THE RECOGNITION OF VICTORIAN DETECTIVE FICTION AS AN UPSHOT OF 'VICTORIAN' QUEST FOR SOCIAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL ORDER: A CRITICAL STUDY

Detective fiction as a genre of fiction came into existence during the Victorian age. To grasp the reason for the wide popularity of the detective fiction during the Victorian Age, an understanding of the socio-political and economic scenario of Victorian England is necessary. A reading of the socio-political history of England during Victorian age will shed light on the fact that Victorian age has been marked with tremendous progress in the field of science and technology. This advancement exerted immense change in the socio-cultural circumstances of English people. They began to experience a quest for Socio-epistemological order and this article is an attempt to explore how this quest resulted in the wide acceptance of detective fiction.