Citation

Dalrymple T. Br. Med. J. BMJ 2010; 340: c1469.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bmj.c1469

PMID

20299393

Abstract

Literature, like the living world, can be divided into kingdoms, orders, families, genera, species, and even subspecies. For example, there is the kingdom prose; the order fiction; the family novels; the genus murder detection; the species the English golden age of detective stories; and the subspecies murders that take place in prep schools.

No doubt a Freudian might say that the very existence of such a subspecies is indicative of English attitudes to children or to education—or, of course, to both.

Language: en