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The Origin and Development of Detective Stories
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Abstract
The Detective Story genre came into play in the early 1800’s. Edgar Allan Poe, who is considered to be the father of detective stories, first published his work called “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” This story began it all. Edgar Allan Poe wanted for the reader to think while they are reading. He wanted for the reader to connect the dots and figure things out. Not everything was in the story itself. There was a deeper meaning to his stories, which required thinking. This style quickly became popular because at the time, a lot of crime was happening in the cities. These stories, to some extend, brought solutions to the public. Poe influenced many other writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote Sherlock Holmes. Doyle considered “Duplin”, who was a creation of Poe, his hero. At first, Doyle didn’t like whom he had created so he decided to get rid of Holmes. After facing financial problems, Doyle brought Holmes back to life, which became a huge success. Poe, Doyle and others developed the characteristics of a detective in their stories. The detective plays a role of a hero. Others followed with their versions of the newly discovered genre and made it, into what it is today.
The Origin and Development of Detective Stories
Until the introduction of the story “The Murders in Rue Morgue” detective stories hadn’t gained much popularity in society. From the discovery of detective stories, books began to be published, usually in the known form of “dime novels.” However, many believed during that time in history that because of crime in the cities, detective stories were being published more and more. Such stories as those by Eugene Francois Vidocq were the most famous of the beginning detective genre before the more modern writers such as “ Edgar Allan Poe” 1. Many questions arise in the readers head, but the one that outstands the most is: What elements aided in the effective development of this genre?
As the detective story genre became more and more popular in the 1840’s, its fame would not have been known without one of the most famous writers, Edgar Allan Poe. It was from that time onward that other writers began to look toward the revision of their own works of literature to the way that might resemble Edgar A. Poe’s writing. Edgars A. Poe, therefore, was looked upon as an idol for ideas in writing and revising stories. The origin of modern detective stories and the changes made by writers since Poe’s tales are still being looked upon as well as how changing the genre impacted the society after Edgar A. Poe’s lifetime through the early 1900’s.
Edgar Allan Poe had a bizarre way of creating his masterpieces. Poe generally tried to make his work appease to the public. The author used many reoccurring themes that dealt with questions of death, physical and mental form, concerns of premature burial, the effects of decomposition and many more. Some of Poe’s work was written in the gothic genre. Another big genre that Poe constantly used but disliked was dark romanticism, which actually is a literary reaction to transcendentalism. Besides gothic and horror, Poe had other stories and tales that he wrote with humor, hoax and satire. The First story that Poe had ever published was intended to be a burlesque satirizing the popular genre but instead it became a dark horror story. Poe tried to make his writing appealing to the public and the mass market tastes. These extraordinary writing techniques helped him with the development of detective stories.
Edgar Allan Poe was born to a family of traveling actors in Boston during the year 1809. After both of his parent’s deaths, Edgar was taken into the custody of John Allan who was a merchant in Richmond. During the year of 1826, Edgar was enrolled in the University of Virginia, where he did not study long because of the fact that he was expelled for gambling debts that his guardian John Allan refused to pay. Afterward, Edgar Allan Poe was enrolled in the U.S army in 1927, which is where he wrote his first book entitled “Tamerlane and Other Poems” (Edgar Allan Poe” 589). When Poe was admitted into the Military Academy in West Point New York, he studied many languages; though he was expelled in 1831 for leaving his duties. Edgar A. Poe first started publishing his short stories and other tales only when he lived with his aunt and cousin, Maria Clemn and Virginia in the 1830’s (“Edgar Allan Poe” 589).
Edgar A. Poe was not mentioned in John Allan’s will, which led him to having financial problems. As a result Poe was tasked as an editor by an American novelist John P. Kennedy at the South Literary Messenger. Poe, while working at the Literary Messenger edited and reviewed other writers’ work as well as published them and his own (“Edgar Allan Poe” 289). After publishing some of his stories such as “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “William Wilson” Poe quit and became an editor of the Graham’s Magazine for which he had no intentions of working, but was forced to un the end because he was out of work for several months. At Graham’s Poe was not really publicly known as a poet but rather as a critic. Still, while working at the Graham’s Magazine, Poe managed to publish some of his tales and stories, but only once a month. In April of 1841, Graham’s Magazine published Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” which became his most famous detective story. Poe quit Graham’s Magazine when his with and cousin became sick with tuberculosis. Poe’s marriage kept him from drinking until Virginia’s condition forced him to drink again but more heavily which kept him out of work (“Virginia’s Health and tales of Ratiocination” 6). Edgar Allan Poe’s drinking habits led him to publishing his “Purloined letter” in 1845 which he wrote while he lived in Philadelphia with Virginia. Though Poe is considered to be a great writer of both poems and short stories, “The Purloined Letter, is not a satisfactory detective story” (Grossvogel. 530).
Still, “though Poe may indeed be the father of the detective story, something of a cavalier attitude towards the special demands of his progeny makes one suspect that he had something else in mind”. Poe wrote his detective stories in a manner that did not resemble the pattern of a true detective story. He wrote the stories piece-by-piece, having all the facts already known but not in clear order of understanding for the reader. “The Purloined Letter” does not even attempt to create a “mystery” (Grossvogel 530). In many of Poe’s detective stories, Poe himself tells the reader, which is a mystery and which of his other stories contains a mystery that resolves itself. It’s not like the mystery that you had to figure out by yourself (Grossvogel 530)
The detective Stories that were produced by Poe sometimes even include or require the reader to use a “deeper and more intimate cognition than the gothic world within which they are contained” (Grossvogel 530). Poe has stories, which have an “idiosyncratic” style, meaning that there is more to figure out than the story itself requires. Poe’s detective stories use the type of text that includes but hides Poe, making him a “patient” but only indirectly, because Poe shows his resolution in the end. In the “ The Purloined Letter,” Poe locates the mystery in a “word of books that extends mystery beyond that of superable conundrums” (Grossvogel 530).
In stories such as “The Fall of the House of Usher” the character leaves the mansion without the understanding of what caused him to do what he did. Poe, gives the “second-rate mind” evidence that they the mansion basically, overcome by fear, which shows that most of Poe’s detective stories used the style of people being overcome by fear un a supernatural world (Grossvogel 530).
Of course, there were many others apart from Poe who became the most well-known detective story writer. After Poe, other writers followed, using Poe’s style and furthering the detective story genre by mainly just altering its design. One of those writers was Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote the “Sherlock Holmes” series of tales during the early nineteenth hundreds. In his writings, Arthur Conan Doyle was, “in a limited sense, a literary innovator.” When people read his stories, they could see that “he made no secret of his admiration for Edgar Allan Poe and Poe’s creation, the French detective, Duplin”(Hodge 2991). Poe’s detective Duplin was one of Doyle’s favorite, as he explained Duplin “had from boyhood been one of my heroes”(Jaffe 31). Arthur Doyle used Poe’s work as a model for his own stories strongly showing “the impression made upon him by the American authors ability to create gloomy ambience”(Hodge 2991). Not long after Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his Sherlock Holmes stories, in which he claimed that the main detective, Sherlock Holmes “was largely inspired by his recollections of one of his medical school teacher, Dr. Joseph Bell” (Jaffe 31). Still, even though Dr. Bell had affected Doyle’s writings in some way, there is evidence of other writers’ influences as well:
From Dr. Bell’s “famous exhortations to use their inductive and deductive powers making a diagnosis was no doubt a factor in Doyle’s creation of Holmes, but the character’s literary antecedents, the detectives created by Eugene Vidocq, Emile Gaboriau, Charles Dickens, and Wilkie Collins, are clearly the true sources for Holmes” (Jaffe31).
At first, after writing Sherlock Holmes, Doyle did not find the series to be great examples of literary work, and therefore, he tried to dispose of Sherlock Holmes’s character in the story “The Final Problem.” One of the reasons for his attempt to destroy Sherlock Holmes was due to the fact that he had previously gained wide popularity through other novels that he had written previously, one of which was The White Company. Soon afterward Doyle went back and started on Sherlock Holmes once his expenses became more than his pay could cover. The public had indeed believed that Sherlock Holmes was not dead, “some, believing implicitly in Holmes’s existence, were convicted either that Watson had made an error or that the stupid intermediary, Doyle, had garbled the information.” In an attempt to suit the demands of public, Doyle wrote a series of stories which were then followed by The Hound of the Baskervilles, which he wrote based on “an acquaintance” telling him a story “on Dartmoor, When damp and dismal weather made playing golf impossible” Doyle, showing interest in the story his acquaintance was telling, led to take a walking tour of the area during which Doyle had developed the plot of his story “before he began to consider the character her would use to unify it (Hodge 2991). Through this method, The Hound of the Baskervilles became one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, “some would say the best known of all the Homes Stories” (Hodge 2992).
Now, Doyle, who was not completely satisfied with Holmes stories, “used the sample expedient of setting the tale in the time before Holmes’s apparent death at the Reinchenbach Falls”(Hodge 2992), to reintroduce Holmes back to his further Sherlock Holmes stories. Also, just as Poe used gothic theme in his own stories, Doyle “created an atmosphere that both are more exotic and more gothic then any possible venue in London” (Hodge 2992).
Doyle’s use of “the disappearance and surprising reappearance of Holmes is a Stock-in-trade used before by Doyle to mask the solution to a riddle and, ostensibly, by Holmes in order to lull a villain into false sense of security. It is clear from Holmes’s summing up at the end of the tale that the rational detective was at no point impressed by the claims of supernatural farces stalking the Baskerville family.” (Hodge 2992)
Overall, Duplin would not have been known as the hero of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories if Poe who introduces him in his gothic tales as well as other writers who by creating their own versions of a detective, gave “ to stand Doyle in good, stead, for those earlier writers firmly planted the idea of detective as a hero in the reading Public’s Consciousness” (Jaffe 33).
Furthermore, there were many detectives, and detective stories that fallowed right after Poe and Doyle. In other words, most of the writers used their own style to revise other writers’ stories. After Holmes, newer detectives came into play; most were “more foppish and irritating in a manner than Holmes but all sharing to some degree his reliance on careful observation and logical methodology to solve crimes” (Geherin 3). Some of the Detective stories that came about, originating from England were E.C Bentley’s Phillip Trent, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, H.C Bailey’s Reginald Fortune and many others that were created during the years of 1907 and 1926. The detective story genre really started out as having a “British Flavor,” and still, detective stories had always had “American cousins of Sherlock Holmes” (Geherin 3). Just as Holmes had his techniques to solving mysteries, other detectives had, “despite their individual eccentricities and methods, each of these detectives was portrayed as an intellectual giant whose problem solving skills represented a celebration of the scientific method and a constant rebuke to evildoers”(Geherin 3).
After the hardships that the United States had over come, World War I and the depression, “growing suspicious that crime was no longer a simple isolated phenomenon but rather an integral part of the very fabric of society produced a profound change in the direction of mystery fiction.” The new form of detective stories were being changed to only contain, “ The formula of Sherlock Homes with a certain cold underworld brutality” created to give people a new scare. The new detective “hero” in the form of renewed detective stories is one that is “far better equipped than the brilliant logician to cope with violence and disorder. Even though he was often unable to deduce solutions from bits of evidence or rid the world of evil at the end of the story, he did his best to combat it wherever he could by relying upon his fists rather than his wits, his brawn instead of only his brains” (Geherin 5). Also, in light of all events happening in the world, “the lack of verisimilitude in the formal detective story was becoming more noticeable” (Geherin 6). Detective stories lost their attraction when its murder mysteries were less and less in depth, making it less unraveling as it was when detective stories used detectives to solve the crime committed through logical analysis (Geherin 6).
Through former detective stories were put off due to “tribulations of the age” or otherwise said to have “entered a golden age” while the new detectives appeared, and the events in “real life” began, meaning war and depression (Geherin 6). “What happened, however, was that as the turmoil increased, the contrived situations and cardboard characters that figured in such books were forced to share with mysteries that more realistically reflected the anxieties of the age that featured heroes who were rough, tough, and frequently violent” (Geherin 7). Finally, detective story authors such as Carroll John and Dashiel Hammett, set out to “precipitate a revolution in the detective story” and portray the world just like it seemed to them, real life, “marked by disorder, uncertainty, and violence” (Geherin 7).
The origin of detective stories has always been questioned by such questions as who came up with it and how it was altered by other writers, especially after its creator was gone. Other Questions aimed at finding out how detective stories were changed since the creator’s time pose another important idea. After looking into the origin of the genre it was found that the most prominent of writers, Edgar Allan Poe, was the creator of the chilling genre of questioning mysteries. Over time, detective stories were shaped by other authors such as Doyle and his more recent followers to match the society and events occurring with it. Also, the genre itself has undergone several changes just as the society had been shaping itself, starting from the early 1920’s.
By understanding the reason for detective stories, it gives us light on how our society has been shaping itself and how writers such as Edgar Allan Poe struggled through his life due to the health of the people closest to him. Still, becoming a great detective story writer, Poe was able to open a window of opportunity to other writers, enhancing other works meanwhile. As the years progressed, other writers took on the challenge of creating their own detective stories, mainly built on Poe’s and his later followers, such as Arthur Conan Doyle. The genre itself was changed through time to become what it has become today. Still, other questions appear to ask about how much more detective stories will change after the years preceding the late 1900’s and whether there will be more conflicts pressed upon the further development of detective stories.
Works Cited
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“Edgar Allan Poe.” World Book Encyclopedia. P.589. 2002ed
Geherin, David. The American Private Eye: the Image in Fiction. New York: Frederick Ungar publishing Co., 1985
Grossvogel, David I. “The Purloined Letter”. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism.
Vol 1 NCLC 1. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company Book Tower, 1979.
Hodge, James L. Masterplots: 1801 Plot stories & Critical Evaluation of the World’s
Finest Literature. New Jersey: Eaglewood Cliffs, 1996
Jaffe, Jacqueline A. Arthur Conan Doyle. Boston: Twayne Publisher, 1987.
Kent, Zachary. Edgar Allan Poe, Tragic Poet and Master of Mystery. North Carolina:Enslow Publisher Inc, 2001
“Virgina’s Health and Tales of Ratiocination. “The Messenger and Marriage to Virginia
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