The Murders in the Rue Morgue

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The Murders in the Rue Morgue (ca. 1920-1924) by Edgar Allen Poe ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I read The Murders in the Rue Morgue. This book is technically called The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales. It has two other Poe stories included, but we will only be talking about The Rue Morgue today. We will revisit this book and cover the others at a later date.

This short story was published in 1841 in Graham’s Magazine. My copy was published by The Little Leather Library Corporation, and it was published somewhere between 1920-1924. It is undated within the publication, but research shows that this is the correct date range. (1)

This short story was not at all what I was expecting. In fact, I would probably have put it down within the first couple pages if it hadn’t been for my mission to read everything on my shelves. Boy, am I sure glad that I pressed on! It starts out very dry and boring, but when the actual story begins to be told, I was relieved. It started getting better instantly.

Essentially, this is the first detective story, predating Sherlock Holmes by 46 years. Taking place in Paris, The Murders in the Rue Morgue is the well-written introduction of C. Auguste Dupin, master of deduction. Dupin, by his amazing skill of observation, solves two (extremely violent) murders of two women that have occurred at a house in Rue Morgue. As a native English speaker, and not knowing lots about the French language, I was surprised to learn that the murders were not actually done in a morgue, as in a place that dead people are kept. Rue Morgue is a fictional street that Poe created as the backdrop of his story.

As I said before, these murders are extremely grisly. I was struck by how gory the description of the bodies is! Poe paints a very vivid picture of what the two women looked like when they were found and how the crime scene looked when the police arrived.

Witnesses are questioned, but the police are at a loss. Honestly, everyone on the investigation force should be fired, because they miss a few key elements to the crime scene that helped Dupin solve it. If it weren’t for him, it would have most definitely gone unsolved.

I’m not telling you anything else. If you haven’t read this yet, read it! I know sometimes Poe can be an intimidating read due to all the hype around his work, but this one really is an easy-flowing read once you get past his introduction (which really isn’t exactly hard to read, either – It just wasn’t an attention-grabbing intro for me).

Like Sherlock Holmes? Love detective stories? It’s a must-read. I give it five stars —- and if you read it, you’ll see why. It’s on gutenberg.org. Go here and click on the story name.

Sources:

  1. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=lib_spc
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