Francis M. Nevins Quotes

The viewpoint character in each story is usually someone trapped in a living nightmare, but this doesn't guarantee that we and the protagonist are at one. In fact Woolrich often makes us pull away fro...

The viewpoint character in each story is usually someone trapped in a living nightmare, but this doesn't guarantee that we and the protagonist are at one. In fact Woolrich often makes us pull away fro...

Francis M. Nevins

Tags: cornell woolrich, crime fiction, fiction writing, noir, noir fiction, short fiction, writer, writers, writing

In Woolrich's crime fiction there is a gradual development from pulp to noir. The earlier a story, the more likely it stresses pulp elements: one-dimensional macho protagonists, preposterous methods o...

Francis M. Nevins

In Woolrich's crime fiction there is a gradual development from pulp to noir. The earlier a story, the more likely it stresses pulp elements: one-dimensional macho protagonists, preposterous methods o...

Francis M. Nevins

Tags: cornell woolrich, crime, fiction, noir, police, pulp, the great depression

About Author

Francis Michael Nevins Jr. (born January 6, 1943) is an American mystery writer, attorney, and professor of law at Saint Louis University School of Law. He has also written a number of non-fiction works, including book-length studies of the life and works of Ellery Queen and of Cornell Woolrich, each of which earned the author an Edgar Award.

All we can do about this nightmare we live in is to create, if we are very lucky, a few islands of love and trust to sustain us and help us forget. But love dies while the lovers go on living, and Woo...

Francis M. Nevins

All we can do about this nightmare we live in is to create, if we are very lucky, a few islands of love and trust to sustain us and help us forget. But love dies while the lovers go on living, and Woo...

Francis M. Nevins

Tags: crime fiction, life, noir, noir fiction

The hallmarks of the noir style are fear, guilt and loneliness, breakdown and despair, sexual obsession and social corruption, a sense that the world is controlled by, malignant forces preying on us,...

Francis M. Nevins

The hallmarks of the noir style are fear, guilt and loneliness, breakdown and despair, sexual obsession and social corruption, a sense that the world is controlled by, malignant forces preying on us,...

Francis M. Nevins

Tags: crime, noir, noir fiction

But suspense presupposes uncertainty. No matter how nightmarish the situation, real suspense is impossible when we know in advance that the protagonist will prevail (as we would if Woolrich had used s...

Francis M. Nevins

But suspense presupposes uncertainty. No matter how nightmarish the situation, real suspense is impossible when we know in advance that the protagonist will prevail (as we would if Woolrich had used s...

Francis M. Nevins

Tags: noir, noir fiction, suspense

His most characteristic detective stories end with the realization that no rational account of events is possible, and his suspense stories tend to close with terror not dissipated but omnipresent, li...

Francis M. Nevins

His most characteristic detective stories end with the realization that no rational account of events is possible, and his suspense stories tend to close with terror not dissipated but omnipresent, li...

Francis M. Nevins

Tags: crime fiction, noir, noir fiction