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    Crime Mystery Detective Stories

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    Analia Aviazzi
    This document summarizes the history and evolution of the crime-mystery-detective story genre. It traces the origins of the modern genre back to Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story featuring C. Auguste Dupin, and credits Arthur Conan Doyle with creating the archetype of the detective-hero in his Sherlock Holmes stories. The genre developed in the early 20th century into classical and hard-boiled styles, represented by British and American authors respectively. It continues to diversify with stories from minority and LGBTQ authors featuring diverse protagonists.

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    Crime Mystery Detective Stories

    Uploaded by

    Analia Aviazzi
    953 views2 pages
    This document summarizes the history and evolution of the crime-mystery-detective story genre. It traces the origins of the modern genre back to Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story featuring C. Auguste Dupin, and credits Arthur Conan Doyle with creating the archetype of the detective-hero in his Sherlock Holmes stories. The genre developed in the early 20th century into classical and hard-boiled styles, represented by British and American authors respectively. It continues to diversify with stories from minority and LGBTQ authors featuring diverse protagonists.

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    This document summarizes the history and evolution of the crime-mystery-detective story genre. It traces the origins of the modern genre back to Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story featuring C. Auguste Dupin, and credits Arthur Conan Doyle with creating the archetype of the detective-hero in his Sherlock Holmes stories. The genre developed in the early 20th century into classical and hard-boiled styles, represented by British and American authors respectively. It continues to diversify with stories from minority and LGBTQ authors featuring diverse protagonists.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    953 views2 pages

    Crime Mystery Detective Stories

    Uploaded by

    Analia Aviazzi
    This document summarizes the history and evolution of the crime-mystery-detective story genre. It traces the origins of the modern genre back to Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story featuring C. Auguste Dupin, and credits Arthur Conan Doyle with creating the archetype of the detective-hero in his Sherlock Holmes stories. The genre developed in the early 20th century into classical and hard-boiled styles, represented by British and American authors respectively. It continues to diversify with stories from minority and LGBTQ authors featuring diverse protagonists.

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    Crime-Mystery-Detective Stories

    The following entry presents criticism on crime, mystery, and detective


    short fiction in world literature.

    Mystery Story: Fictional work detailing evidence related to a crime or


    mysterious event in such a fashion as to allow the reader an opportunity
    to solve the problem, the author's solution being the final phase of the
    story. Detective Story: Popular literature focusing on the step-by-step
    investigation and solution of a crime. Source: Merriam-Webster's
    Encyclopedia of Literature, 1995.

    The crime-mystery-detective story has been a popular genre of fiction for


    many years. These stories follow the exploits of an amateur or
    professional detective as he or she solves a crime by interrogating
    suspects, investigating clues, and tracking down criminals. Commentators
    trace the enduring appeal of crime-mystery-detective fiction to its
    fascinating protagonists, exciting and often ingenious plots, the fight
    between good and evil, and the satisfaction of solving crimes. Although
    critics debate its exact origins, most agree that the birth of the modern
    crime-mystery-detective story can be traced back to the 1841 publication
    of the short story Murders in the Rue Morgue, written by the American
    author Edgar Allan Poe. In this story, Poe introduced the detective
    Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, who solves a series of murders through
    methods of logical reasoning referred to by Poe as ratiocination. Dupin's
    scientific method of investigation as well as his eccentric personal habits
    became the model for most crime-mystery-detective writers that followed.
    While Poe is generally considered to be the inventor of the modern crime-
    mystery-detective story, British author Arthur Conan Doyle is credited with
    creating the prototype of the detective-hero that was to remain dominant
    throughout the twentieth century. Doyle created perhaps the best-known
    and best-loved hero of the genre, Sherlock Holmes, who first appeared in
    the novel A Study in Scarlet in 1887. His first short story featuring Holmes
    was published in 1891, and was followed by a series of short story
    collections featuring Holmes and his loyal friend, Dr. John Watson. The
    Holmes series proved incredibly popular and exerted a profound influence
    on the genre.

    During the first half of the twentieth century, sometimes referred to as the
    golden age of the crime-mystery-detective story, the genre evolved along
    two distinct lines: the classical and hard-boiled styles. The classical style
    is represented by several English authors whose stories revolve around
    their lovable amateur detective-heroes: G. K. Chesterton and his
    protagonist, the detective-priest Father Brown; Dorothy Sayers and her
    aristocratic sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey; and Agatha Christie, who created
    two detective-heroes, Miss Jane Marple and detective Hercule Poirot.
    These stories feature highly complex and ingenious mysteries that are
    solved by methodical and clever detective work. The hard-boiled crime-
    mystery-detective story, in contrast to the classical style, was developed
    by American authors who made their careers publishing short stories in
    the popular pulp fiction magazines. The hard-boiled detective-hero differs
    from the classic detective-hero in his rough, urban, working-class milieu,
    his predilection for physical violence, and his distinctive narrative voice
    characterized by tough, masculine tones. Black Mask was the most
    influential pulp magazine in developing the hard-boiled style. It is
    remembered for publishing many classic short crime-mystery-detective
    stories by authors whose names have become synonymous with the
    genre, such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. As the
    popularity of pulp magazines decreased around the time of World War II,
    police procedurals gained popularity. These stories focused on actual
    police work and featured fallible, ordinary police detectives who solve
    crimes.

    In recent decades, the crime-mystery-detective genre has diversified,


    featuring stories written by minority, gay and lesbian, and feminist
    authors. This diversity is also reflected in the protagonists of these
    stories; recent crime-mystery-detective fiction has included African
    American, Native American, Jewish, and gay and lesbian detective-
    heroes. Although the novel continues to be the dominant medium of the
    crime-mystery-detective narrative, short stories by these contemporary
    authors may be found in numerous anthologies of the genre published
    during the 1990s and early 2000s.

    http://www.enotes.com/topics/crime-mystery-detective-stories

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