THE DETECTIVE STORY

THE DETECTIVE STORY

Is a narrative involving a murder case or a mystery that is successfully solved; it is something called a "whudunnit" (who done it) because its main aim is to involve the reader in the investigation.

The beginning of the detective story can be trace back to Poe's "Tales of ratiocination". He created a sort of formula to make a detective story:

The detective story must have:

a crime

the detective investigation

the hypotheses

the final solution

the stock characters

a policeman

an urban setting

Arthur Conan Doyle the creator of Sherlock Holmes adopted Poe's recipe

Doyle made the plots of his stories more sophisticated; while keeping to the urban environment, he sometimes introduced some exotic elements

EDGARD ALLAN POE

LIFE

He was an American writer

He was born in Boston in 1809 and his father was an actor and an alcoholic  and he left his family. His mother died when he was a child so a family adopted him. In 1827 went to study in the university of Virginia but after a few months he left the academy and he went to Boston. Here he published his first collection of poem but he didn't receive a lot of money because they didn't sell well. He went to Baltimore in the house of his aunt Maria. Here he fell in love with his cousin Virginia. In the 1836 he married her even if she was 13 and he was 27. in the 1847 Virginia died and Poe started to be an alcoholic because he was lonely. In the 1849 he died in Baltimore in the street.

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859.He attended the Jesuit college after he studied medicine. He read a lot of Edgar Allan Poe ' s stories and start to write. In the 1886 he wrote a story with a detective was the protagonist; the detective is Sherlock Holmes. Doyle showed interest in history in fact he wrote an historical novel of "Micah Clarke". He died in 1930

SHERLOCK HOLMES

He was first saw in "a study in scarlet". In the story there is an introduction of the detective: he was calm, detached, he got up early, he played violin end smoked a pipe. In the story appears his friend Dr Watson who was a medical doctor. Holmes and Watson shares the same house at Baker Street in London.

Holmes to solve a case at first collects (takes) information, makes first hypothesis, than he investigates and in the end he sets up an experiment.

The police is inefficient in contrast to him

Holmes is a private detective and he is the stereotype of an English Victorian middle class; he is conformist in his habits and in his way of dressing. He isn't very rich person because he must share his house with Dr Watson.

Doyle decide to kill Holmes during one of his struggles with his mortal enemy Dr Moriarty in Switzerland but the writer received several letters of abuse and he was obliged to revive him in "the hound of the baskervilles"

DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE

The story toke origin in a dream: Stevenson wrote in his diary that he had dreamed a man in laboratory who had swallowed a drug and turned into a different being. Most scenes take places in the night and in the darkness. We have a double nature of England and Scotland: Edinburgh is a new town with his wide squares; old town with crime. London have the respectable west end and the poverty of east end slums.

The main characters are Jakyll and Mr Hyde. Jekyll has a virtuous life, he is handsome. has a larger body, white hands and he represents the middle class; he is curious. is link with Frankenstein.

Hyde is pale, has dark hands and he spends his time in the slums(the dark part of London).

In the story there are 4 narrators :

- Jakyll : explain the final confession

Enfield : has a strange relationship with Utterson that is a distant relative

Utterson :role of a detective link with Sherlock Holmes for his method of hypotheses

Lanyon : superficial, Goodman, he is a mirror for Jekyll

This novel is a reflection of the psychological search and Jekyll's discoveries symbolize the artist's journey into unexplored region of the human psyche. Inspiration for descriptions of Hyde from Darwin, he has a small stature because his body isn't exercised