Modernity and Fraternity in Dick Francis's Novel Straight

Sammendrag:

Dick Francis has been praised for the pace, plotting, and thematic development of his crime novels. In addition to the pleasures offered by such qualities, this article argues that the attraction of his novels lies in the sense of relevancy to the experience and conflicts of modern life that they evoke. Drawing on Gordon Kelly's claim that "knowledge, trust, risk and power" are issues of fundamental bearing on the conditions of modern life and mystery fiction alike, my reading of Francis's novel Straight shows the extent to which the novel focuses on these issues, while pointing to elements that modify the priority given in modernity to rational principles, and to the ideological and moral moves that attempt to dissolve the dichotomy between individuality and sociality.

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