Gentleman detective shares some features with the later gentleman detective. He was "…the first fictional detective of importance and the model for virtually every cerebral crime solver who followed." More specifically, Dorothy L. Sayers noted that "Sherlock Holmes modelled himself to a large extent upon (Poe's) Dupin, substituting cocaine for candlelight, with accompaniments of shag and fiddle-playing." Dupin is French, not English, but is probably a "gentleman". He comes from a once wealthy family but has been reduced "by a variety of untoward events" to more humble circumstances. He is entirely amateur and contents himself only with the basic necessities of life.
Louis Ellies Dupin Louis Ellies Dupin Louis Ellies du Pin, or Dupin (17 June 1657 – 6 June 1719) was a French ecclesiastical historian, who was responsible for the "Nouvelle bibliothèque des auteurs ecclésiastiques " Dupin was born at Paris, coming from a noble family of Normandy. His mother, a Vitart, was the niece of Marie des Moulins, grandmother of the poet Jean Racine. When ten years old he entered the college of Harcourt, where he graduated M.A. in 1672. At the age of twenty Dupin accompanied Racine, who made a visit to Nicole for the purpose of becoming reconciled to the gentlemen