deputy lieutenant
Arthur Conan Doyle - Wikipedia
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.
Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste.
Name
Doyle is often referred to as "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" or "Conan Doyle", implying that "Conan" is part of a compound surname rather than a middle name. His baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Arthur Ignatius Conan" as his given names and "Doyle" as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather.[1] The catalogues of the British Library and the Library of Congress treat "Doyle" alone as his surname.[2]
Steven Doyle, publisher of The Baker Street Journal, wrote: "Conan was Arthur's middle name. Shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as a sort of surname. But technically his last name is simply 'Doyle'."[3] When knighted, he was gazetted as Doyle, not under the compound Conan Doyle.[4]
Early life
Portrait of Doyle by Herbert Rose Barraud, 1893
Title page from Arthur Conan Doyle's thesis
Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland.[5][6] His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was born in England, of Irish Catholic descent, and his mother, Mary (née Foley), was Irish Catholic. His parents married in 1855.[7] In 1864 the family scattered because of Charles's growing alcoholism, and the children were temporarily housed across Edinburgh. Arthur lodged with Mary Burton, the aunt of a friend, at Liberton Bank House on Gilmerton Road, while studying at Newington Academy.[8]
In 1867, the family came together again and lived in squalid tenement flats at 3 Sciennes Place.[9] Doyle's father died in 1893, in the Crichton Royal, Dumfries, after many years of psychiatric illness.[10][11] Beginning at an early age, throughout his life Doyle wrote letters to his mother, and many of them were preserved.[12]
Supported by wealthy uncles, Doyle was sent to England, to the Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst in Lancashire, at the age of nine (1868–70). He then went on to Stonyhurst College, which he attended until 1875. While Doyle was not unhappy at Stonyhurst, he said he did not have any fond memories of it because the school was run on medieval principles: the only subjects covered were rudiments, rhetoric, Euclidean geometry, algebra, and the classics.[13] Doyle commented later in his life that this academic system could only be excused "on the plea that any exercise, however stupid in itself, forms a sort of mental dumbbell by which one can improve one's mind".[13] He also found the school harsh, noting that, instead of compassion and warmth, it favoured the threat of corporal punishment and ritual humiliation.[14]
From 1875 to 1876, he was educated at the Jesuit school Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria.[9] His family decided that he would spend a year there in order to perfect his German and broaden his academic horizons.[15] He later rejected the Catholic faith and became an agnostic.[16] One source attributed his drift away from religion to the time he spent in the less strict Austrian school.[14] He also later became a spiritualist mystic.[17]
Medical career
From 1876 to 1881, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School; during this period he spent time working in Aston (then a town in Warwickshire, now part of Birmingham), Sheffield and Ruyton-XI-Towns, Shropshire.[18] Also during this period, he studied practical botany at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.[19] While studying, Doyle began writing short stories. His earliest extant fiction, "The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe", was unsuccessfully submitted to Blackwood's Magazine.[9] His first published piece, "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley", a story set in South Africa, was printed in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal on 6 September 1879.[9][20] On 20 September 1879, he published his first academic article, "Gelsemium as a Poison" in the British Medical Journal,[9][21][22] a study which The Daily Telegraph regarded as potentially useful in a 21st-century murder investigation.[23]
Professor Challenger by Harry Rountree in the novella The Poison Belt published in The Strand Magazine
Doyle was the doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880.[24] On 11 July 1880, John Gray's Hope and David Gray's Eclipse met up with the Eira and Leigh Smith. The photographer W. J. A. Grant took a photograph aboard the Eira of Doyle along with Smith, the Gray brothers, and ship's surgeon William Neale, who were members of the Smith expedition. That expedition explored Franz Josef Land, and led to the naming, on 18 August, of Cape Flora, Bell Island, Nightingale Sound, Gratton ("Uncle Joe") Island, and Mabel Island.[25]
After graduating with Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery (M.B. C.M.) degrees from the University of Edinburgh in 1881, he was ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast.[9] He completed his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree (an advanced degree beyond the basic medical qualification in the UK) with a dissertation on tabes dorsalis in 1885.[26][27]
In 1882, Doyle partnered with his former classmate George Turnavine Budd in a medical practice in Plymouth, but their relationship proved difficult, and Doyle soon left to set up an independent practice.[9][28] Arriving in Portsmouth in June 1882, with less than £10 (£1100 in 2019[29]) to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea.[30] The practice was not successful. While waiting for patients, Doyle returned to writing fiction.
Doyle was a staunch supporter of compulsory vaccination and wrote several articles advocating the practice and denouncing the views of anti-vaccinators.[31][32]
In early 1891, Doyle embarked on the study of ophthalmology in Vienna. He had previously studied at the Portsmouth Eye Hospital in order to qualify to perform eye tests and prescribe glasses. Vienna had been suggested by his friend Vernon Morris as a place to spend six months and train to be an eye surgeon. But Doyle found it too difficult to understand the German medical terms being used in his classes in Vienna, and soon quit his studies there. For the rest of his two-month stay in Vienna, he pursued other activities, such as ice skating with his wife Louisa and drinking with Brinsley Richards of the London Times. He also wrote The Doings of Raffles Haw.
After visiting Venice and Milan, he spent a few days in Paris observing Edmund Landolt, an expert on diseases of the eye. Within three months of his departure for Vienna, Doyle returned to London. He opened a small office and consulting room at 2 Upper Wimpole Street, or 2 Devonshire Place as it was then. (There is today a Westminster City Council commemorative plaque over the front door.) He had no patients, according to his autobiography, and his efforts as an ophthalmologist were a failure.[33][34][35]
Deputy lieutenant - Wikipedia
In the United Kingdom, a deputy lieutenant is a Crown appointment and one of several deputies to the lord-lieutenant of a lieutenancy area: an English ceremonial county, Welsh preserved county, Scottish lieutenancy area, or Northern Irish county borough or county. Prior to the creation of the Irish Free State, all Irish counties had deputy lieutenants.
In formal style, the postnominal letters DL may be added: e.g. John Brown, CBE, DL.
Overview
Deputy lieutenants are nominated by a lord lieutenant, to assist with any duties as may be required: see the Lieutenancies Act 1997; deputy lieutenants receive their commission of appointment via the appropriate government minister by command of the King[1] In England and Wales, since November 2001, the minister responsible for most appointments is the Lord Chancellor, with exceptions such as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.[2] In Scotland, since July 1999 it has been the Scottish Ministers.[3]
Decades ago, the number of deputy lieutenants for each county could be as few as three. Today, however, there may be well over a dozen that are appointed as the number of DLs today correlates with the population of each respective county. DLs tend to be people who either have served the local community, or have a history of public service in other fields.[4]
DLs represent the lord lieutenant in their absence, including at local ceremonies and official events, from opening exhibitions to inductions of vicars (as requested by the Church of England). They must live within their ceremonial county, or within seven miles (11 km) of its boundary.[5] Their appointments do not terminate with any change of lord lieutenant,[6] but they are legally required to retire aged 75.
One of the serving deputy lieutenants is appointed to be vice-lieutenant,[7] who in most circumstances will stand in for the lord lieutenant when they cannot be present. The appointment as vice-lieutenant does, however, expire on the retirement of the lord lieutenant who made the choice. Generally, the vice-lieutenant would then revert to DL.[8]
Unlike the office of lord lieutenant, which is an appointment in the gift of the Sovereign, the position of deputy lieutenant is an appointment of the Sovereign's appointee, and therefore not strictly speaking a direct appointment of the Sovereign.
Deputy Lieutenant Commissions are published by the clerk of the lieutenancy, as a State Appointment, in either the London Gazette or Edinburgh Gazette, as appropriate, with the names of the persons appointed deputy lieutenants for that county or area, and the dates of their commissions.[9]
See also
Custos rotulorum
List of Deputy Lieutenants
Deputy lieutenants of Aberdeen
Deputy lieutenant of Aberdeenshire
List of deputy lieutenants of Durham
Duchy of Lancaster
Lord Lieutenant of the City of London
References
Lieutenancies Act 1997 (c. 23), section 2(4). Retrieved 2010-02-01.
The Transfer of Functions (Miscellaneous) Order 2001 (SI 2001/3500).
The Scotland Act 1998 (Transfer of Functions to the Scottish Ministers etc.) Order 1999 (SI 1999/1820).
Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 2(2)(a).
Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 2(2)(b)
Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 2(5).
Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 3.
Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 3(2).
Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 2(7).
External links
Lieutenancies Act 1997
Department for Constitutional Affairs (now Ministry of Justice): Explanatory notes for Deputy Lieutenants. Archived 4 December 2003 at the Wayback Machine.
Process of the appointments of Deputy lieutenants at gov.uk
Categories: Deputy LieutenantsLord LieutenanciesCeremonial officers in the United KingdomLocal politicians in the United KingdomRepresentatives of the British monarchGubernatorial titles
副統監（ふくとうかん、英語: Deputy Lieutenant, デピュティ・レフテナント）は、イギリスの官職名である。イングランドの典礼カウンティ、ウェールズの保存カウンティ（英語版）、スコットランドの統監任命地域（英語版）、北アイルランドのカウンティ・バラ（英語版）やカウンティなどの統監任命地域（英語版）における統監の副官である。
副統監に任命された者は、ポスト・ノミナル・レターズ"DL"を追加することができる（例：John Brown, CBE, DL）。より重要な称号を多数持っている場合は、DLを省略することができるが、これはまれである。
副統監は、必要とされる職務を補佐するために、統監（ロード・レフテナント）によって指名される。副統監は、国王（女王）の命令により、政府の該当する大臣を通じて任命される[1]。イングランドとウェールズでは、2001年11月以降、ランカスター公領大臣などの例外を除き、副統監の任命を担当する大臣は大法官である[2]。スコットランドでは、1999年7月以降、スコットランド首相が担当している[3]。
数十年前には、各カウンティの副統監の数は3人程度であった。しかし現在では、カウンティの人口に応じて副統監の数が変わるため、1つのカウンティで十数人の副統監が任命されることもある。副統監は、地域のコミュニティに貢献してきた人や、他の分野で公職に就いた経験のある人が選ばれる傾向にある[4]。
統監が不在の時には、副統監がその代理として、地方の式典や公式行事（展覧会の開会式や英国国教会からの要請による牧師の任命など）に出席する。副統監は、自分の担当するカウンティ内か、その境界から7マイル（11キロメートル）以内に居住していなければならない[5]。統監が交代しても副統監の任期は終了しないが[6]、法律の規定により75歳で引退することになっている。
現役の副統監のうちの1人は統監代行(vice-lieutenant)に任命される[7]。統監代行は、統監が不在の時にその代わりを務める。統監代行への任命は、任命した統監の引退とともに失効する。一般的には、統監代行はその後、副統監に戻ることになる[8]。
国王から任命される統監とは異なり、副統監の役職は国王の被任命者の任命であるため、厳密には国王の直接の任命ではない。
脚注
^ Lieutenancies Act 1997 (c. 23), section 2(4). Retrieved 2010-02-01.
^ The Transfer of Functions (Miscellaneous) Order 2001 (SI 2001/3500).
^ The Scotland Act 1998 (Transfer of Functions to the Scottish Ministers etc.) Order 1999 (SI 1999/1820).
^ Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 2(2)(a).
^ Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 2(2)(b)
^ Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 2(5).
^ Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 3.
^ Lieutenancies Act 1997, section 3(2).
関連項目
主席治安判事（英語版）
ランカスター公領
外部リンク
Lieutenancies Act 1997
Department for Constitutional Affairs (now Ministry of Justice): Explanatory notes for Deputy Lieutenants[リンク切れ]
カテゴリ: イギリスの地方自治イギリスの官職イギリスの名誉職
Order of Saint John (chartered 1888) - Wikipedia
The Order of St John,[3] short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (French: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem)[n 1] and also known as St John International,[4] is a British royal order of chivalry constituted in 1888 by royal charter from Queen Victoria and dedicated to St John the Baptist.
The order traces its origins back to the Knights Hospitaller in the Middle Ages, which was later known as the Order of Malta. A faction of them emerged in France in the 1820s and moved to Britain in the early 1830s, where, after operating under a succession of grand priors and different names, it became associated with the founding in 1882 of the St John Ophthalmic Hospital near the old city of Jerusalem and the St John Ambulance Brigade in 1887.
The order is found throughout the Commonwealth of Nations,[5] Hong Kong, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States of America,[6] with the worldwide mission "to prevent and relieve sickness and injury, and to act to enhance the health and well-being of people anywhere in the world."[6] The order's approximately 25,000 members, known as confrères,[5] are mostly of the Protestant faith, though those of other Christian denominations or other religions are accepted into the order. Except via appointment to certain government or ecclesiastical offices in some realms, membership is by invitation only and individuals may not petition for admission.
The Order of St John is perhaps best known for the health organisations it founded and continues to run, including St John Ambulance and St John Eye Hospital Group. As with the order, the memberships and work of these organizations are not constricted by denomination or religion. The order is a constituent member of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem. Its headquarters are in London and it is a registered charity under English law.[7]
Flag of the Order of St John
Shield of the order
History
Emergence
In 1823, the Council of the French Langues—a French state-backed and hosted faction[8] of the Order of Malta (Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta)—sought to raise through private subscription sufficient money to restore a territorial base for the Order of Malta and aid the Greek War of Independence.[8] This was to be achieved by issuing bonds in London to form a mercenary army of demobilized British soldiers using readily available, cheap war surplus. A deal transferring various islands to the Order of Malta, including Rhodes when captured, was struck with the Greek rebels,[9] but, ultimately, the attempt to raise money failed when details leaked to the press, the French monarchy withdrew its backing of the council, and the bankers refused the loan.[9]
The council was reorganised and the Marquis de Sainte-Croix du Molay (previously number two of the council and a former Order of Malta administrator in Spain[8]) became its head. In June 1826, a second attempt was made to raise money to restore a Mediterranean homeland for the order when Philippe de Castellane, a French Knight of Malta, was appointed by the council to negotiate with supportive persons in Britain. Scotsman Donald Currie[10] was in 1827 given the authority to raise £240,000. Anyone who subscribed to the project and all commissioned officers of the mercenary army were offered the opportunity of being appointed knights of the order. Few donations were attracted, though, and the Greek War of Independence was won without the help of the knights of the Council of the French Langues. Castellane and Currie were then allowed by the French Council to form the Council of the English Langue, which was inaugurated on 12 January 1831, under the executive control of Alejandro, conde de Mortara, a Spanish aristocrat. It was headquartered at what Mortara called the "Auberge of St John",[11] St John's Gate, Clerkenwell.[12] This was the Old Jerusalem Tavern, a public house occupying what had once been a gatehouse to the ancient Clerkenwell Priory,[13][14] the medieval Grand Priory of the Knights Hospitaller, otherwise known as the Knights of Saint John. The creation of the langue has been regarded either as a revival of the Knights Hospitaller[15] or the establishment of a new order.[16][17][18]
Priory of St John at Clerkenwell, London in 1661, by Wenceslaus Hollar
The Reverend Sir Robert Peat, the absentee perpetual curate of St Lawrence, Brentford, in Middlesex, and one of the many former chaplains to Prince George (Prince Regent and later King George IV), had been recruited by the council as a member of the society in 1830. On 29 January 1831, in the presence of Philip de Castellane and the Agent-General of the French Langues, Peat was elected prior ad interim.[19] Then, on the grounds that he had been selling knighthoods, Peat and other English members of the organisation expelled Mortara, with the backing of the Council of the French Langues, leading to two the existence of two competing English chivalric groups between early 1832 and Mortara's disappearance in 1837. On 24 February 1834, three years after becoming prior ad interim, in order to publicly reaffirm his claim to the office of prior and in the hope of reviving a charter of Queen Mary I dealing with the original English branch of the Order of Malta, Peat took the oath de fideli administratione in the Court of the King's Bench, before the Lord Chief Justice.[19][20] Peat was thus credited as being the first grand prior of the association, but in January 1919 "W.B.H." wrote to the journal Notes & Queries: "His name is not in the knights' lists, and he was never 'Prior in the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem': he became an ordinary member of that Order on Nov. 11, 1830."[21]
St John's Gate, 1880
Sir Robert Peat died in April 1837 and Sir Henry Dymoke was appointed grand prior and re-established contact with the knights in France and Germany, into which the group had by that time expanded.[22] However, until the late 1830s, only the English arm of the organisation had considered itself to be a grand priory and langue of the Order of St John, having never been recognized as such by the established order. Dymoke sought to rectify this by seeking acknowledgement from the headquarters of the Catholic Sovereign Military Order of Malta, but its then Lieutenant grand master, Philippe de Colloredo-Mansfeld, refused the request. In response to this rebuff, the English body declared itself to be the Sovereign Order of St John in England, under the title The Sovereign and Illustrious Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Anglia,[23] thereby emphasising the order's independence and claim to direct and continuous succession from the Order of St John that was established in the 11th century. This new entity grew its membership over the ensuing three decades and, in 1861, William Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester agreed to become its grand prior. Additionally, an associated national hospitaller organisation was formed with a corps of ambulances.
Order of St. John of Jerusalem in Great Britain
In 1871, the Duke of Manchester instituted a new constitution, which again changed the order's name, offering the more modest Order of Saint John of Jerusalem in England, abandoning the pretension to the title of "Sovereign Order".[24] Five years later, Princess Alexandra was appointed a Lady of Justice, and this was followed by her husband, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) becoming a Knight.[25] Two years later, Sir Edmund Lechmere bought St John's Gate as the order's headquarters; the property was initially leased from Lechmere, before the order acquired the freehold in 1887.[13] In 1877, the order established various St John Ambulance associations in major railway centres and mining districts, so that railway men and colliers could learn how to treat victims of accidents with first aid; in 1882, the Grand Priory founded a hospice and ophthalmic dispensary in Jerusalem (known today as the St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group); and, by 1887, had established the St John Ambulance Brigade, which undertook practical and life-saving work.
The name given in 1888, when the order was first constituted as the present order of chivalry by Queen Victoria's royal charter was Grand Priory of the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem in England. This was changed by the royal charter of 1926 to the Grand Priory in the British Realm of the Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem and further in 1936 to the Grand Priory in the British Realm of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem.[26] In 1961, it played a role, together with the Protestant Continental branches of the original Order of Saint John (the "Johanniter Orders" in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and elsewhere), in the establishment of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem and thereafter finally received (through an agreement in 1963) collateral recognition by the Order of Malta. Its most recent royal charter was granted in 1955, with a supplemental charter issued in 1974,[27] recognizing the worldwide scope of the organisation by setting its present name. In 1999, the order received special consultative status from the United Nations Economic and Social Council.[6]
Order of Saint John (chartered 1888) - Wikipedia
The Order of St John,[3] short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (French: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem)[n 1] and also known as St John International,[4] is a British royal order of chivalry constituted in 1888 by royal charter from Queen Victoria and dedicated to St John the Baptist.
The order traces its origins back to the Knights Hospitaller in the Middle Ages, which was later known as the Order of Malta. A faction of them emerged in France in the 1820s and moved to Britain in the early 1830s, where, after operating under a succession of grand priors and different names, it became associated with the founding in 1882 of the St John Ophthalmic Hospital near the old city of Jerusalem and the St John Ambulance Brigade in 1887.
The order is found throughout the Commonwealth of Nations,[5] Hong Kong, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States of America,[6] with the worldwide mission "to prevent and relieve sickness and injury, and to act to enhance the health and well-being of people anywhere in the world."[6] The order's approximately 25,000 members, known as confrères,[5] are mostly of the Protestant faith, though those of other Christian denominations or other religions are accepted into the order. Except via appointment to certain government or ecclesiastical offices in some realms, membership is by invitation only and individuals may not petition for admission.
The Order of St John is perhaps best known for the health organisations it founded and continues to run, including St John Ambulance and St John Eye Hospital Group. As with the order, the memberships and work of these organizations are not constricted by denomination or religion. The order is a constituent member of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem. Its headquarters are in London and it is a registered charity under Eng
Roman noir — Wikipédia (wikipedia.org)
Le roman noir peut être considéré comme un sous-genre ou une sous-catégorie appartenant au roman policier qui regrouperait le roman à énigme et le roman à suspense, mais aussi comme un genre à part entière possédant ses propres critères génériques. Les racines du roman noir sont donc parfois liées à celles du roman policier qui débuteraient au xixe siècle. Le genre du roman noir naît cependant véritablement aux États-Unis dans les années 1920, avec pour ambition de rendre compte de la réalité sociétale du pays : crime organisé et terreau mafieux. Mais le roman noir connaît véritablement son essor après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Dès lors, le roman noir désigne aujourd'hui un roman policier inscrit dans une réalité sociale précise, porteur d'un discours critique, voire contestataire. Le roman noir, tout en étant un roman détective, se fixe ses propres frontières en s'opposant au roman d'énigme, car le drame se situe dans un univers moins conventionnel, et moins ludique.
Roman à énigme — Wikipédia (wikipedia.org)
Le roman à énigme (ou parfois roman d'énigme) est un genre littéraire regroupant des romans et des nouvelles. Il se définit comme étant à la fois un sous-genre du roman policier (aussi appelé "polar" ou "rompol"), aux côtés du roman noir et du roman à suspense, mais également comme à l'origine de ce dernier. Il se trouve en effet à la naissance du genre et naît au cours du xixe siècle, période durant laquelle la science évolue ; la confiance dans l'explication par la logique et la raison s'accentue.
Le roman à énigme illustre cette évolution des mentalités. Il est, par ses codes, la représentation de la confiance dans la raison qui pourrait tout expliquer. Son intrigue repose généralement sur un meurtre au coupable inconnu, qu'il faut découvrir. Elle est centrée plus précisément sur trois questions : qui, comment, pourquoi ? Il faut donc pour y répondre reconstituer le déroulement des faits par la logique.
Histoire du roman à énigme
Naissance
Comme tout genre littéraire, le roman à énigme n'est pas né ex nihilo et se développe à partir de tendances littéraires antérieures. Cependant, la critique s'accorde à entériner la naissance du genre aux trois nouvelles de l'écrivain américain Edgar Allan Poe : Double Assassinat dans la rue Morgue (1841), Le Mystère de Marie Roget (1843) et La Lettre volée (1845)1. On y trouve déjà en effet tous les éléments premiers du roman policier. Néanmoins, ces récits étant des nouvelles, le premier roman à énigme reconnu, au sens strict du terme, est L'Affaire Lerouge (1866) du français Émile Gaboriau. À la fin du xixe siècle, Arthur Conan Doyle crée un nouveau personnage dans Une étude en rouge (1887) : il s'agit du fameux Sherlock Holmes qui s'impose comme l'image du détective face à l'énigme du roman, acquérant une renommée telle qu'il éclipse ses prédécesseurs.
Développement
Le roman à énigme naît et se développe en pleine révolution industrielle : les villes s'agrandissent et s'enrichissent, apportant une nouvelle toile de fond pour ce nouveau type de récits2. Un nouvel esprit scientifique se développe également : le positivisme par exemple, dérivé de la pensée d'Auguste Comte, considère en effet que seules la connaissance et l'étude des faits vérifiés par l'expérience scientifique peuvent décrire les phénomènes du monde. Cela explique l'émergence d'un genre littéraire où la recherche de la vérité structure le récit.
La prise de conscience de l'existence du genre se situe au tournant des xixe et xxe siècles : on le voit par exemple à la codification et la nomination du genre par les acteurs du livre. Le roman à énigme connaît donc un grand succès au début du xxe siècle et se développe en parallèle dans plusieurs pays.
En France avec, par exemple, des romans de Gaston Leroux comme Le Mystère de la chambre jaune (1907) ou Le Parfum de la dame en noir (1908).
Au Royaume-Uni avec, par exemple, des romans d'Agatha Christie comme Le Meurtre de Roger Ackroyd (1926) ou Dix petits nègres (1939).
Aux États-Unis avec, par exemple, des romans d'Ellery Queen comme Deux Morts dans un cercueil (1932) ou Le Mystère des frères siamois (1933).
L'univers du roman à énigme
L'espace romanesque
Un cadre restreint, rationnel et social
L'espace romanesque du roman à énigme se singularise par son caractère restreint. En effet, le cadre doit être limité afin de créer un environnement dont tous les aspects peuvent être connus. Ce cadre restreint va donc permettre la mise en place d'un espace créé par l'énigme et pour sa résolution3.
L'un des aspects fondateurs du roman à énigme est la mise en avant de la rationalité des actions humaines. Poe a montré que les actes humains obéissent à des lois au même titre que les phénomènes physiques. Ils sont prévisibles, donc déductibles. La possibilité d'une déduction reconstitutive a posteriori souligne que le mystère est rationnel4.
Le crime est une anomalie dans l'ordre social et la découverte du coupable, du pourquoi et du comment, rétablit l'ordre social malmené.
Les scènes
L'essentiel de l'action du roman à énigme se centre sur l'enquête du détective, donc sur une progression intellectuelle : on y retrouve généralement des scènes plus ou moins typiques et invariantes (chacune de ces scènes peut avoir plusieurs occurrences dans un récit).
La scène du délit (meurtre, vol…) est la scène fondatrice du roman à énigme : en effet, sans délit pas de coupable à trouver donc pas d'énigme. Paradoxalement cette scène est le plus souvent occultée. Tout d'abord parce que le roman à énigme met rarement l'accent sur la violence (unique et isolé, le meurtre est un événement scandaleux). Ensuite, parce que la reconstitution du délit est le but de l'énigme posée par le roman, cela implique donc de laisser l'événement dans le secret.
La scène de découverte de l'énigme et des d'indices, qui permet de poser l'énigme ou d'en faire évoluer les paramètres : l'auteur apporte des éléments de réponses que l'enquête doit compléter. Une deuxième occurrence de cette scène dans le récit peut ou éclaircir le mystère ou l'assombrir (dans le Mystère de la chambre jaune, le problème de la galerie inexplicable épaissit le mystère de la chambre jaune). Dans tous les cas, elle répond à un enlisement de la narration en relançant l'intrigue.
La scène de l'interrogatoire : l'essentiel du texte réside dans les dialogues. D'une part, on peut y trouver des indices : des détails compromettants lâchés par mégarde ou une incohérence permettant de déceler le mensonge d'un suspect. D'autre part, on peut également y trouver la représentation du rapport de force entre l'enquêteur et les suspects. C'est en effet par la parole que se livre la joute intellectuelle entre l'enquêteur et le coupable5.
L'issue du roman à énigme est la scène où l'énigme est résolue et le mystère dévoilé : "La résolution d'une énigme policière passe par deux phases, concomitantes ou successives : la reconstitution de l'histoire du crime et la mise au jour du nom du coupable. Cette double issue semble cristalliser sur la fin du texte tout le potentiel de révélation accumulé par le roman6." L'issue du roman à énigme se caractérise par un regroupement de tous les protagonistes dans un même endroit : le raisonnement du détective doit être suivi, compris et accepté de tous.
Les personnages
Les personnages du roman à énigme peuvent être perçus non comme des éléments individuels et libres mais comme des éléments interdépendants d'un même système : l'intérêt de chacun des personnages "n'est ni social ni psychologique mais fonctionnel5". Les personnages ne sont présents que pour répondre au déroulement de l'intrigue : c'est par eux que se met en place l'énigme et le long chemin vers sa résolution. "Le récit classique place à l'initiale une victime, à la finale un coupable ; tout l'intervalle est occupé par la figure fascinante et centrale de l'enquêteur ou détective7."
Victimes, coupables et suspects
La victime est l'initiale de l'intrigue : c'est parce qu'il y a victime qu'il y a enquête et donc énigme. Le coupable est quant à lui la finalité de l'intrigue : son identification est le but de la résolution de l'énigme.
Le rôle de victime est paradoxalement très important et pourtant mineur.
Le rôle de coupable est très variable et a été utilisé de manières très différentes par les auteurs de roman à énigme (coupable non humain8, coupables multiples9, coupable narrateur10…). Cette variété est une condition sine qua non à la dissimulation de l'identité du coupable : il n'existe pas de coupable type. Le coupable s'intègre dans la sphère sociale où l'événement prend place.
Le rôle de suspect est moins fixe que ceux de victime, de coupable ou de détective. Il présente en effet une différence fondamentale : il est temporaire et disparaît à la fin de l'énigme, au contraire des trois autres. Il implique un doute : le suspect est à la fois innocent et coupable, et il le reste tant que l'énigme n'est pas résolue. Si la victime et le coupable créent l'enquête, c'est l'enquête qui crée le suspect.
Le détective
Le personnage principal du roman à énigme est souvent la figure emblématique du détective : la mission de résoudre l'énigme lui est dévolue. Ce dernier se place entre la victime et le coupable et doit créer par la réflexion une liaison entre les deux. Au contraire du coupable, le détective est souvent extérieur à la sphère sociale où le crime a eu lieu.
Le rôle du détective dans le roman à énigme est d'appliquer la réflexion aux faits constituants le crime et, par ses méthodes rationnelles, de faire la lumière sur l'affaire que personne d'autre que lui ne peut éclaircir.
"Il s'agit souvent d'un dilettante, d'un amateur éclairé même s'il peut tirer profit de cette activité. Original et parfois oisif, il est fréquemment hors de l'institution policière11."
Mais ce personnage ne se limite pas à cette simple fonction et se démarque souvent par une personnalité et des caractéristiques fortes. Parmi les détectives de romans à énigme les plus connus on peut citer :
C. Auguste Dupin d'Edgar Allan Poe
Sherlock Holmes d'Arthur Conan Doyle
Hercule Poirot et Miss Marple d'Agatha Christie
Joseph Rouletabille de Gaston Leroux
Le personnage du détective est construit tout entier dans l'idée de la résolution de l'énigme policière : cela est visible dans la liste des connaissances et capacités de Sherlock Holmes dans Une Étude en rouge12. Le détective apprécie les indices et les met en relation. Il trie les informations vraies des fausses et lie les éléments qui fonctionnent ensemble. Au fil du temps, l'idée de l'énigme se réduisant à un simple défi intellectuel, le personnage de l'enquêteur évolue vers le "armchair detective" (par exemple Hercule Poirot) : la réflexion prenant le pas sur l'action, les capacités physiques du détective s'amenuisent au profit de ses capacités intellectuelles.
Caractéristiques du roman à énigme
Construction
La structure
Le roman à énigme est construit autour de ce que l'on peut appeler une structure duelle régressive. "La structure du roman à énigme suppose en effet deux histoires13". La première de ces histoires est celle du crime : elle est le plus souvent terminée et donc passée sous silence. La seconde de ces histoires est celle de l'enquête. C'est cette histoire, en cours, qui est contée dans le roman à énigme. Son but est précisément de reconstituer l'histoire du crime.
Un roman jeu
L'énigme conduit la construction de tout le roman. Elle est posée par le coupable au détective mais également par l'auteur au lecteur, ce qui en fait alors un roman jeu. Un crime a été commis et il s'agit, aussi bien pour le personnage de l'enquêteur que pour le lecteur, de découvrir qui est le coupable, comment il a agi (mode opératoire) et pourquoi (mobile) : ces trois questions sont les interrogations fondamentales de l'énigme14. Le but du jeu pour le lecteur est de découvrir le coupable avant que le détective ne lui apporte la solution à la fin du récit.
Le mystère de chambre close
Le problème de chambre close est un problème particulier d'un roman à énigme. Il s'agit d'un personnage ou d'un objet pénétrant ou sortant d'un espace d'apparence clos. Un des récits de chambre close les plus connus est Le Mystère de la chambre jaune mais il faut également citer, par exemple, des récits de John Dickson Carr comme La Chambre ardente ou Passe-passe.
Notes et références
Thomas Narcejac, Une machine à lire : le roman policier, Paris, Éditions Denoël, 1975, p. 23
Marc Lits, Le roman policier : introduction à la théorie et à l'histoire d'un genre littéraire, Liège, Éditions du Céfal, 1999, p. 81
Yves Reuter, Le roman policier, Paris, Armand Colin, 2009, p. 52
Thomas Narcejac, Une machine à lire : le roman policier, Paris, Éditions Denoël, 1975, p. 24
Yves Reuter, Le roman policier, Paris, Armand Colin, 2009, p. 12
Jacques Dubois, Le roman policier ou la modernité, Paris, Nathan, 1992, p. 139
Jacques Dubois, Un carré herméneutique : la place du suspect
(en) Edgar Allan Poe, Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue
(en) Agatha Christie, Le crime de l'Orient-Express
(en) Agatha Christie, Le Meurtre de Roger Ackroyd
Yves Reuter, Le roman policier, Paris, Armand Colin, 2009, p. 49
(en) Arthur Conan Doyle, A study in scarlet
Yves Reuter, Le roman policier, Paris, Armand Colin, 2009, p. 41
Jacques Dubois, Le roman policier ou la modernité, Paris, Nathan, 1992, p. 143
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Catégories : Roman par genreÉnigme[+]