Overview: A list of Perry Mason novels, including notes on plot devices, recurring characters, and legal matters, as well as a few photos of book covers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m a fan of the Perry Mason novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. Even though they’re pulp fiction, not literature, I’ve read and re-read all 80 of the novels published in Gardner’s lifetime, plus the 2 novels published posthumously; I’ve also read all 3 short stories featuring Perry Mason. Since I love to reread the books (I know, I have low taste in literature), I’ve started keeping notes on various topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Recurring characters:<\/em> I’m particularly interested in the way the recurring characters<\/em> are treated. During all those years, the character of Mason never ages, and his relationships with the other recurring characters remains mostly static. But there are some subtle changes in relationships. E.g., in a few novels Mason kisses Della Street and once or twice they even talk about marriage, although in other novels their relationship is far less intimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Plot devices:<\/em> Gardner was a one-man fiction-writing factory, sometimes churning out half a dozen novels a year, along with short stories and non-fiction pieces. Not surprisingly, he reuses a number of plot devices<\/em> more than once \u2014 murder in a motel, murder over mining rights, murder over wills, etc. Yet in spite of this, the majority of Gardner’s plots show at least some imagination and creativity, and they are rarely boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Legal matters:<\/em> Since Gardner was a trial lawyer himself, the novels sometimes contain interesting legal matters<\/em>. Gardner places Perry Mason in a variety of legal settings, including preliminary trials, jury trials, county and Federal courtrooms, coroner’s hearing, conferences in a judge’s chambers, etc. Occasionally, Gardner cites actual California state law. (In fact, there’s enough legal interest in the books that the publishing arm of the American Bar Association reprinted a dozen or so of the novels.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Other matters:<\/em> I’m also interested in the Perry Mason books is the way they depict the times they were written in. Gardner wrote the novels from 1933 through 1969, a period that saw quite a bit of social change, and the novels reflect this to some degree. E.g., the novels published during World War II contain references to the war; beatniks appear in some of the 1950s novels; etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The links below take you to webpages with checklists of the Perry Mason novels and stories by Gardner, sorted by decade (the entire checklist used to be on this page, but it grew too long and had to be split up). I’m slowly adding commentary for each novel on the above topics: recurring characters<\/em>, plot devices<\/em>, and legal matters<\/em>. I’ve included a dozen or so photos of books and book covers, but I will not include a cover image for every title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’d like to contribute to this project, please email me or leave a comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Listing the plot devices has become an iterative process. As I go through the novels listing the plot devices, I identify more plot devices that Gardner uses repeatedly. Then I have to go back and check the novels I’ve already read for those plot devices. It’s taking a long time, but I’m slowly coming up with a standardized list of the plot devices Gardner uses more than once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Below is a list of some of the plot devices used by Gardner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Breen, Jon L. Novel verdicts: a guide to courtroom fiction. <\/em>Scarecrow Press, 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gardner, Erle Stanley. Perry Mason novels and stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grost, Michael. “Erle Stanley Gardner.” http:\/\/www.mikegrost.com\/gardner.htm accessed 16 November 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hughes, Dorothy B. The Case of the Real Perry Mason. <\/em>Morrow: 1978.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moore, Ruth. “Bibliography of Erle Stanley Gardner.” In Hughes, 1978.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Overview: A list of Perry Mason novels, including notes on plot devices, recurring characters, and legal matters, as well as a few photos of book covers. I’m a fan of the Perry Mason novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. Even though they’re pulp fiction, not literature, I’ve read and re-read all 80 of the novels published … Continue reading “Perry Mason novels”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3552","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":96,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13211,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3552\/revisions\/13211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\n\n\nPlot devices<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nRecurring characters<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Perry Mason’s law office<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Drake Detective Agency<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Law enforcement<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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District Attorney’s office<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nFurther reading<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n