History of the Detective Novel
Perhaps the first crime writer was Cicero. He was born Marcus Tullius Cicero in Arpinum, a small town on the outskirts of Rome on January 3, 106 BC. As a young man in Rome his skill as an orator had already begun to grow. He began to plead cases in the public forum in his 20s, becoming well known in a very short period of time. By the time he was in his mid-30s he was the most recognised pleader at the Roman bar. A magistrate as well as a public speaker, at 42 he was elected Consul, Rome's highest office. His main skill, however was that he was a consummate writer as well as a statesman. His extensive writings included 58 speeches, about ten thousand pages of philosophy and rhetoric, and some eight hundred letters. He was perhaps most famous, however, for his speeches in the Roman courts and Senate. Since there were no newspapers or any form of organised news flow in Ancient Rome, these speeches took on tremendous importance, providing news for the public as well as entertainment. All of Cicero's speeches were copied, circulated, read, and reread. But undoubtedly the originator of the modern day detective story was Edgar Allan Poe. Although he is best know as a poet, he was also considered
In the last forty years another school of detective fiction has emerged, the police procedural. This school was mainly formed as a variation from the often extremist action and drama of the hard boiled detective genre, a compromise between the almost pacifist country house clue puzzle school and the action of the private eye school. His greatest contribution was the creation of his detective C. Auguste Dupin, who appeared in three of Poe's works. Dupin was the first character of his kind, a man who relied on his ability to observe and reason to solve crimes instead of merely waiting for the outcome or guessing. He first appeared in The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), in which he attempts to clear the name of a friend who is accused of murdering two women. The story features several traditional mystery elements like an apparently locked and impenetrable crime scene, Dupin's rather less intelligent but loyal assistant, and an unexpected plot twist leading to a surprise solution. Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins also presented works to this genre, but unfortunately Dickens contribution The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) was not completed before Dickens himself died, leaving the identity of the murderer a mystery. Collins's most known work is The Moonstone (1868), although Collins intended The Moonstone to be a literary experiment studying "the influence of character on circumstances"; the story is an excellent example of the mystery detective novel. Miss Marple is the best example of a sleuth in the country house clue puzzle, one who abhors violence and observes everything. She is imitated in most of the more modern novels in this sub genre.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Miss Marple, Maltese Falcon, Collins's Moonstone, Court Sick, Rue Morgue, Phillip Marlowe, Agatha Christie, Consul Rome's, Sam Spade, BC Rome, house clue, clue puzzle, hard boiled, house clue puzzle, country house clue, country house, miss marple, detective novel, sam spade, private eye, clue puzzle school, school detective, raymond chandler,
Approximate Word count = 1392
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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