Holmes and Dupin, Poe and Doyle

Paper Summary:

The paper identifies Poe as the inventor of the genre of detective fiction, with his character C. Auguste Dupin, who was introduced in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". The paper compares Dupin's character with that of Sherlock Holmes, as Holmes is described by creator Doyle in "The Hound of the Baskervilles", and notes many similarities between the two fictional detectives. It then analyzes the claim that Sherlock Holmes was based on the real life doctor Joseph Bell, with whom Doyle was well acquainted. After returning to a comparison of Dupin and Holmes, the paper reviews the first person narrator of the Holmes stories, Dr. John Watson, and concludes that Doyle did not base his detective on Poe's work. The paper also reviews other early detective novels, going back to the Greek Herodotus and returning to 19th century Europe and America, before resuming its comparison of Poe and Doyle and finding the former to be a better writer. The paper quotes various Holmes stories, and discusses adaptations of those stories to stage and screen, noting Holmes' incredible popularity and lamenting the lack of same for Dupin. In conclusion, the paper finds Holmes to be Dupin's spiritual successor, if not actually drawn on him, and finds the similarities to be, in Holmes' words, "Elementary!"

From the Paper:

"In fashioning the detective story, Poe eschewed the very ideal of most writers that truth is not necessarily the object of literature. Truth was very much the object in the short stories of C. Auguste Dupin. So why do critics say that Poe "invented" the detective story? Surely, there were detectives working prior to 1841, and surely, some of the stories before Poe had been about crime and criminals. The reasons given include the creation of classic rules of detective fiction that has survived through Doyle and Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, the two men who write under the name Ellery Queen, to Dashiell Hammett and even Mickey Spillane."

More papers on Holmes and Dupin, Poe and Doyle:

• Analytical Essay # 111978 : "Edgar Allan Poe's Detective Stories"
• Analytical Essay # 68178 : "Mystery and Detective Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 8466 : "Sherlock Holmes - the Man and his Enemies"

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