19361 - It’s a Mystery to Me

Course Overview

Of recorded crime in 19th century London, petty theft accounted for 75%. Violent crimes accounted for only 10% of crime and murder was relatively rare. Despite this, it was murder that held the public’s imagination. Late at night through a fog-glazed window did you glimpse a figure carrying a knife? Was the creak of the floor outside your bedroom your death knell? Sensational crimes sold newspapers and titillated readers. People fixated on murder. They even toured actual crime sites to catch a glimpse of dried blood between the floorboards. Out of this fixation the mystery genre was born. Today, Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot come to mind. But the first fictional detective was actually created by an American. In 1841, Edgar Allen Poe introduced the eccentric and brilliant C. Auguste Dupin in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Join us for a class on murder and mayhem. Fictional, of course, because actual blood is so difficult to clean.