reading detective stories from the 1950s

Reading classic crime stories from 75 years ago might be a way into enjoying a really good read.

THE QUEEN OF CRIME:

Even in the 1950's, Agatha Christie was considered rather old-fashioned, partly because of her use of archaic language - which by today would be even more 'out-of-date'. 

In fact, Agatha Christie's use of words is interesting, but such is the influence and popularity even today of her writing, that we can say Agatha Christie shaped how the world sees Britain.

However, if you need something in a simplified, more 'modern' version, Agatha Christie has been cut down for language students in many 'easy readers' now available.

FILM NOIR AND RAYMOND CHANDLER:

One of the most influential genres of cinema is film noir. And many of these movies from the 1940s and 50s were based on detective stories of the time, including those by Raymond Chandler, many of which were on the radio as a show called The Adventures of Philip Marlowe.

But we have to ask how hard a read would Raymond Chandler be for non-native english speakers? - and movies, radio adaptations and audio books definitely help.

It also helps to actually appreciate the richness of the writing style of Raymond Chandler language, in that "the master of hard-boiled detective fiction, is renowned for his distinctive literary style that reshaped the genre". 

And the fact that he was educated in England before moving back to the States, means that Chandler’s slang is carefully crafted. And as an 'outsider' in Los Angeles, he challenged the way these stories were traditionally written: "My theory was that the readers just thought they cared about nothing but the action; that really, although they didn’t know it, the thing they cared about, and that I cared about, was the creation of emotion through dialogue and description."

DIGGING DEEP AND READING FOR PLEASURE

Ultimately, it's a matter of going for what you enjoy - which can be seem as not the usually expected "extensive reading"- but instead the "narrow reading" approach, where we stick to what we know and just go deeper - according to Prof Krashen and his second language learning theories.

Because we know that reading really is the best way to improve (your own and a second) language and that "children who read for pleasure are better at english".

This is the case when learning any language - whether it's the classic French detective story by Georges Simenon made into the film Maigret tend un piège (Eng Sub 1958) with Jean Gabin or something by the Swiss German writer Friedrich Glauser whose name is given to the German-speaking world's prestigious crime fiction award, the Friedrich-Glauser-Preis.

So, curl up with a good detective story! Enjoy!

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