By Ben Morris

By Elena Bolstad

Catherine Louisa Pirkis’s The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1893) is both a historically important stepping stone in feminist literature and a blueprint for the modern-day neo-Victorian woman detective. Recently, there has been a noticeable uptick in modern media depictions of Victorian women detectives. Inspecting Loveday Brooke through a modern lens can explain why there’s a recent influx of Victorian women detectives on stage and screen and can explore to what extent these representations pay homage to Pirkis’s titular character.