Edgar Allan Poe as the Father of the Modern Mystery - Essay Example

Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) has been regarded as the father of the modern mystery and he has been effective in the use of the tools of writing a mystery story to make his stories memorable. As a pioneer in the genre of mystery, Poe wrote several important stories of mystery including “The Gold-Bug”, the three Dupin tales, “Thou Art The Man” and “The Oblong Box”. Poe has been a master in using the right tools and elements of writing a mystery story including a series of clues, series of false clues, atmosphere, something to be solved etc.

Thus, “both “The Spectacles”, and “The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether” share much of the form of mystery tales, with surprise solutions hinted at through clues in the stories, and many scenes and incidents having two meanings, one surface, one hidden and revealed at the end, even though neither has a detective or an explicit puzzle to solve.” (Edgar Allan Poe: The Mysteries) Throughout his mystery stories, Poe developed the tools of writing a mystery story and perfected them for the following writers to use.

Written during a relatively short period, i.e. 1841 – 1844, most of Poe’s mystery stories were instrumental in the development of the tools of writing a mystery story and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), which is the most important of Poe’s mystery stories, exhibits the greatness of his skills and techniques of writing stories of the genre. Thus, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” has set the form of all subsequent mystery fiction. It is widely recognized that “Edgar Allan Poe was a master at writing mystery and horror stories.

” (Marks, 245) Therefore, Poe has been the most important writer of the genre of mystery story and has effectively employed various tools of writing a mystery story including surprise solutions hinted at through clues, explicit puzzles to solve etc. Works Cited “Edgar Allan Poe: The Mysteries.” 14 Sept 2009. . Marks, Diana F. Children's book award handbook. Libraries Unlimited. 2006. P 245.