One of the first modern detective stories, this – and ‘The Purloined Letter’ – clearly influenced Conan Doyle in his creation of Sherlock Holmes (who, in the first novel in which he appears, refers to Poe’s fictional detective, C. Like ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, this is a story about guilt and remorse, and an interesting and ambiguous take on the ghost story. Thereafter, he will be ‘haunted’ by the cat – and his life is about the get much, much worse. If that isn’t horrific enough, the narrator, a violent alcoholic, then hangs the cat from a tree in his garden. He manages to see what the police failed to see – but to say more than that would be to reveal too much, so go in search of the missing letter here.Ī terrifying tale narrated by a man who drunkenly maims his pet black cat by gauging out one of its eyes (!). The police cannot find the letter in the blackmailer’s apartment, although they know it must be there somewhere – so Dupin, the independent detective, is consulted. It is a theme that countless later writers of detective fiction, notably Conan Doyle, would utilise and adapt. This story centres on an indiscreet love letter, which has been stolen in order to be used for blackmailing purposes. This is one of the first ever detective stories and, like ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, features the literary inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, C.

Edgar allan poe gothic literature