For this reason, he even considered giving up writing and and wrote for very low wages (cf. His whole lifetime, he was poor and had problems to secure an editorship. His wife, his “greatest and only stimulus to battle with this uncongenial, unsatisfactory and ungrateful life (Thompson xl) 3, died “amid surroundings of utter poverty (Pattee 120)” early at the age of 24. He lived a bleak life which was characterized by his scandalous biography: alcohol, drugs 2, financial problems and his marriage with his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm when he was 27 (cf.

“Before (…) Edgar was old enough to remember them, both of his parents were dead (Pattee 116)” and the rest of his life was not coined by luck as well. On January 19th, 1809 Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts (cf. Furthermore, many claim him to be the father of the detective story and the question, if he really is, is supposed to be the main topic of this seminar paper. He was a master of suspense and of the macabre and succeeded in many different types of literature such as horror, poetry, criticism, mystery, tales and sketches. Rachman 25).Įdgar Allan Poe was one of the most famous American authors, who is especially famous for his over seventy short stories. With these words, the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, author of The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries 1, emphasises the importance of Edgar Allan Poe, who had influenced not only his own work but also the whole genre of detective fiction (cf. To him must be ascribed the monstrous progeny of writers on the detection of crime … Each may find some little development on his own, but his main art must trace back to those admirable stories of Monsieur Dupin (Doyle 117-118, quoted from Rachman 25)”. C onclusion: Poe as the Undisputed Father of the Detective Story ” If those are checked out, you can find the stories in the e-book “ The Works of Edgar Allan Poe ” in our always available Duke Classics e-book collection.2.2 Origins of Detective Fiction/ Early Ancestors of the Genreģ.1 The Murders in the Rue Morgue – Which Typical Elements of Detective Fiction are already Present in Poe’s Dupin Stories?ģ.2 What did Poe himself Say about his Detective Stories?Ĥ. You can read all three of the Dupin stories in “ The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales ” and listen to them on CD in “ Poe’s Detective: The Dupin Stories. Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot are among Dupin’s literary heirs. And there are police out of their depth, who after being mystified or looking at the wrong suspects, grudgingly accept Dupin’s brilliance. There is a close associate who exists mostly so that we can hear the detective’s deductions explained. The detective is brilliant and very eccentric. Poe wrote two additional stories featuring Dupin: “The Mystery of Marie Roget” and “The Purloined Letter.” These stories introduce elements that have become commonplace in later detective fiction.

Auguste Dupin sees that an acquaintance has been arrested for the murders of two women, and uses his method of “ratiocination” to deduce who really killed them. “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Edgar Allan Poe’s first detective story, was published in the April 1841 issue of “Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine.” The story is generally considered to be the first modern detective story. Publication of Edgar Allan Poe’s First Detective StoryĬreated by Bob Helmbrecht, collection development librarian