A History of Mysteries

MYSTERIESA HISTORY OF A collection of actors who have played Sherlock Holmes on film. Photo Credit: The Strand.

While stories of murder, tragedy, and unraveling of truth are as old as stories themselves, the mystery novel as we now know it is a fairly recent invention. Many credit the origins of mystery novels with the advent of organized police forces in countries around the world, which inspired writers to create tales where pieces of evidence were brought together in a solution to the crime. Many credit Edgar Allan Poe with writing the first detective mysteries in the mid-1800s with the publication of his stories “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” (1842-43), and “The Purloined Letter” (1844). Poe’s protagonist, C. Auguste Dupin, has many characteristics that came to be hallmarks of fictional detectives: quirkiness, astute observational skills, high intelligence, a disconnection from “normal” society, and a penchant for focusing on seemingly meaningless minutiae. Even though these stories are short, they created a framework for detective stories for years to come. Other early genre writers included Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone, 1868), Charles Dickens (Bleak House, 1853), and Anna Catherine Green (The Leavenworth Case, 1978).

Mystery and detective fiction gained popularity in the ensuing years after Poe’s Dupin stories were published. Stories inspired by real events were the hallmark of the Pinkerton Detective Series, a popular set of novels published in the latter half of the 19th century. The Pinkerton stories had influence on the writing of other purveyors of the genre such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain. Dime novels also became a popular form of mystery entertainment, especially among adolescents.

The second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th featured an explosion of the mystery genre. In addition to the male authors in the genre, many female mystery writers came to the forefront, breaking barriers and using female sleuths and criminals who were derived from social movements of the times. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle invented perhaps the most famous detective of all time during this period, Sherlock Holmes, who has appeared in many iterations since his first appearance in print in 1887.

As the genre moved into the 1920s and the era of Agatha Christie, it began a golden age of the mystery novel. Writers were prolific and their works spanned both the traditional mystery and the newer private eye novel, with the time between the two World Wars being a high point for the world of mystery writing.

With the advent of the Cold War, mystery novels fell out of favor in the wake of the rise of the spy novel. As the 20th century progressed, the traditional and private eye mysteries have come back into the spotlight from the 1980s to today. The mystery genre has evolved and changed over the almost 200 years since Auguste Dupin first solved the Rue Morgue murders, but it endures because readers can’t seem to stop wanting to know whodunit.