Most English-language readers associate detective stories with the Sherlock Holmes series. However, these books, as famous and well-composed as they are, do not mark the first detective stories in world literature. Instead, that achievement falls to the great American literary giant Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote three short stories in the 1840s and published them in both America and France for literary prizes. Each readable in a short sitting, they continue to enchant readers with intrigue and deductive logic today.
The central figure in all three stories is the fictional, protagonist detective C. Auguste Dupin, a Frenchman living in Paris. The narratives do not explain anything about his personal life in terms of biography. Instead, he engages us with tales of his immense deductive logic from the facts of a crime scene. Much like Holmes after him, Poe’s lead detective is able to note things that most of us do not see and things that the police (symbolizing the established authorities) do not see either.
Interestingly, these tales may bear some resemblance to real circumstances, particularly The Mystery of Marie Rogêt. This story resembles the real story of a Mary Rogers murdered in America and may have been sponsored to support the case – justly or unjustly – of a real accused suspect (detailed in Pearl’s Introduction). The scenarios of the crime scenes are simultaneously realistic, gruesome, and worthy of deep journalistic investigation.
I honestly had some difficulty following the third, shortest story, The Purloined Letter. At only 17 pages, a lesser amount of words had less space to build intrigue for me. I further found the setup (of needing to keep a letter secret) to be confusing. Letters sent today via post are typically viewed as secure, but apparently, letters were more vulnerable in Poe’s world. I did not identify with this short story much, however, and this was the only significant negative in reading these stories.
Though his life was spent in insecurity and poverty, Poe’s artistry as a writer is universally appreciated almost 200 years later. As such, his stories – particularly those that are literary firsts – deserve continued attention. The degree to which these early stories mastered the genre of a detective story astounds me. These are mature tellings with mature reasoning, and frankly, the vivid intrigue of Holmes (the crown jewel of the genre) has nothing on Poe’s Dupin. For that reason alone, curious readers should engage these stories.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Stories
By Edgar Allan Poe
Introduction by Matthew Pearl
Written in the 1840s
The Modern Library
ISBN13 9780679643425
Page Count: 119
Genre: Detective Mystery, Short Stories
www.amazon.com