C. Auguste Dupin implies "duping" or deception, a skill Dupin shows off in "The Purloined Letter." Detective fiction, however, had no real precedent and the word "detective" had not yet been coined when Poe first introduced Dupin. The closest example in fiction is Voltaire's "Zadig" (1748), in which the main character performs similar feats of analysis, themselves borrowed from "The Three Princes of Serendip", an Italian rendition of Amir Khusrau's Hasht Bihisht. In writing the series of Dupin tales, Poe capitalized on contemporary popular interest. His use of an orangutan in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" was inspired by the popular reaction
André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin "Principia Juris Civilis", 5 vols. (1806); "Mémoires et plaidoyers de 1800 au 1ier janvier 1830", in 20 vols.; and "Mémoires ou souvenirs du barreau", in 4 vols. (1855–1857). His brother, Pierre Charles François Dupin, was a mathematician. André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin (1 February 17838 November 1865), commonly called Dupin the Elder, was a French advocate, president of the chamber of deputies and of the Legislative Assembly. Dupin was born at Varzy, in the Nièvre "département", in France. He was educated by his father, who was a lawyer of eminence, and at an early age