The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue represents the beginning of crime fiction. The mystery was first published in Graham's Magazine in 1841 and has been recognized as the first detective story. Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination." As the first fictional detective, Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. Dupin himself reappears in The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter.