Sorry folks but the honor of inventing both the first true mystery (story and poem) and detective story go to Edgar Allen Poe. While the British like to claim to be the originators of almost all types of literature and certainly have perfected some, they neither created nor perfected these two but they were the precursors of some. The first detective story was his "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" with August Dupon. There is some debate about the first detective but this was the first true detective story written in 1841, followed by "The Gold Bug" and "The Mystery of Marie Roget". Godwin and others had element of the detective stories but Poe pulled them all together. As for the first mystery story one can look at "The Fall of the House of Usher". Unlike the Gothic literature which has elements of the mysterious the are not true mysteries and all of the elements get explained rationally by the end. Now with the House of Usher we are left not knowing what was or was not real and what really caused the "fall". Many of Poe's stories leave us wondering, to quote another poet, "was it truth or illusion or . . ."* what? The true mystery leaves us wondering though more modern writers bow to modern readers who want answers. Even before he wrote the mystery story Poe wrote the mystery poems one need only look to "The Raven". Amy omst *The quotations is from Louis Untermeyer's "At the Bottom of the Well" ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 12:23 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Using Library Catalog System > You're welcome. Enjoy. > > Speaking of mysteries, The Moonstone, by Wilkie > Collins, is considered the first detective story--and > I think The Woman in White was the first mystery. > > I checked the collection--not only are both in the > collection--and in public domain so anyone can > download them--but there are lost of other books by > him that I didn't know about. I loved Woman in White > especially, but I enjoyed The Moonstone, too. Now that > I know about the othersm, I'll have to read some of > them and hope they're as good--although you'd think > we'd have heard more about them if they are good. > > Cindy > > --- Monica Willyard <plumlipstick@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> >> >Thanks Cindy and Shelley for your help. Cindy, >> your idea worked >> >like a charm. :D My library seems to have a much >> larger mystery >> >section than I knew about. They even have some of >> the classics I've >> >wanted to read for ages. I found out that I can >> put in a request >> >the day before, and the library staff will set >> aside the titles for >> >me. Now I won't have to spend quite so much time >> begging/cajoling >> >my mom into taking me there to get books. I'm a >> happy camper! >> >> >> >> Monica Willyard >> >> To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to >> bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >> put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject >> line. To get a list of available commands, put the >> word 'help' by itself in the subject line. >> >> > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to > bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of > available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. >