2.2.2 The Transition from Sensibility to Rationality 4

2.2.3 The Combination of Sensibility and Rationality 5

3. A perceptual detective: The study of the characters in Poe's detective novels 6

3.1 Sensibility: The Round Characters—Mainly on Detective Dupin 6

3.1.1 Dupin's Eccentric Personality 6

3.1.2 Dupin's Vengeance Consciousness 6

3.1.3 Dignified Reason behind the Emotion 7

3.2 Personality: Arrogant, Unfortunate, Accomplished 7

3.2.1 Arrogant Heart and Unfortunate Life 7

3.2.2 Accomplish the Dream 8

4. Conclusion 9

References 10

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction of the Detective Novels

Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—either professional or amateur—investigates a crime, often murder. All of its structure, plot, characters, and even the environment have the certain pattern and the program, so it is also a kind of stylized literature.

Detective novel started from the middle of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the capitalism had been established, bourgeois democracy had been developing, the church and state had been separated, the police system had been gradually established. Under that background, the detective novel showed up. Nowadays, the detective fiction, as one kind of the important contemporary novels, has its large reading public. While its development has experienced a long period. Generally speaking, the first detective fiction is believed to be the "Murders in the Rue Morgue" in 1841, written by Edgar Allan Poe, featuring "the first fictional detective, the eccentric and brilliant C. Auguste Dupin". The creation of Dupin creates a truly typical representative of the detective novel and lets Poe's works become an essential element in the study. With the development of detective fiction, excellent novels and distinctive personalities are emerging all the time. Through the history of novel's development, detectives novels have been developing their own characteristics. These novels have different names: detective fiction is called in Britain; Gong'an novel in China for old form of Ming-Qing dynasty; and modern ethic detective novel in Japan. .

1.2 Edgar Allan Poe and his Detective Novels

Edgar Allan Poe had a penniless and frustrated life and had tasted the pains trouble. No matter in the time of before or after his death, he had not been attached enough importance to as he deserves. People had mixed reviews towards his works. Ralph Waldo Emerson called him "poetaster", Mark Twain said that his word is not worth reading. However, in the other shore of the ocean, his works has been enjoying with a high reputation, the British writer Winborne, Bernard Shaw and others all admired for his genius achievement of compliments. The French famous poet Lyle regarded Poe as the most holy. His achievements were not recognized by the United States until the 20th century, the critics started to have a high opinion of Edgar Allan Poe and think Poe holds the immortal status in western literature.

Edgar Allan Poe, the father of the detective story, was one of the literary genius in the 19th century in America. His early works were of poetry, and then he started writing novels which were conducive to the formation of detective fiction and had a profound influence on American literature. And he was known as one of the three major US horror novelists with Ambrose Ruth Bull (1842-1914) and HP Lovecraft (1890-1937). The Allan Poe’s Mode which was followed by many authors afterwards and Poe himself had made great contribution to such subgenre of fiction. Although Poe was American, his detective novels are popular all over the world.