The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective

De: Sara Lodge

Narrado por: Christine Rendel

A revelatory history of the women who brought Victorian criminals to account—and how they became a cultural sensation.

From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realize that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves.

Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women’s lives. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine who got the better of love rats, burglars, and murderers alike.

How did the morally ambiguous work of real women detectives, sometimes paid to betray their fellow women, compare with the exploits of their fictional counterparts, who always save the day? Lodge’s book takes us into the murky underworld of Victorian society on both sides of the Atlantic, revealing the female detective as both an unacknowledged laborer and a feminist icon.

©2024 Sara Lodge (P)2024 Audible Inc.

Overlong but still fascinating

This subject needed a book written on it. A book which paints the history of female detectives in England and the States in literature, drama and reality. And this author has clearly done her research and unearthed many exciting facts and reports.

However, the frequent repetitions, aside from leaving the reader wondering if they lost their place and accidentally were rereading previous sections, indicates that the author is not experienced nor innately talented in shaping and editing a complete book.