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Snobbery with Violence: English Crime Stories and Their Audience
Originally published in 1971, Colin Watson's entertaining and informative account of the social attitudes reflected in the detective story and the thriller from Conan Doyle and Edgar Wallace to Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming has become something of a minor classic of literary and social history.
Colin Watson's elegant, crisp and knowledgeable study of the world of crime fiction deserves a place in the library of every library of crime fans.
Colin Watson's elegant, crisp and knowledgeable study of the world of crime fiction deserves a place in the library of every library of crime fans.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
3 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
Colin Watson
64 books29 followersColin Watson was educated at the Whitgift School in South Croydon, London. During his career as a journalist he worked in London and Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he was a leader-writer for Kemsley Newspapers.
His book Hopjoy Was Here (1962) received the Silver Dagger Award. He was married, with three children, and lived in Lincolnshire. After retiring from journalism he designed silver jewellery.
As well as a series of humorous detective novels set in the imaginary town of Flaxborough, featuring Inspector Purbright, Watson also wrote and later revised a study of detective stories and thrillers called Snobbery with Violence.
His book Hopjoy Was Here (1962) received the Silver Dagger Award. He was married, with three children, and lived in Lincolnshire. After retiring from journalism he designed silver jewellery.
As well as a series of humorous detective novels set in the imaginary town of Flaxborough, featuring Inspector Purbright, Watson also wrote and later revised a study of detective stories and thrillers called Snobbery with Violence.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 10, 2018
Sometime books come along at the right time, just when you want or need them.
The book “Snobbery with Violence: Crime Stories and Their Audience” by Colin Watson was most enjoyable. It is a book about authors and books and the love of reading. The topic here is the history of the mystery, suspense and thriller books in the UK.
The books main concern is the home industry of Brittan’s creation, manufacture and sales of the genre known as the crime book over the span of fifty or so years. So one can look at this as a type of History book. But don’t let that word put you off. The book is intensely fascinating. We follow and examine the curve of the British reading habits and the authors responsible for building an industry out of crime and mayhem.
This is also not an encyclopedia or a ‘Who’s Who’ of the field. Certain authors are highlighted that impacted the growth of this industry. The book is also littered with interesting and sometimes humorous examples of the time period being covered, For example did you know that at one time one out of every four books being read in Britain was and Edgar Wallace book ?
Many of the popular authors are examined such as A.C. Doyle (fewer people know the authors name than that of his character Sherlock Holmes), Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers up to Ian Fleming. The book was an homage to the mystery field in England along with an examination of why a certain author or author's character became famous.
The book also contains numerous cartoons from “Punch” magazine pertaining to authors and the publishing field. I found the book to be outstanding, informative and delightful. There were also a number of authors covered I was quite unfamiliar with.
The book “Snobbery with Violence: Crime Stories and Their Audience” by Colin Watson was most enjoyable. It is a book about authors and books and the love of reading. The topic here is the history of the mystery, suspense and thriller books in the UK.
The books main concern is the home industry of Brittan’s creation, manufacture and sales of the genre known as the crime book over the span of fifty or so years. So one can look at this as a type of History book. But don’t let that word put you off. The book is intensely fascinating. We follow and examine the curve of the British reading habits and the authors responsible for building an industry out of crime and mayhem.
This is also not an encyclopedia or a ‘Who’s Who’ of the field. Certain authors are highlighted that impacted the growth of this industry. The book is also littered with interesting and sometimes humorous examples of the time period being covered, For example did you know that at one time one out of every four books being read in Britain was and Edgar Wallace book ?
Many of the popular authors are examined such as A.C. Doyle (fewer people know the authors name than that of his character Sherlock Holmes), Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers up to Ian Fleming. The book was an homage to the mystery field in England along with an examination of why a certain author or author's character became famous.
The book also contains numerous cartoons from “Punch” magazine pertaining to authors and the publishing field. I found the book to be outstanding, informative and delightful. There were also a number of authors covered I was quite unfamiliar with.
May 13, 2018
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A difficult read, but extremely interesting for crime story afficionados.
A difficult read, but extremely interesting for crime story afficionados.
December 2, 2020
An entertaining overview of novels about crime and criminals and detection in England from Sherlock Holmes to James Bond. His emphases are sometimes off, seemingly reflecting his personal reading tastes and history more than the actual objective importance of the authors--he spends way more time on Edgar Wallace and E Phillips Oppenheim than he does on Agatha Christie, for example, and he is very dismissive of some writers that have stood the test of time better than many of those he discusses as length (while he makes some fair criticism of Dorthy L Sayers, for example, he seriously underestimates the value and complexity of her books, I think). But this is an unabashedly personal overview, and he says lots of interesting and useful things about crime fiction and the ways in which it reflects the values of its authors and its readers.
November 30, 2011
Required reading for anybody into mysteries, thrillers, spies, or detective anything books. Watson writes hilarious, scathing, and spot-on analysis about the popular crime-fiction genre. His inclusion of the thriller's social history explains lending libraries, subscription services, and librarian recommendations. The best chapters rip apart, while gently praising, specific qualities that attract readers to crime fiction. 'The Little World of Mayhem Parva' suggests Agatha Cristie's Hercule Poirot is the perfect British depiction of foreign otherness with the just-right amount of cleverness for the reading public. Sherlock Holmes becomes the formulaic success of a smart and emotionally damaged detective for readers to admire and feel sorry for. Watson's inclusion of Orientalism regarding villains like Fu Manchu reads easier than Edward Said. Watson uses his knowledge of the crime fiction genre to write hilarious analysis. Finally, his inclusion of libraries censorship and placement of mainstream material is a must-read for all librarians. Though his final two chapters feel outdated, thinking about Watson's view of James Bond and cinema is interesting in light of the most recent Bond films and Sherlock Holmes blockbusters - making Watson more relevant than ever. Get your British crime fiction deconstruction on and laugh while you're reading it.
November 25, 2014
This is a beautifully written survey of thriller/crime writing before the second world war. He exposes the easy anti-semitic thread that ran through the British genre at the time; this was linked with a general distaste for foreigners that these days is hard to distinguish from racism, although a racism that was directed against anyone who was not actually English. Stir in a large measure of casual snobbery and you have a piquant mix which sold in the millions.
His criticism is fair and well founded as he has a subtle eye for a writer's pandering to their market which he differentiates from the strange mind of writers such as Sax Rohmer.
This is a book which will repay reading simply as a work of criticism but his insight into the society which bought (and borrowed) such works is acute and in my view unerringly accurate.
His criticism is fair and well founded as he has a subtle eye for a writer's pandering to their market which he differentiates from the strange mind of writers such as Sax Rohmer.
This is a book which will repay reading simply as a work of criticism but his insight into the society which bought (and borrowed) such works is acute and in my view unerringly accurate.
December 30, 2009
A classic study of crime fiction and its sociological relationship. Though originally published in 1971 and focusing primarily on British writers it remains an entertaining and interesting examination of the genre and how it reflects taste and attitudes of society.
Watson, of course, was himself a purveyor of the craft and noted for a series laced with satire. His primary purpose in “Snobbery” was to illustrate how popular crime fiction echoed the temper of the times in which it was written and he does an admiral job with examples from the beginning of the 20th century down to novels of Leslie Charteris and Ian Fleming.
Watson, of course, was himself a purveyor of the craft and noted for a series laced with satire. His primary purpose in “Snobbery” was to illustrate how popular crime fiction echoed the temper of the times in which it was written and he does an admiral job with examples from the beginning of the 20th century down to novels of Leslie Charteris and Ian Fleming.
February 7, 2018
I'm a big fan of Colin Watson's Inspector Purbright/Flaxborough novels, and this book, his thesis on the detective and crime fiction genre from the Victorian period onwards, is also a manifesto for the satire and cliche-busting style that he adopted for his amiable, unremarkable but ultimately persistent detective.
He skewers the snobbery of the genre by analysing the style of many writers, a remarkable number of whom (Sayers, Christies, Fleming, Allingham etc) are the stock-in-trade of the TV Christmas drama still, nearly 100 years after the peak of the actual books in the years after the First World War. He examines the effect of the trauma of the conflict on the national psyche and how the clean cut, straightforward (and from todays perspective sadistic and xenophobic) characters were an understandable outcome of the nation's need for reassurance and simple motives in those post-war years. The whodunnit was based on the Victorian melodrama, the doyenne being Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, and Watson (Colin not Dr) has fun with the absurdities of the situations described, the conventions of sanitising the murders investigated, and particularly the social strata which is something of convention still for the literature of the "amateur" (i.e. insanely rich) detective involved.
My only criticism is that Watson rightly identifies the parody/satire which is seen in the sleuths Campion, Wimsey and Marple and others - but doesn't take it further, so there is always the doubt whether crime authors (and their readers) take themselves and the novels entirely seriously.
He skewers the snobbery of the genre by analysing the style of many writers, a remarkable number of whom (Sayers, Christies, Fleming, Allingham etc) are the stock-in-trade of the TV Christmas drama still, nearly 100 years after the peak of the actual books in the years after the First World War. He examines the effect of the trauma of the conflict on the national psyche and how the clean cut, straightforward (and from todays perspective sadistic and xenophobic) characters were an understandable outcome of the nation's need for reassurance and simple motives in those post-war years. The whodunnit was based on the Victorian melodrama, the doyenne being Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, and Watson (Colin not Dr) has fun with the absurdities of the situations described, the conventions of sanitising the murders investigated, and particularly the social strata which is something of convention still for the literature of the "amateur" (i.e. insanely rich) detective involved.
My only criticism is that Watson rightly identifies the parody/satire which is seen in the sleuths Campion, Wimsey and Marple and others - but doesn't take it further, so there is always the doubt whether crime authors (and their readers) take themselves and the novels entirely seriously.
November 4, 2023
Interesting history of crime writing. Unfortunately it doesn't cover more modern authors.
August 12, 2014
This book is rather outdated now, having been written in the 1960s. While it's somewhat entertaining, what one remembers is Watson's apparently out-of-proportion disapprobation of Dorothy L Sayers. He spends considerable wordage condemning her for snobbery & anti-semitism--yet says hardly a word about Dornford Yates! Yates wrote several works of light fiction and adventure (with an overlapping cast of characters)--& the knee-jerk anti-semitism and snobbery is rife. In comparison Sayers' contributions in that field are negligible.
I wonder if Watson had some dealings with Sayers in her lifetime, from which he emerged second-best. Perhaps she negatively reviewed his books. And his excessive condemnation of her in "Snobbery With Violence" was his way of getting revenge. It certainly mars the book--which nowadays can only be considered slight anyway.
I wonder if Watson had some dealings with Sayers in her lifetime, from which he emerged second-best. Perhaps she negatively reviewed his books. And his excessive condemnation of her in "Snobbery With Violence" was his way of getting revenge. It certainly mars the book--which nowadays can only be considered slight anyway.
January 1, 2014
Here is a link to my review on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjsMnf...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjsMnf...
January 19, 2020
Having discovered '60s and 70s crime writer Colin Watson fairly recently, I was intrigued to see what he had to say about the genre in this book published in 1971. I was pleased to find that his dry humour carries over into non-fiction.
I struggled a fair bit with the passage of time since the book's publication - simply weighed down by my much greater familiarity with the genre since then rather than before. He has not attempted an exhaustive work - I was surprised for example by how little he has to say about Agatha Christie, and his field is wider than I anticipated: he takes in Bulldog Drummond and James Bond.
It was both encouraging and depressing to see how much of the book he decides to devote to racism of various revolting flavours. Encouraging to think that this analysis was being done and the grotesque flaws (reflecting public sensibilities) in the literature of the time clear to some at least, depressing to see the evidence in the quotations. He looks particularly at anti-Oriental prejudice and anti-Semitism. The latter feels very topical and the former something brewing again.
I struggled a fair bit with the passage of time since the book's publication - simply weighed down by my much greater familiarity with the genre since then rather than before. He has not attempted an exhaustive work - I was surprised for example by how little he has to say about Agatha Christie, and his field is wider than I anticipated: he takes in Bulldog Drummond and James Bond.
It was both encouraging and depressing to see how much of the book he decides to devote to racism of various revolting flavours. Encouraging to think that this analysis was being done and the grotesque flaws (reflecting public sensibilities) in the literature of the time clear to some at least, depressing to see the evidence in the quotations. He looks particularly at anti-Oriental prejudice and anti-Semitism. The latter feels very topical and the former something brewing again.
May 22, 2025
Colin Watson's 'Snobbery with Violence' is meticulously researched as the author takes the reader across the whole panoply of crime fiction, looking at how fashions have changed over the years from the early 20th century through to the James Bond era.
The author begins by stating, 'It was not until the later years of Victoria's reign - and then only with misgivings - that fiction, stories invented to entertain, was conceded to be anything other than a reprehensible invitation to waste time.' He cites 'the combined industry' of Scott, Lytton, Trollope, Thackeray and Dickens as being responsible for the novel's respectability. And he goes on to say that it was such as Smith, Boots and others (Mudie for instance) with their lending libraries as being responsible for aiding the change in reading habits of Victorians.
By the beginning of the 20th century he felt that the advent of crime fiction had arrived and that it was divided into two categories, the tale of detection and the felony-based adventure story, or thriller. And to exploit it along game the lies of John Buchan, E. Philips Oppenheim and E.W. Hornung, plus others who latched on to the genre, to exploit it. Crime and mystery was an important ingredient of their work and other writers quickly latched on to it as being a remunerative way to make a living. So along came Herman Cyril McNeile, better known as 'Sapper', with his hero Bulldog Drummond. Of course, by this time Conan Doyle had dominated the market with his Sherlock Holmes tales.
But along came many others who throughout the ensuing years became extremely popular. One unlikely author was Edgar Wallace, middle-aged and with a mostly unsuccessful career behind him and he eventually earned the title of 'King of Thriller Writers'. Others such as Sydney Horler, Among others who particularly thrived at the time were Dorothy L. Sayers and, when the fetish for Oriental crime came in, Sax Rohmer, Earl Derr Biggers and Ernest Bramah. And Agatha Christie also arrived on the scene to make her mark on the genre.
Watson also has a chapter entitled 'Gifted Amateurs', perhaps a little unkind to label some of the authors he discusses, for while including HC Bailey as one of these is perhaps apposite, others included are SS Van Dine, Margery Allingham and Anthony Berkeley Cox seem to be rather ill-fitted. But I suppose it is all subjective.
He ends what is a most fascinating survey with Leslie Charteris, with his Saint, and Ian Fleming, with his James Bond and throughout the book he mentions other lesser known writers and gives examples of many of the author's Works to demonstrate his point. And it all comes together as an excellent assessment of the genre in a most readable, and enjoyable, way.
The author begins by stating, 'It was not until the later years of Victoria's reign - and then only with misgivings - that fiction, stories invented to entertain, was conceded to be anything other than a reprehensible invitation to waste time.' He cites 'the combined industry' of Scott, Lytton, Trollope, Thackeray and Dickens as being responsible for the novel's respectability. And he goes on to say that it was such as Smith, Boots and others (Mudie for instance) with their lending libraries as being responsible for aiding the change in reading habits of Victorians.
By the beginning of the 20th century he felt that the advent of crime fiction had arrived and that it was divided into two categories, the tale of detection and the felony-based adventure story, or thriller. And to exploit it along game the lies of John Buchan, E. Philips Oppenheim and E.W. Hornung, plus others who latched on to the genre, to exploit it. Crime and mystery was an important ingredient of their work and other writers quickly latched on to it as being a remunerative way to make a living. So along came Herman Cyril McNeile, better known as 'Sapper', with his hero Bulldog Drummond. Of course, by this time Conan Doyle had dominated the market with his Sherlock Holmes tales.
But along came many others who throughout the ensuing years became extremely popular. One unlikely author was Edgar Wallace, middle-aged and with a mostly unsuccessful career behind him and he eventually earned the title of 'King of Thriller Writers'. Others such as Sydney Horler, Among others who particularly thrived at the time were Dorothy L. Sayers and, when the fetish for Oriental crime came in, Sax Rohmer, Earl Derr Biggers and Ernest Bramah. And Agatha Christie also arrived on the scene to make her mark on the genre.
Watson also has a chapter entitled 'Gifted Amateurs', perhaps a little unkind to label some of the authors he discusses, for while including HC Bailey as one of these is perhaps apposite, others included are SS Van Dine, Margery Allingham and Anthony Berkeley Cox seem to be rather ill-fitted. But I suppose it is all subjective.
He ends what is a most fascinating survey with Leslie Charteris, with his Saint, and Ian Fleming, with his James Bond and throughout the book he mentions other lesser known writers and gives examples of many of the author's Works to demonstrate his point. And it all comes together as an excellent assessment of the genre in a most readable, and enjoyable, way.
September 7, 2023
4.38 stars
Phone for the fish-knives, Norman ...
This is at least as interesting, and far more entertainingly written than the majority of mysteries I've read over the years.
It's not just a history of mysteries and thrillers. It's far more a history of popular tastes and prejudices in the early C20th, mixed with a little lit crit lite, and lots of wry comment on the times, writers, publishing industry, and—bascially—human nature.
A wonderful book.
Phone for the fish-knives, Norman ...
This is at least as interesting, and far more entertainingly written than the majority of mysteries I've read over the years.
It's not just a history of mysteries and thrillers. It's far more a history of popular tastes and prejudices in the early C20th, mixed with a little lit crit lite, and lots of wry comment on the times, writers, publishing industry, and—bascially—human nature.
A wonderful book.
December 16, 2024
Still the high watermark of studies of the Golden Age for me, because Watson clearly loves the genre and the period but also is astute enough to poke holes through aspects of it without ever undermining the books too much. It’s witty, warm but incredibly well observed, the best sort of study of these books because he can smuggle in some huge ideas in a conversational and affable manner. Truly a classic
December 14, 2024
An insightful exploration of the golden age of crime fiction.
February 13, 2025
Loved the book but Golden age Detective criticism misses thar this book covers thrillers as well so it's accurate survey is wider than I thought it would be
August 20, 2015
While not exactly 'amazing,' I give this book five stars because it is important. Snobbery with Violence asks the question Why were these books and these authors popular? It covers the adventure books of H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs through to Ian Fleming's Bond series, and explores the source of their popularity in a very interesting way.
The simple person thinks that certain books are crap, and assumes that the world is full of idiots who read them. It takes a certain mature intelligence to assume that there must be something to popular genre books that satisfies readers. Colin Watson makes the intelligent decision to take mass market popularity seriously and explore it for us.
The simple person thinks that certain books are crap, and assumes that the world is full of idiots who read them. It takes a certain mature intelligence to assume that there must be something to popular genre books that satisfies readers. Colin Watson makes the intelligent decision to take mass market popularity seriously and explore it for us.
Read
May 4, 2011for a 1911 theme it was way out of line. I wanted to like the heroine, she was sopose to be so smart and educated, then why couldn't she figuire out how to act. This is one book in a long series. I hated the reason for murder, again inappopriate for the time period.
March 31, 2017
I read this because in a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel called Dark Mirror some of the books on Captain Picard's bookshelf is given and this was one of them. Captain Picard had some strange tastes when it came to his reading matter.
This is a dull and mostly superficial look at the Golden Age of Crime Fiction, although he includes James Bond novels in the lot. Not much is written about the impact of Sherlock Holmes and yet quite a bit more material is written about his opposite, Raffles. This Watson dwells on the lives of some writers but says nothing about the odd life of Raffles' creator, the son-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself. I can almost picture Sherlock Holmes frowning over his pipe, muttering, "These waters were not deep enough, Watson."
There are some nice, hard looks at racism in English crime fiction; the start of lending libraries and subscription libraries and a satirical look at every Agatha Christie story ever written. Also some very nice reproductions of Punch cartoons.
Perhaps this book was just not my cup of tea.
This is a dull and mostly superficial look at the Golden Age of Crime Fiction, although he includes James Bond novels in the lot. Not much is written about the impact of Sherlock Holmes and yet quite a bit more material is written about his opposite, Raffles. This Watson dwells on the lives of some writers but says nothing about the odd life of Raffles' creator, the son-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself. I can almost picture Sherlock Holmes frowning over his pipe, muttering, "These waters were not deep enough, Watson."
There are some nice, hard looks at racism in English crime fiction; the start of lending libraries and subscription libraries and a satirical look at every Agatha Christie story ever written. Also some very nice reproductions of Punch cartoons.
Perhaps this book was just not my cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews