Contours of
Detective Fiction
The modern detective story as we know it originated at a comparatively recent date and may be fairly attributed to the invention of Edgar Allan
Poe (1809 – 1849). Though Poe’s name was later to be associated with the horror-tale, his position as a pioneer in detective fiction cannot be ignored, even if the few detective
stories that he wrote were far outnumbered by his poems and other fiction.
The next great writer of detective fiction was Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). He created the first truly great detective of fiction. He popularized and vitalized the detective story as a fictional form.
The texts of Edgar Allan Poe that will be included here are four in number namely. The Murders in Rue Morgue (1845), The Mystery of Marie Roget (1845), The Purloined
Letter (1845), and The Gold Bug (1843) . The texts of Arthur Conan Doyle that would be studied are A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Speckled Band (1901-2), The Dancing Men (1903-4), The Scandal in Bohemia (1901-2).
Poe and Doyle were the first two writers to use a central detective coupled with a less intelligent friend. Though Dupin is connected with detective fiction, one cannot visualize Dupin, without Poe’s stories at hand. The creation has no outstanding qualities.
On the other hand, Doyle’s main detective Sherlock Holmes need no introduction.
He is better known that his own creator. It is so easy to visualize him, his height, thin
and razor like face, hawk like nose, two small eyes set so close, and not to forget his walking stick! The remarkable realism may be due to the fact he was created after a living model, Dr Joseph Bell, a surgeon at Edinburgh Infirmary.
Doyle has taken the same interest in fleshing out Dr. Watson unlike Poe. Whatever the differences, their function to highlight the cleverness of Holmes and Dupin are never lost.
There may be one or more detectives in Poe’s novels. But the function remains the same. In The Purloined Letter, in retrieving a stolen letter, Poe outwits not only the smartest Minister who is the culprit but also the trickiest Prefect. Dupin outwits this Minister who hides the letter in a place that would commonly meet the eye. This does not fool Dupin. He outsmarts the Prefect, who has searched every inch of the place. The function of the three detectives from Scotland Yard is also to highlight the intellect of Holmes. The case though is different, one of
detection and one of
crime.
In A Study in Scarlet, the detectives Gregson, Stamford, and Lestrade attempt at breaking a code that would solve the puzzle but none of them are able to do it. Holmes is called for and he guesses right. It is not the horror of the crime that is important but the interest in detection itself. The stories of Poe and Doyle were written in the early years of detective fiction. The fact that the minds ability and tendency to let ideas drift through an association basis, was something that captured the public imagination. Their interest in the skill of detection is seen in another shared feature that the crime itself was committed by a non-human agent. In the real sense of the word ‘murder’ would be in all probable cases committed by a human being. In The Speckled Band, The Murders of Rue Morgue,
there are no traces of blood, only disfigured bodies and money in two bags… It is found the murders are committed by an animal in the second case.
Motives, do not matter at all, the interest is solely centered on the clues, the web of deduction that the detective weaves with them to catch the culprit. In The Gold Bug, a coded message in numerical figures and in The Dancing Men, the dancing figures scrawled on the window sill forms the path to the answer. The focus is on the mental capabilities, rather than violent action. It was simply that Poe’s ingenuity in finding subject matter that would do away with human interest was uninhabited. Poe should be given the credit of being unparalleled in his technique of allowing cerebral puzzle to form the entire story. He gives the reader every clue there is and invites him to active participation.
The thrill of detection and the exhibition of awesome powers of the mind were true to both their stories. The detective story today is a far cry from the ‘pure detection’ stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Today’s detective fiction lays much stress on the actual crime. Those were the days of amateur detective: today, in the age of professionalism, writers are forced to introduce the sensational crime to get attention to their detective stories.
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