The First Sherlock Holmes
Obviously there was one Sherlock Holmes and that was the character created by the British writer called Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887. But if we mean a character that used reasoning as his main tool to solve a mystery.
This character that preceded Sherlock Holmes was created by none other than Edgar Allan Poe and appeared for the first time in a story called The Murders in The Rue Morgue published in 1841. He was named C. Auguste Dupin, and it is the archetype of all detectives to come. He was a detective even before the word detective existed, and in the construction of this character and his world that you can see how much conan doyle took out of this character to create his Holmes. Dupin uses his intelect and his power for deducing things to get to the bottom of things. He is not rich but lives comfortably with a friend, again just like Holmes and Watson lived together, for a while. And again this friend, unnamed in the case of Dupin's, is the narrator of his stories just like Watson narrates most of Holmes's adventures. Also the Police of Paris where Dupin operates, defers to Dupin which also happens in Holmes's world where the Scotland Yard Police usually consults Holmes.
The case in The Murders... is considered the first detective story ever written, and it had connotations that made this story stand out, not only for the crimes and circumstances in which they were committed but also the murdere himself perhaps one of the most brutal murderers of all time and one of the most original ever imagined.
But that was Poe, the writer, always dark but always with an imagination so fertile it surprises even these days.
This character that preceded Sherlock Holmes was created by none other than Edgar Allan Poe and appeared for the first time in a story called The Murders in The Rue Morgue published in 1841. He was named C. Auguste Dupin, and it is the archetype of all detectives to come. He was a detective even before the word detective existed, and in the construction of this character and his world that you can see how much conan doyle took out of this character to create his Holmes. Dupin uses his intelect and his power for deducing things to get to the bottom of things. He is not rich but lives comfortably with a friend, again just like Holmes and Watson lived together, for a while. And again this friend, unnamed in the case of Dupin's, is the narrator of his stories just like Watson narrates most of Holmes's adventures. Also the Police of Paris where Dupin operates, defers to Dupin which also happens in Holmes's world where the Scotland Yard Police usually consults Holmes.
The case in The Murders... is considered the first detective story ever written, and it had connotations that made this story stand out, not only for the crimes and circumstances in which they were committed but also the murdere himself perhaps one of the most brutal murderers of all time and one of the most original ever imagined.
But that was Poe, the writer, always dark but always with an imagination so fertile it surprises even these days.
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