Aristotle as a guide to writing detective stories: The Poetics in Melville Davisson Post and Dorothy L. Sayers’s literary theory

Abstract

Abstract In his 1994 study on Maupassant and the American Short Story, Richard Fusco mentions a small group of writers and critics, ‘hitherto generally ignored’, who have ‘attempted to apply Aristotelian techniques to the study of the short story’. Among these are two bestselling authors: Melville Davisson Post (1869–1930) and Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), both of whom published detailed studies demonstrating how Aristotle’s Poetics ‘laid down precisely how the short story’, and in particular the mystery story, ‘ought to be built up’. Using Aristotle both to criticize some highbrow literary tendencies of their day as well to inspire their own writing, Post and Sayers agree on the vast majority of the principles they find in the Poetics: in particular on the need for universal appeal, careful, structured plotting, a surprise ending and logical coherence in the plot. However, they disagree on how these principles may best be applied to the dénouement. Their own most successful stories, especially Post’s Uncle Abner Mysteries and Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg tales, may be seen to follow the Aristotelian theories they present, as do most of the stories included in Sayers’ famous anthologies. Finally, although their theories are little discussed today, it may be observed that many of the most famous short mystery stories in English do in fact follow the principles laid down by Post and Sayers and also that several creative writing courses, in universities and online, teach Aristotle’s Poetics as a guide to successful short story writing.