Alquin Detective stories Edgar Allan Poe Sherlock Holmes

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

End 19th century: 

Scientific development ->

Readers wanted intellectual 

challenge : 

• psychological novel
• detective stories
• science fiction

formula: striking personalities 

undertaking spectacular adventures 

against a picturesque backdrop. 

Detective story: 

• mysterious event / crime (murder)
• Detective: intuitive investigative skills + scientifically sound conclusions
• all the details need to be in the story
• competition between detective and reader
• not literature, just for pleasure
• Edgar Allan Poe: The Murders of Rue Morgue 

Edgar Allan Poe

 1809 – 1849

American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre.

www.netflix.com

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

• poor background, father alcoholic
• strict Catholic school
• studied medicine
• Friend Dr Bell: similarities with Holmes. 
• adventurous life (ship surgeon, whale ship, Boer War)
• After death of his son: spiritism and paranormal to make contact with his deceased relatives. 

Sherlock Holmes 

• combination of razor-sharp detective (Sherlock) and less bright colleague (Dr Watson). 
• Doyle had enough of Sherlock: lets him die in a waterfall (The final problem) but was pressured to let Holmes survive the fall. 
• best known: 

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)

Bonus Material

In the next website you can read about the unidentified killer known as Jack the Ripper who murdered a series of women in the Whitechapel area of London during 1888 and his influence on late-Victorian literature.

www.bl.uk