Monday, July 16, 2012

Mystery Short Stories Discussion

The next Book Club for Writers discussion will be held Thursday, July 26 and will feature two classic mystery short stories: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe and "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" by Arthur Conan Doyle. The discussion will begin at 7:00 PM at the library, and will be free and open to the public. Copies of the stories are available from the library in advance.

Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is often cited as the first detective story. Published in 1841 in Graham's Magazine, the tale introduces Auguste Dupin, a Parisian gentleman who solves a baffling double murder through observation and deduction. The story exhibits many of the characteristics that came to be associated with classic detective stories, including an eccentric but brilliant protagonist; a friend who acts as the story's narrator; and the concluding revelation of the solution to the mystery. Poe wrote only two further stories featuring Dupin.

Arthur Conan Doyle created one of the most famous detectives in literature, Sherlock Holmes, and "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" is one of the most popular of the Holmes stories. Set during the Christmas season, the tale features many familiar elements of the Holmes canon, including its London setting and the opening series of deductions by the "consulting detective." Conan Doyle wrote a total of fifty-six short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, but only four novels. "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" was an early story, first appearing in Strand Magazine in January 1892.

Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year. Discussions are open to all and focus particularly on questions of craft and technique that will interest writers and aspiring writers. Created by the New Hampshire Writers' Project, Book Club for Writers is sponsored locally by a fiction writing group that meets weekly at the Haverhill Corner Library.