The Sinews of the Spirit: The Ideal of Christian Manliness in Victorian Literature and Religious Thought

Hardboiled Hysterics: Shell Shock and Tough Guys inThe Maltese Falcon, 1929/1941

“…As noted earlier, the most immediate and recognizable generic antecedent to hardboiled comes from the adventure tradition of the late 1880s romance revival and the masculine mythology it created. This Victorian and Edwardian masculine mythology, as Norman Vance points out, “incorporates physical manliness, ideas of chivalry and gentlemanliness, and moral manliness” (10).…”