The archetypal detective in fiction

Edgar Allan Poe is not merely a progenitor of the Gothic form of Novel; but known more importantly as a creator of the genius, philosophic and poetic detective in C. Auguste Dupin. Dupin appears in three short stories that Poe wrote between the years 1841-45; and in each of those he sets the tone for writers like Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie to etch characters that have a little trace of Dupin rubbed into them.. In fact when Poe wrote the Dupin stories, the term "Detective' was not yet a part of the language. It was a later addition. To Poe - Dupin was merely a keen observer of Human nature, and a man who possessed an incisive and uncanny reasoning capacity to resolve knotty issues.

The problem with Poe’s Dupin is that he ends up becoming a mere mouth-piece of the author’s philosophic ruminations on Human depravity and nature of evil. Poe’s fascination with the morbid is legendary (Who can forget his undiluted caricature of evil in “The pit and the pendulum?). Dupin is never given a chance to develop as a character. In my opinion, the reason why Sherlock Holmes is admired, loved and revered the world over is simply because  Conan Doyle gave him fifty six short stories and four full-length novels to grow, evolve and become a part of the readers psyche. Also, Sir Doyle was a better writer than Poe. The terse, gloomy and often dense structure of a Poe story was no match to the fluent prose and finesse of Sherlock Holmes tale. Hence in the annals of literature Holmes became a better detective- widely loved; and Dupin was relegated to the miniscule circle of readers who call themselves connoisseurs. But all said and done, it is an undeniable fact that Poe’s Dupin stories were the precursor of the Modern mystery novel.

There is a reason why I am writing this essay today. And the reason is this: - of late, I have taken to listening to audio books of my favorite English classics. With my current work, reading and writing schedules, I have little time left to revisit those golden oldies which have nourished me into becoming a lover of literature; and so, I have gotten into a routine of listening to books during my work-out on the treadmill in the mornings. It gives me a good thirty to forty five minutes of undivided listening time. Over the last few days, it has been the short stories of Poe that have kept me company, and today I happened to listen to a dramatized version of Dupin’s finest detective adventure “The Purloined letter”. No other story of Dupin exhibits the superior qualities of Human observation and reasoning than this. In it Poe achieved his goal of portraying a man who can look through the deviousness of a persona by empathizing with them; thinking like them, and looking beyond the narrowed grooves of habitual patterns. I wonder how many of my readers have had the opportunity to read this short story. If you have not, I request, urge you to get hold of it as quickly as possible.

It is a very simple tale of a stolen letter held by a French Minister of high esteem. He is a mathematician and a poet; hence can think rigorously and be creatively imaginative at the same time - a potentially explosive confluence of traits. A member of the royalty is to be held ransom on the basis of this letter, and right from the outset, we know that this contentious piece of paper is in the possession of the Minister, hidden somewhere in his establishment and Home. A structured search by the secret police yields nothing. Every square inch of his home, office, wardrobe is disturbed to find a semblance of evidence. Nothing!!!. And that is when Dupin takes over the mystery. What follows is a masterpiece of reasoning and a deep philosophical truth that emanates from it.

It is not my intention to give away the story, but merely to set the stage. Read it, if you wish to... The point I wanted to bring out in this essay is that oftentimes, we forget to realize the immense debt that we owe to a period of history or to a person, for bringing about a new perspective, a fresh dimension to an art form or science. I would not want to speculate on whether Edgar Allan Poe consciously created this genre of Mystery and crime -  probably not; but the thrust and the traction that he provided in Dupin , has without doubt percolated, oozed into every single detective character, in some form or the other for the last two hundred years.

And for that Literature will forever cherish his name.

God bless..