The Girl Behind the Keys (Broadview Encore Editions)

“As the door was thrust open, I heard, as in a dream, the voice of Neal Larrard―calm and cool as ever―dictating to me; mechanically, my fingers touched the keys, and I began to type. While I did so, I felt that fearful dead thing pressing against my knees, and felt also the muzzle of the revolver hard against my side.”

First published in 1903, The Girl Behind the Keys is a delightful example of early detective fiction in which Bella Thorn, a savvy young typist, foils the nefarious plans of her employer, a confidence man who exploits the hopes and fears infusing the popular imagination. As Arlene Young’s critical introduction demonstrates, the story unites many of the cultural and literary motifs marking the dawn of the twentieth century, when the Victorian era was giving way to modernity.

Arlene Young is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Manitoba. She is the author of Culture, Class and Gender in the Victorian Novel: Gentlemen, Gents and Working Women (Macmillan, 1999) and the editor of the Broadview edition of George Gissing’s The Odd Women (1998).