I’ve always loved mysteries from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, but I’ve never been a great sleeper. For much of my adult life, I’ve had trouble falling asleep.
I’m a fairly anxious person at the best of times. Here we are in the third year of a pandemic, with attendant concerns about climate change and the demise of democracy. At 11:00 p.m.–what I would like to be my absolute latest bedtime–I often find myself counting crises instead of sheep.
I’m not alone. Even before the pandemic, Americans’ sleep duration and quality had been declining for decades. Then the pandemic brought its own share of sleep troubles.
Sleep experts recommend some sort of wind-down process before bed. Reading has always been part of my bedtime routine, but I didn’t think about what I was reading. I just continued whatever book I was working on.
About a year ago, I made a simple switch.
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What does the Golden Age of Detective Fiction have to do with sleep?
Lucy Worsley’s The Art of the English Murder is a literary history of that genre of British crime fiction that makes us all wonder about our chances of survival in a peaceful English village. If you’ve ever wondered where all those stories where someone in the village or the manor house regularly meets an untimely end come from, this very entertaining literary history is for you.
When I read it a couple of years ago, something clicked in my “little gray [brain] cells” (a Poirot reference for those of you who are already fans!) as I read about detective fiction written during the Interwar Period.
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction and the Interwar Period
The Interwar Period refers to the two decades between the end of the First World War (also called the Great War) in 1918 and the beginning of the Second World War in 1939. The Golden Age of Detective Fiction reaches from the end of WWI to the 1950s, depending on who’s defining it.
These stories have a limited setting and small cast of characters. They usually include a detective or amateur sleuth, a victim, and a group of suspects. You can almost imagine it playing out on stage as you read, and perhaps that’s why so many of them translate well to the screen.
The really interesting part is how much these two eras overlap. It’s no coincidence.
Worsley quotes New Yorker critic Edmund Wilson. He noted from the perspective of 1944:
“The world in those [Interwar] years was ridden by an all-pervasive feeling of guilt and by a fear of an impending disaster which it seemed hopeless to try to avert…Nobody seems guiltless, nobody seems safe; and then, suddenly, the murderer is spotted, and–relief!–he is not, after all, a person like you or me. He is a villain…”
The obsession with the true crime genre over the last couple of years suddenly makes a lot of sense. When life seems to hold few certainties, the idea that we can find a clear answer and a certain guilty party is very appealing.
Worsley goes on to describe the context in which authors of detective fiction were writing:
“[T]he lasting effects of the Great War could not be ignored or avoided. Children were left orphaned, the surviving young men left wounded in ways both seen and unseen, young women left without partners. This is the background that should be born in mind when the Golden Age writers are criticized–as they often are–for being limited or sterile or boring. They were writing not to challenge society or to stir things up. They were using their pens to heal.”
Worsley also quotes Agatha Christie, the most famous and most successful of the Golden Age novelists, who put it this way:
“[A] detective story is complete relaxation, an escape from the realism of everyday life. It has, too, the tonic value of a puzzle–it sharpens your wits.”
When your brain is busy solving the puzzle, it can’t be bothered with worrying about the news. You get a little break.
How I Put All the Clues Together
I had a massive aha! moment when I combined what I learned in The Art of the English Murder with what I’d learned about today’s publishing climate over nearly two decades of being around it in various capacities.
Every form of media today is designed to grip your attention and emotions and not let go, including books.
Authors are strongly encouraged to begin books in media res–“in the middle of the action”–and keep the pedal to the metal the whole way through. Publishers want high concept and high stakes. Since the turn of this century, almost every book needs the potential to become a blockbuster to justify the publisher’s investment.
But when we live in a high stakes world, sometimes we need a low stakes story. When we live at breakneck speed, we long for a slower pace. When our everyday choices are full of gray areas, we crave clarity. I hadn’t been thinking at all about what I was reading before bed. I just went along with whatever book I was reading during the day, and very often I had trouble falling asleep. I was reading good books, but they weren’t actively helping me calm my mind and body.
I realized books from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction were written for an original audience living through historic crises, so I made a conscious change to my bedtime reading.
My New Strategy for Bedtime Reading
I started keeping special nighttime books on my bedside table. I shifted to reading only physical books before bed, to eliminate the blue light effect. And I often consciously choose books written in the Interwar Period.
They are always interesting and often funny and generally full of domestic details that I love. Their pace is slower, and they don’t rely on constant cliffhangers–not even the mysteries. Detective fiction is a favorite genre of mine, but in any genre, many of the books written in the Interwar Period share that sense of awareness that their audience is on edge and needs to be soothed.
The books I choose were written in the knowledge that their readers are already dealing with a lot. They don’t ask us to cope with more. They want to help. They do that by giving us a puzzle or by making us laugh at the absurdities of daily life.
I fall asleep faster and have much better quality sleep since I made this shift.
| Related: 10 History Book Recommendations From My Shelves
Where to Find Books from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
If you head over to The Hourglass House on Bookshop, I’ve made a list of some of my favorites. If you’re not familiar with Bookshop.org, here’s a description:
“Bookshop.org is a socially conscious way to buy books online. We dedicate most of our profits to supporting local, independent bookstores, authors, and publications that cover books. We are dedicated to preserving the profound cultural benefits of bookstores.”
Many of these books will also be available at your local library. If not, you can usually borrow from another library with your card–just ask the library staff.
Do you have any favorites from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction or the Interwar Period? Or other books you read to fall asleep faster? Let me know in the comments–I’d love to check them out!
Happy reading, and sweet dreams.
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6 comments
This is my absolute favorite genre to read, and now I understand why it doesn’t keep me up at night. What an insightful post! And if you’re looking for something not of the mystery genre to try, I suggest PD Wodehouse.
Nice to meet a fellow fan! I’ve always meant to read Wodehouse and never have gotten around to it somehow. I’ll have to move it up my list!
I (thankfully) don’t have issues most nights falling asleep, but I’m always open to new book genres. I read so much non-fiction that sometimes I need a break. I’m going to have to check out some of these books.
I hope you find a new book to love!
This is such a neat way to look at sleep and insomnia!
It is really fascinating!