A Study on the Convention of the Ghost Story and the Detective Novel in the Victorian Popular Literature

狄更斯的小说——尤其是19世纪中叶以后的作品——与19世纪60年代的感觉小说之间的相互作用被忽视到如此程度，以至于迄今为止很少有评论家详细探讨这两者的关系；然而，像鬼故事和侦探小说这样的主题和惯例是狄更斯与耸人听闻者联系在一起的明确标志。他们的相似之处可以概括为七个方面。首先，女英雄而非男英雄占据了中心位置。其次，这些女主人公的特点是她们的性犯罪，如重婚和不正当的爱情。第三，女性天使和/或恶魔是罪犯，谋杀丈夫，纵火，投毒。第四，二重身主题是由两个女主人公组成的，她们非常相似，以至于其中一个被误认为是另一个，同时创造了另一个最受欢迎的错误身份的主题。第五，错误的身份母题导致了两个女主人公中的一个作为鬼的故事，不是真实的，而是想象出来的。第六，饰演一名男侦探，揭露妖娆女主的秘密和罪行。第七，一个男侦探有一个秘密的欲望，摧毁坚强的女英雄。在这种背景下研究的作品有《董贝父子》、《大卫·科波菲尔》、《荒凉山庄》、《艰难时世》、《东林恩》、《哈里伯顿夫人的烦恼》、《奥德利夫人的秘密》、《医生的妻子》、《约翰·马奇蒙的遗产》等。《雾都孤儿》的公开阅读版《赛克斯和南希》是狄更斯最后几年阅读的一个明显的例子，它证明了狄更斯毫无疑问是一个利用谋杀丈夫和鬼魂元素来唤起这种感觉的煽情者。歇斯底里——或疯狂——作为一种女性疾病，将天使般的女主角变成了恶魔，她的颠覆性引发了对维多利亚时代沙文主义和父权社会的质疑。

Interactions between Dickens's novels -especially those written after the mid century -and the sensation novels in the 1860s have been neglected to such an extent that few critics have hitherto explored the relationship of the two in detail ; however, themes and conventions such as the ghost story and the detective novel are unmistakable marks that correlate Dickens to the sensationalists. Their similarities are to be summarized in seven items.First, heroines rather than heroes occupy central places. Second, those heroines are characterized by their sexual transgressions such as bigamy and illicit love affair. Third, female angels and/or demons are the criminals, committing murder of husband, arson, and poisoning. Fourth, a doppelganger theme is formed by two heroines who are so similar to each other that one is mistaken for the other, while creating another favorite motif of mistaken identity. Fifth, the mistaken identity motif brings about the ghost story in which one of two heroines functions as a ghost, not real but imagined. Sixth, a male detective is rendered so as to disclose secrets and crimes of the enchanting heroine. Seventh, a male detective has a secret desire to demolish strong-minded heroines.The works that have been examined in this context are Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, East Lynne, Mrs.Halliburton's Troubles, Lady Audley's Secret, The Doctor's Wife, John Marchmont's Legacy and the like."Sikes and Nancy,"a public reading version of Oliver Twist read in Dicken's final years is a blatant example demonstrating Dickens is beyond doubt a sensationalist who makes use of murder of a husband, and a ghost element to evoke the sensation. Hysteria -or madness -as a female malady transforms an angelic heroine into a demon, whose subversiveness calls into question Victorian chauvinistic, patriarchal society.