Who Framed Edgar Wallace?

Abstract

In 1930, Edgar Wallace (1875–1932) was by far the most popular author on the Dutch book market. Wallace’s international rise to fame provides an excellent case study for studying the role of British popular fiction in contemporary discussions about literary taste and cultural stratification. His writings catalyzed critical debate in the Dutch press about the mental and social effects of reading for entertainment, especially among critics who thought of themselves as mediators between literature and the common reader. Analysing the production, dissemination and critical reception of Wallace in the Netherlands therefore contributes to a better understanding of the still relatively understudied international dimensions of the relationship between popular culture and middlebrow criticism during the interwar period. What happened when an international ‘star’ like Wallace was published, read and reviewed outside Britain? What institutional factors influenced the way Wallace entered the Dutch cultural field? What cultural and critical values were at stake? We will argue that whereas proclaimed highbrow critics tended to ignore Wallace’s novels or, in passing, characterized his novels as mere entertainment, middlebrow critics emphasized the predominantly social value of his writings, thus distinguishing Wallace from what they regarded as the hazardous banality of lowbrow culture.