Nakrotor

A Brief History of Detective Fiction Detective fiction has not changed much since its inception. This essay will provide a brief history of the genre and an overview of how to distinguish between the styles. Detective fiction is a distinctly modern creation linked to the development of the legal process; detectives follow clues which lead to evidence, and ultimately a presentation of their case before the law. Solving the crime works to reinstate a social order that believes murder occurs for a determinate number of reasons: passion, money, madness, and that each can be solved by rational, scientific thought. The First Detective Story The first detective story is widely considered to be Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) and his creation C. Auguste Dupin is still the model for the detective that dominates mystery writing to this day. Dupin’s eccentric personality and his relationship to his two foils (the nameless and naïve narrator and the professional...