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The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective

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The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective

By: Sara Lodge
Narrated by: Christine Rendel
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About this listen

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. Detective Europe Great Britain Literary History & Criticism Women Crime Fiction Sherlock Holmes
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This was an intriguing insight into how women were treated in Victorian times and how hard it was to get jobs especially as detectives. I listened to this on audible and the narration was superb and brought the book to life.

Intriguing Insight Into Victorian Female Detectives

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Wish I’d read / listened to the conclusion first. It was a succinct summary . While the book was interesting I felt it was too long and rather repetitive.

The important role of women at a time when we assume male dominance.

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