Thriller is a genre of fiction with numerous, often overlapping subgenres including crime, horror and detective fiction, defined not by subject matter but by the moods it elicits in its audience: heightened suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety.
Facts
Place of Origin Notable ExampleThe Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) by John Buchan 1 Defining TraitDefined by the mood of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety it elicits 1 Connections
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Thriller (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead paragraph, second sentence
Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving their audiences heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety.
History paragraph, Thirty-Nine Steps sentence
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) is an early detective thriller by John Buchan, in which an innocent man becomes the prime suspect in a murder case and finds himself on the run from both the police and enemy spies.
History paragraph, Riddle of the Sands sentence
The first recognizable modern thriller was Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands (1903), in which two young Englishmen stumble upon a secret German armada preparing to invade their homeland.
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