Game Theory and Poe's Detective Stories and Life

Regis Deloche and Fabienne Oguer
Additional contact information
Fabienne Oguer: Universite de Franche-Comte

Eastern Economic Journal, 2006, vol. 32, issue 1, pages 97-110

Abstract: Both Poe and Dupin, the detective character created by Poe, think like game theorists. The goal of this paper is to prove this conjecture. First, we show that each one of the three Dupin stories is filled with ratiocination that can be modeled according to game theory. Second, we briefly elaborate on the bargaining game that is lurking beneath the Poe’s whole trilogy. Third, we show that two very important decisions of Poe - as a young man, he left his foster father’s home; as a forty-year-old man, he took and published a temperance oath - are consistent with game-theoretic behavior.

Date: 2006
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://college.holycross.edu/eej/Volume32/V32N1P97_110.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eej:eeconj:v:32:y:2006:i:1:p:97-110

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Dr. Mary H. Lesser, Department of Economics, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY 10801-1890
http://www.iona.edu/eea/publications/subandmem.htm

Access Statistics for this article

Eastern Economic Journal is edited by Wesleyan University Joyce Jacobsen and Wesleyan University Gilbert L. Skillman

More articles in Eastern Economic Journal from Eastern Economic Association
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Victor Matheson, College of the Holy Cross ().