By emphasising the position of a skilled non-academic reader, familiar with the codes and conventions of both “high” literature and genre fiction, crime fiction reworkings offer a non-hierarchical approach to the literary canon, presented as part of a shared cultural property and, above all, a source of enjoyment. Following a detailed analysis of the role of the reader–detective in each text, the article goes on to demonstrate how both texts engage in theoretical debates on canonicity, including questions of authorial genius, aesthetic value, and the pleasure of reading. I argue that both Doumenc and Fforde adapt their chosen genres in order to explore the nature and purpose of their respective national canons. Crime fiction and its subgenres-here, the whodunit and hard-boiled thriller-is a transnational genre which readily adapts itself to local contexts. Taking as its main examples Jasper Fforde’s 2001 novel 'The Eyre Affair' and Philippe Doumenc’s 'Contre-enquête sur la mort d’Emma Bovary' (2009), this article considers what is special about crime-fiction engagements with the literary canon and how they differ from other types of adaptation, in particular in the use of the central detective figure as a proxy for the position of the reader. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.Since the 1990s, a trend towards adapting, rewriting, or otherwise engaging with the literary canon-especially the nineteenth-century novel-via the popular genre of crime fiction may be observed in both French and English. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

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