Edgar Allen Poe, Father of Modern Detective Fiction

928 Words2 Pages

E.A. Poe became the father of modern day detective stories by introducing Dupin in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" as the first detective to use analytical and imaginative reasoning to solve the mystery and will create a guideline for all detective stories to come. The word "detective" was not in existence until Poe's writings. Mysteries had existed but never such a story that used a "detector" or placed such emphasis upon analysis versus trial and error. The vivid painting of the scene of the crime as well as the crime itself was likewise never done in writings until Poe.

Poe was fascinated with puzzles, word games and secret codes. (Pos-Ho pg 1333) Poe expresses this fascination through his writings to dazzle his readers. Poe utilizes deductive reasoning in his stories to imitate a type of puzzle. This he was a master of and made his detective character that much more unique. David Van Leer comments on Poe's use of this reasoning in his essay "The World of the Dupin Tales" (pg 326) "Detection in Poe is less a kind of plot than a form of truth, less a way to tell a story than a means to know the world. The real interest in these stories is not who or what done it but what truth and world are and how they may be reconstructed and what will follow from that reconstruction."

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" again is unique in that the entire story is told backward from the normal story telling pattern. Everything is in the narrative to give the reader the outcome. Poe himself said "Where is the ingenuity of unraveling a web which you yourself have woven for the sole purpose of unraveling?" (Unger, Leonard. pg 420) With this attitude Poe gives the reader a feeling that the plots always seem to be impossible. The us...

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... character analysis of Dupin and the narrator.

Galloway, David. Short Story Criticism Vol. 1 essay. Detroit, Michigan. Gale Research Company, 1983. pg 406

Provides story analysis such as how Poe became the creator of detective fiction.

Pos-Ho. Critical survey of mystery and Detective Fiction. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Salem Press, 1988. pgs 1332-1337

Story analysis how deductive reasoning is played out.

Van Lerr, David. The World of the Dupin Tales essay from Selected Tales Oxford Worlds Classic. Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press, 1998

Gives complete character analysis of Dupin

Poe, Edgar Allen. Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2004. Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service. http://www.britannica.com/ebi/articale?tocId=9276477.

Background and history of E.A Poe.

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