A SHERLOCKIAN ADVENTURE IN SERENDIPITY
(Page Three)

Edgar Allen Poe

But of even greater influence upon the Sherlock Holmes stories were three tales written by Edgar Allen Poe in the 1840s, three tales in which Poe single-handedly earned the title “Father of the Detective Story.” His detective, Chevalier Auguste Dupin, demonstrates his use of ratiocination in all three stories, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” and “The Purloined Letter.” Not only did Poe invent the genre, but in these short three stories, he laid out the protocol, the methods, the techniques and tricks, the science of deduction, that are used down to this day in all detective tales.

At this point in my serendipitous ramblings, I reached above my head for a book entitled The Mystery Writer’s Art, edited by Francis Nevins, which contains an essay by Robert Lowndes entitled, “The

Contributions of Edgar Allen Poe.” In this essay, Lowndes lists 32 elements that Poe inserted into one or more of his three seminal stories and which appear in subsequent tales of mystery.

How many of these elements, I wondered, appeared in BOSC? How many, indeed, relate to Sherlock Holmes? Let us see. Here are those that apply to BOSC or Holmes:

Dupin is a private citizen, neither presently nor formerly a policeman, nor associated with the police in their work — as is Holmes.

Dupin is an eccentric, with a genius for induction and deduction as applied to human behavior — as is Holmes.

We see Dupin through the eyes of a close friend and associate, whose capabilities are above average but lesser than Dupin’s — just as we see Holmes through Watson’s eyes.
Dupin is attracted by the extraordinary features of the crime in the Rue Morgue; ordinary crimes do not interest him — nor do they interest Holmes.

Several important clues are presented squarely to the reader in the initial accounts... what is important is that the reader is given a fair chance to see an essential part of the truth before the detective reveals it — Watson certainly tries to do so.

Dupin arranges to examine the scene of the crime with the consent of the police — a regular practice of Holmes.

Dupin considers police methods adequate for most crimes, which are committed by people with very little imagination. He is interested only in the unusual cases, for which routine methods are inadequate — we can almost hear Holmes’ voice saying this.

Dupin is spurred to solve the riddle of the Rue Morgue by the fact that a person of whose innocence he is certain has been arrested and charged with the murders — as does Holmes.

Dupin does not turn the guilty party over to the police after he has heard the whole story, a good deal of which he deduced — need I comment here?

Dupin presents just enough data to insure the release of the wrongly arrested gentleman — and on and on.

Indeed, Lowndes proclaims, if Poe had never written another Dupin story beyond the Rue Morgue, it would stand as a monument for everyone today who loves the puzzle type of mystery tale, wherein

the puzzle is solved by reason rather than by physical violence and the reader is given the clues he needs to solve the puzzle himself if he is astute enough.

All of this information picked up by simply wondering if the island of Bermuda has any canonical references! And yet there is more, more than I can tell you about in the time allotted me. For example, did you know that the Sherlock Holmes stories were the first to appear in the popular magazines in serial fashion yet in a manner that allowed them to be read independently of all those that had come before? Up until their appearance, serial stores were sequential, requiring for an appreciation of any one segment a knowledge of what had taken place before. Not so the short stories of the Master. As you well know, each can stand alone. True, we receive more information about Holmes and Watson and the others in the canon as we read more and more of the adventures. But any one tale can be read and enjoyed independently.