Detective Poe

Throughout The Purloined Letter, I felt like I was reading a Sherlock Holmes episode. At first, I was outraged that Poe seemed to have ripped off Doyle. In class, I come to find out that Poe was somewhat of the father of the detective novel. Oops. Anyway, there were plenty of similar elements. There is an abnormally clever, snarky, pipe-smoking detective and the story is relayed from the perspective of a nerdy sidekick. The bumbling police officer seems to have come to the detective seeking help for other cases unsolved by the struggling police department. Furthermore, the case is one of the odd little Holmes-eque problems. Thanks Poe for inspiring a great genre.