Edgar Allen Poe and the First Detective Story

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” 1841 Graham’s Magazine Recognized as the first modern detective story Tale of ratiocination – the process of reasoning /thought or reasoning that is exact, valid and rational C. Auguste Dupin – reoccurring character for Poe – “The Mystery of Marie Roget” & “The Purloined Letter”

Theme Simple The exercise of ingenuity in detecting a murder Underlying metaphor of “brains vs. brawn”

VERY brief summary C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin confusign evidence that leads him to the truth about the murders.

Importance The word detective did not exist at the time Poe wrote "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot First use of storytelling device where the detective announces his solution and then explains the reasoning leading up to it It is also the first locked room mystery in detective fiction

Importance Trope: commonly recurring literary & rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works Established many tropes that would become common elements in mystery fiction: – the eccentric but brilliant detective – the bumbling police-force – the first-person narration by a close personal friend – portrayal of the police in an unsympathetic manner as a sort of foil to the detective.

Public Opinion “…it proves Mr. Poe to be a man of genius... with an inventive power and skill, of which we know no parallel” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Modern readers are occasionally put off by Poe's violation of an implicit narrative convention in which readers should be able to guess the solution as they read. Twist ending=“bad faith”