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VOGUE OF THE “THRILLER”
From Horace Walpole to Edgar Wallace—and After
People of all times have asked for exciting stories, whether they were told or written. Horace Walpole set a model for terror tales of a new type by writing in the 18th century the “Gothic” romance “The Castle of Otranto.” He had many imitators among writers in Germany, France, and England. Edgar Allan Poe developed the story of mystery in a new way by introducing the detection of crime in such tales as “The Mystery of Marie Roget.” His French detective, Dupin, was undoubtedly one of the ancestors of Sherlock Holmes.
Dickens treated of detective work in his records of Inspector Bucket and in “Hunted Down”; but it was a younger novelist of that time, Wilkie Collins, who invented a new variety of crime story, letti
