Abstract
Frances Trollope worked in many literary fields during her long writing career. Among these is crime fiction, then in the process of formation during the early nineteenth century. The content was contentious, in terms of contemporary morals; the narrative mystery form a technical challenge for writers. Trollope began her career in crime in 1832, with her first novel, The Refugee in America. She followed Bulwer-Lytton's 1828 novel Pelham in incorporating crime matter unproblematically into the then middle-class form of the novel, creating a multi-genre narrative that mingled literary forms, including polemic against slavery. Her principal detectives were female, deriving from Ann Radcliffe's Female Gothic. Two further novels, of 1843, Hargrave; or The Adventures of a Man of Fashion and Jessie Phillips: A Tale of the Present Day, followed, continuing her interest in crime and women. The first is an assured performance, a successful crime romance; the second shows her struggling with contemporary gender roles, to the detriment of her female sleuths. Her crime writing was uneven, but never dull—and she can be shown to have significantly contributed to the early development of the English crime novel.
Published Version
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