Flannery O'Connor's South Book

This small book was exceedingly helpful. It combines Green's biography as well as an analysis of her work. The daughter of a criminal attorney, Green was the first woman to write a detective novel. George Putnam with his new company accepted it. Previously, publishers had felt that it was a genre that was not appropriate for women. She wrote thirty-five novels, twenty-three short stories, a volume of poetry and a poetic drama. She set the stage for much of what was to emerge. She influenced Agatha Christie among others. She had two female detectives, Amelia Butterworth and Violet Strange. Some of what needs to be considered when discussing her was that she was a social novelist demonstrating what the class system was like in New York City at the time. The role of women in her novels also has to be discussed. Even when they are strong characters, they are often victims, reflecting the role of women at the time. Green was no suffragette, but in her detectives she showed enterprising women. She was concerned about the impact of fathers on the family. She reflected the patriarchy of the time. She had a detective in the mould of Dickens Sergeant Cuff. She was an innovator who always constructed her mysteries carefully and also used the rational to uncover the crime. There were usually family secrets that were revealed. She also had doubles, like the two nieces in The Leavenworth Case. In other books, it might be two brothers.