The Murders in the Rue Morgue

By Edgar Allan Poe

Book Overview

Edited and with an Introduction by Matthew Pearl
Includes "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Mystery of Marie Rog t," and "The Purloined Letter"

Between 1841 and 1844, Edgar Allan Poe invented the genre of detective fiction with three mesmerizing stories of a young French eccentric named C. Auguste Dupin. Introducing to literature the concept of applying reason to solving crime, these tales brought Poe fame and fortune. Years later, Dorothy Sayers would describe "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" as "almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice." Indeed, Poe's short mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes. Today, the unique Dupin stories still stand out as utterly engrossing page-turners.

Includes a Modern Library Reading Group Guide

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679643427
• ISBN13: 9780679643425
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Modern Library
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Terrific edition

Edgar Allan Poe is a mainstay of American literature studies, particularly for high school and college survey courses, but it is three of his seventy-two short stories that retain broader interest and are variously credited with inventing detective fiction and influencing the development of 19th century criminology. The three stories featuring Poe's Parisian detective Auguste Dupin, produced 1841 - 1844, are conveniently collected in this edition that comes with some bonus features not easily found elsewhere as well as suggested questions for book clubs. The three stories are "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Murder of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter." For someone who burned through the Poe canon a few decades ago, the return to reading him in this collection was a fresh pleasure. He really does lay out the principles and conventions of detective fiction that have been well honored into the 21st century, not only on the page but now the screen as well. Recent nonfiction books, "The Beautiful Cigar Girl," about the case that inspired "Marie Roget," and "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" cite Poe's founding contributions to fiction, criminology and the rise of popular "detective fever." Editor Matthew Pearl, author of the novel "The Poe Shadow," offers a so-so critical introduction but outdoes himself in digging up three precursors that may have been among Poe's own reading. The first is a chapter from Voltaire's "Zadig," featuring a character's observant powers that solve a crime, but this being Voltaire, all that virtue gets him in trouble. The second is an excerpt from the memoir of Eugene-Francois Vidocq, who was something of a French domestic spy. The last is a selection from William Leggett's 1829 "Tales and Sketches," a tale of justice vs. truth on the American frontier . Leggett is visible at best these days as a footnote and only his political writings remain available in print, so kudos to Pearl for finding this. None of these precursors took the notions of problem solving to the philosophical and psychological depths Poe did. He really does earn the mantle of genre patriarch. In the parade of fictional detectives who follow, from Sherlock Holmes to Gil Grissom, you can see the Poe in these stories shining through.

Murders and letters

Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his poetry ("Quoth the raven...") and his tales of the macabre. But he has a lesser-known claim to fame -- the prototypical detective stories, predating Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Though only three stories about C. Auguste Dupin were written, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales" compiles all three of them, with their baffling answers and armchair detection. These weren't the first detective tales, but they set the mold for the mysteries that followed. We're introduced to Dupin through his pal/roommate, in "Murders in the Rue Morgue." He's impoverished but of an old family, and lives in a crumbling, gothic mansion full of his books. But his mind is sharper than anyone around him, based on the logical process of "ratiocination." In this mystery, Dupin learns of a bizarre mystery, where an apartment was found almost destroyed but nothing was stolen. An old lady is found outside with her head hacked off with a razor, and her daughter is found throttled and stuffed upside-down in a chimney, with locks of her hair pulled out. No motive, and no suspects. The police are baffled -- but Dupin isn't. Based on a real crime, "The Mystery of Marie Roget" opens with the death of a popular young woman, who is later found floating in the river. By reading different newspaper reports, Dupin chronicles the peculiarities of the crime, and debunks the many assumptions that were made about the crime -- how many assailants, where, when, and so on. "The Purloined Letter" has a somewhat less gruesome crime. The prefect of police is meeting with Dupin, with a very important matter to discuss -- a compromising letter of the Queen's was stolen in front of her eyes, and now the Minister is blackmailing her with it. The police have searched the Minister's apartment from top to bottom, but there's no sign of the letter. Only Dupin knows where to find it. These stories are are not only the roots of detective fiction, but staggeringly good reads as well. Poe -- who reportedly made Dupin the sort of logical, cool person he wanted to be -- crammed a whole novel's worth of detecting into each short story, and made even the weirdest answers (a monkey?) seem plausible. Unlike Poe's other works, these are made up mostly of deduction and dialogue, though Poe does get in some wonderful lines about the shared mansion ("... in a style which suited the rather fantastic gloom of our common temper, a time-eaten and grotesque mansion"). And while the dialogue seems rather dry at first, as it unfolds, the intricacies of each bizarre plot become clear. You could say that the one flaw of these stories is that they don't offer much insight into the characters. We don't know much about Dupin, except that he's an impoverished noble with a vast collection of books. But the stories are really about Dupin's logical deductions rather than the character himself, and how any baffling case could be solved if you just had enough clues and a cl

Greatest mysteries ever

I've read "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter", but have yet to read "The Mystery of Marie Roget". I WILL be buying this book. I can safely say that "...Rue Morgue" is the first detective story ever. Without it there'd be no Sherlock Holmes. Poe's eye for logic and detail is astounding. Unfortunately, I knew who committed the Rue Morgue murders before reading the story, but it was still suspenseful and BELIEVABLE. "The Purloined Letter" is equally impressive. Again Poe's meticulousness makes this story airtight. He left no stone unturned in writing it. Cannot wait to read "...Marie Roget". If you love mysteries, buy this. It's where it all began.