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    The Murders in the Rue Morgue
    The Murders in the Rue Morgue
    The Murders in the Rue Morgue
    Ebook52 pages1 hour

    The Murders in the Rue Morgue

    By Edgar Allan Poe

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    About this ebook

    First published in a 1841 edition of Graham's Magazine, The Murders in the Rue Morgue is often cited as the first modern detective story. The first of three stories to center around C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional detective, The Murders in the Rue Morgue involves Dupin's investigation of the baffling murders of a mother and daughter. Witnesses report having heard two voices, one French and one unintelligible during the crime. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human. Establishing many of the tropes that would later become common to detective fiction, the story begins with an explanation of Dupin's theory of ratiocination, a concept which greatly influenced the creation of detective fiction itself and other great detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media
    Release dateJul 25, 2017
    ISBN9781974995271
    Author

    Edgar Allan Poe

    New York Times bestselling author Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, with appointments at the Fuqua School of Business, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Department of Economics. He has also held a visiting professorship at MIT’s Media Lab. He has appeared on CNN and CNBC, and is a regular commentator on National Public Radio’s Marketplace. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife and two children.

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    • 4/5
      The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe is a novella that was originally published in 1841. Today this story is mostly admired for its’ historic value as it is considered the first modern detective story. The main character, C. Auguste Dupin solves the brutal murder of two women in Paris. Poe has his detective display many of the traits that become literary conventions in many of the detectives that were to follow, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. The idea that the detective has great analytical talents, is exceptionally brilliant and has a personal friend do the narration are all plot points that were introduced in this story. Although the language is rather dated, this is a fascinating story and well worth a quick read.
    • 4/5
      This work by Poe is often described as the first mystery. With such a distinction, it is an important work to revisit from time to time, even if its plot is not as fully developed as later efforts, because of its influence on masters of the mystery genre such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I remember reading this one back in high school and also in university. At the time, I was disappointed in it. As I read it this time, knowing the outcome, I think I appreciated it more because I found myself seeking the earlier hints which would lead to the crime's resolution. While I believe many questions remain unanswered regarding the sailor's role, I know I'm bringing my 21st century mindset to that question by envisioning lawsuits and other charges relating to harboring an orangutan in one's apartment. The use of deductive reasoning is the important contribution of this classic work which is probably appreciated most when it is re-read and studied for that reason.
    • 5/5
      I don't recall exactly when I first read this (sometime in late elementary/middle school), but it certainly made an impact. I still consider Poe one of my favorite mystery writers.
    • 4/5
      The detective at the centre of this mystery, Auguste Dupin, was one of the inspirations for Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Dupin here uses the techniques of eliminating the impossible and arriving at a conclusion that, however improbable, must be the truth. But it felt more long winded here, and we didn't get to know Dupin at all. Indeed much of this felt more like an analytical essay than a story. 3.5/5
    • 4/5
      Two women are found murdered in a locked apartment in Paris, and none of the witnesses can agree on what they heard. A man named Auguste Dupin examines each clue methodically, and comes up with a most unusual solution to the mystery.This is often credited with being the first detective story. The first section of the book is devoted to Dupin explaining how he uses deductive reasoning (at the time called ratiocination) to figure things out, and it's very tedious. The recounting of the crime scene and accompanying investigation are somewhat interesting. However, I think the solution is a bit too convenient and I don't think there's any way Dupin could actually have deduced it. Plus, if the sailor saw his orangutan murder two people, and then he ran away from the crime scene, why would he answer an advertisement asking if anyone had lost an orangutan?? I do find it interesting that the sailor is not held responsible for the orangutan's actions, though. That certainly would not be the case today. This is an important story to understand the history of the detective genre, but it's not actually that enjoyable to read.I listened to the audiobook read by David Case. I'm not sure if it was the audio quality or the narrator's voice, but I didn't care for it. I was considering listening to more of the stories in this audio collection but I think I'll pass.
    • 4/5
      This is considered, if not the first, one of the first detective stories that defined the genre. Dupin is supposedly the model for Sherlock Holmes. Poe's description of the murder scene is surprisingly horrific for the time period. If you don't know how this who-done-it ends, it may surprise you. Read this and then watch an episode of CSI. You will see the formula still in place over a hundred years later.
    • 2/5
      I just skimmed this - how could he have known all of it?
    • 4/5
      A Penguin 60s mini-book.I've read and enjoyed this story of "a gruesome crime and the birth of a super-sleuth" before.
    • 4/5
      This stort story by Poe is considered to be the first detective story and has surely influenced other authors of such tales. It was the seemingly impossible scenario: two murdered women, one in a back yard and the other in a room locked from the inside. The murders are especially gory and violent. Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin is intrigued by the murders, and though the general concensus is that the situation is impossible, he believes that once the impossible is eliminated, whatever is left, though improbable, is the answer. Following Dupin’s thought process as he sifts through the information is an interesting study in the workings of a detective’s mind.
    • 4/5
      A true, classical detective story. I loved it from start to end. It demands a tad more understanding of advanced vocabulary and less-modern forms of expression. Despite being less than 60 pages, every word contributes to the mystery. I would definitely recommend this to my fellow philosophical-detective story lovers.

    Book preview

    The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Edgar Allan Poe

    cover.jpg

    THE MURDERS

    IN THE

    RUE MORGUE

    By

    EDGAR ALLAN POE

    This edition published by Dreamscape Media LLC, 2017

    www.dreamscapeab.com * info@dreamscapeab.com

    1417 Timberwolf Drive, Holland, OH 43528

    877.983.7326

    dreamscape

    About Edgar Allan Poe:

    Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

    Poe was born in Boston, the second child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. Thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but Poe was with them well into young adulthood. Tension developed later as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at this time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with the anonymous collection of poems Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to a Bostonian. With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement. However, Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and he ultimately parted ways with John Allan.

    Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Richmond in 1836, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem The Raven to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. Poe died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, at age 40; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.

    Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.

    Source: Wikipedia

    The Murders in the Rue Morgue

    What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, although puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture.

    —Sir Thomas Browne.

    THE mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are, in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only in their effects. We know of them, among other things, that they are always to their possessor, when inordinately possessed, a source of the liveliest enjoyment. As the strong man exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension præternatural. His results, brought about by the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the whole air of intuition.

    The faculty of re-solution is possibly much invigorated by mathematical study, and

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