perspectives, giving me fresh ideas in the shaping of my research. I have benefitted from the assistance of Professor Rohan McWilliam, whose historical insights and vast knowledge of the literature within the field of crime fiction has been of immense value for which I am extremely grateful. I would also like to acknowledge my fellow research candidates, Steven White and Kirsty Harris who provided friendship and support in many ways along the journey to completion. i ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT FACULTY OF ARTS, LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OPERATING OUTSIDE THE LAW: DETECTIVES AND SPIES, 1880 - 1920. KATE MORRISON January 2017. As a popular fiction hero Sherlock Holmes, embodies a mythical champion of enduring appeal, confirmed in his recent rebranding as defender of the oppressed for the twenty first century in a television series geared for the modern age. Stepping outside the boundaries of the law, he achieves an individualised form of justice superior to that of the judicial system in the eyes of his readers, yet, as I argue in this study, his long list of criminal offences places him firmly in the realms of criminality. This thesis explores the fictional discretionary lawbreaking of Sherlock Holmes and a range of contemporaneous maverick literary detectives and spies in popular literature produced between 1880 and the end of the First World War, including Martin Hewitt, Dick Donovan, Judith Lee, Hagar Stanley, Charles Carruthers and Arthur Davies, Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond. From Holmes to Hagar Stanley, the urban gypsy, my aim is to unearth the reasons for, the motivations behind and the implications of, the illegal behaviour of these fictional detectives. Charting the criminal liminality of amateur and professional detectives who manipulate justice on the mandatory authority of readers of popular fiction, I investigate the works in an interdisciplinary study that focuses on socio-cultural, historical, criminological and legal perspectives. In the light of a range of influences that created societal change, including the rise of professional society, evolving perceptions of crime, criminals and the law and the impact of societal shift from a religious to a secular morality, I engage with themes of gender, class and race revealing the discrimination and marginalisation endured by much of the population. My argument in this thesis counters the wholly Foucauldian view of D. A Miller in The Novel and the Police (1988) and Stephen Knight in Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction (1980), amongst others, who see the role of the fictional detective as embedding discipline, rational order and regulation in the reading public. Instead I argue that the behaviour of the literary detective represents a challenge to authority, which destabilises the status quo by shedding light on deep-rooted injustices at the heart of the judicial system. Each of the chapters in the study highlights aspects of the criminal justice system that run counter to the principles of justice, and traces the waning influence of morality on decision making as detectives mutate into spies near the turn of the century. ii My choice of texts from the works of eight authors in a combination of eighteen short story and novel works from popular culture, is based mostly on writers whose work featured in the pages of the popular (by popular I refer to authors who have published in magazines as well as in board collections) entertainment Strand Magazine in the course of their literary careers and who went on to achieve popular success, thus creating a shared connection and literary bond between the authors. Key words: Victorian, Edwardian, detective, popular, fiction, spies. iii Table of Contents List of Illustrations vi Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Holmesian Justice: Women, Class and Crime in the 18 Works of Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes 'A Case of Identity' (1891) 21 'The Adventure of The Speckled Band' (1892) 31 'The Adventure of The Abbey Grange' (1904) 39 'The Adventure of The Blue Carbuncle' (1892) 49 'The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton' (1904) 57 Chapter 2: The Professionals: Muddock and Morrison's Mean 67 Streets: Martin Hewitt and Dick Donovan 'The Case of Mr Geldard's Elopement' (1896) 75 'The Affair of Mrs Seton's Child' (1896) 89 'The Riddle of Beaver's Hill' (1896) 103 Chapter 3: Richard Marsh and Fergus Hume: The Female 114 Gaze: Judith Lee and Hagar of the Pawn Shop 'Conscience' (1912) 120 'Two Words' (1916) 130 'The Seventh Customer and the Mandarin' (1898) 141 'The Eighth Customer and the Pair of Boots' (1898) 150 Chapter 4: Arthur Conan Doyle and Erskine Childers: From 161 Detective to Spy: Sherlock Holmes, Carruthers and iv Davies 'The Adventure of the Second Stain' (1904) 164 'The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans' (1908) 173 'His Last Bow: The War Service of Sherlock Holmes' (1917) 179 The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service (1903) 190 Chapter 5: John Buchan and Herman Cyril McNeile (Sapper): The War 203 Years and After: Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) 208 Bulldog Drummond: The Adventures of a Demobilised 227 Officer Who Found Peace Dull (1920) Conclusion: In Search of Justice 243 v List of Illustrations: 1.1 'A Case of Identity' - 'There was no-one there'. 25 1.2 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' - 'Holmes lashed furiously'. 38 1.3 'The Adventure of The Abbey Grange' - 'A door was opened to admit 46 as fine a specimen of manhood as ever passed through it'. 1.4 'The Adventure of The Blue Carbuncle' - 'A very seedy hard felt hat'. 52 1.5 'The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton' - 'Then he staggered 65 to his feet and received another shot'. 2.1 'The Case of Mr Geldard's Elopement' - 'Signs of some secret 84 understanding' 3.1 'Conscience' - 'He was dead before they reached him - killed by 129 conscience' 4.1 'His last Bow: The War Service of Sherlock Holmes' - 'He was 189 gripped at the back of his neck by a grasp of iron, and a chloroformed sponge was held in front of his chloroformed face'. 4.2 The Riddle of the Sands - Map of East Friesland and the 202 German or East Friesian Islands. From charts in The Riddle of the Sands 'based on British and German Admiralty charts, with irrelevant details noted' (x-xv). vi Abbreviations Conversation Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida. Edited and with a Commentary by John D. Caputo. New York: Fordham UP, 1997. Women Writers Sussex, Lucy. Women Writers and Detectives in Nineteenth Century Detective Fiction: The Mothers of the Mystery Genre. Great Britain: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Sisters Kestner, Joseph A. Sherlock’s Sisters: The British Female Detective 1864-1913. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2003. Continent Knight, Stephen T. Continent of Mystery: A Thematic History of Australian Crime Fiction. Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 1997. Crime Fiction ___, Crime Fiction: 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Secrets ___, Secrets of Crime Fiction Classics: Detecting the Delights of 21 Enduring Stories. North Carolina: McFarland, 2014. Form ___, Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1980. Bloody Murder Symons, Julian. Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History. Revised Second Edition. London: Pan, 1992 Memories Doyle, Arthur C. Memories and Adventures.1923, reprinted Cambridge UP, 2012. Men of Blood Wiener, Martin J. Men of Blood: Violence, Manliness and Criminal Justice in Victorian England. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Probable Cause Panek, Leroy L. Probable Cause: Crime Fiction in America. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State UP, 1990. Figure Priestman, Martin. Detective Fiction and Literature: The Figure on the Carpet. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. vii Atonement Schramm, Jan-Melissa. Atonement and Self-Sacrifice in Nineteenth Century Narrative. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 2012. Memory Buchan, John. Memory Hold-The Door. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1940. Crime and Society Emsley, Clive. Crime and Society in England: 1750- 1900. Harlow: Pearson, 2005. Spy Story Cawelti, John G. and Bruce A. Rosenberg. The Spy Story. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Mystery ____, Mystery, Violence and Popular Culture: Essays. Wisconsin: University Press of Wisconsin, 2004. Special Branch Panek, Leroy L. The Special Branch: The British Spy Novel 1890- 1980. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1981. Masculinities Kestner, A Joseph. Masculinities in British Adventure Fiction, 1880 – 1915. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2010. Jurisprudence Wacks, Raymond. Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. viii Copyright Declaration: The work presented in this thesis is my own. Signed: Kate Morrison Date: 24/01/17 ix Introduction 'Well, it is not for me to judge you', said Holmes, as the old man signed the statement which had been drawn out. 'I pray that we may never be exposed to such temptation'. 'I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?' 'In view of your health, nothing' ('Boscombe Valley': 252). In the context of the story 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery' from the collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle, the fictional detective Holmes takes the law into his own hands.