The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime by Michael Sims

But unlike Sherlock Holmes, Anne falls into solving a mystery after her friend dies under suspicious circumstances. Wilkie Collins’s Anne Rodway in “ The Diary of Anne Rodway” was one of the first female detectives in literature, amateur or otherwise. And even before that, authors were writing women detectives, of both the amateur and professional variety, into their fictions. Except maybe I do a little bit, because women detectives were also getting the job done back in Victorian England, right alongside Sherlock Holmes, and I’d like to explore why they don’t get the same amount of recognition as Holmes , and why they deserve more!Īlthough women weren’t allowe d to e nter the police force in the UK until around the time of World War I, there were female private detectives in the UK in the late 1800s, around the same time Sherlock Holmes was galavanting around London, solving mysteries. Sure, Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator of famous literary male detective Sherlock Holmes, whose name has become synonymous with the author himself, and I don’t mean to divert attention away from the work of the man of the hour (Sherlock Holmes and/or Arthur Conan Doyle, take your pick). On Arthur Conan Doyle Day, it’s important for us to take a moment to recognize the tireless hours of detective work, the genius discoveries, and the lives made better by women detectives in 19th century British literature.

From Wilkie Collins’s “The Diary of Anne Rodway” the victorian female detective

The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime by Michael Sims