Poe is considered the "father of the detective story." Why is this so?greenspun.com : LUSENET : The Work of Edgar Allan Poe : One Thread |
Poe is considered the "father of the detective story." Why is this so?
-- Anonymous, September 02, 2001
In great detail Poe manufactured this genre in a few stories. (Murders on the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, Marie Roget, The Gold Bug). The method of ratiocination using science and poetic intuition(peculiar to Poe's own genius)by an amateur detective using clues with a comrade or the police as a foil. Working the story backwards, combining gothic terror with deduction. Then the plots: the locked room, the object hidden in plain view, the secret code. The list goes on and has been endlessly repeated in practically every other mystery writer from Doyle to the present. While certain kinds of mystery and detection may have been present earlier, Poe's stories are the complete and original model for all that came after.
-- Anonymous, September 04, 2001