Murders in the rue Morgue, by Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe is an american author who was born in Boston on January, 19th in 1809 and died in Baltimore on October, 7th in 1849. He was a novelist, a poet ; he also wrote short stories and literature critic. He is one of the most famous american authors in the world, and is still considered as a main character of the romantism in literature. His most well-known texts are his tales (that we can find today in collections such as Extraordinary Stories and Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque), such as The Golden Bug or The Purloined Letter, and his poems such as The Raven. He was first translated in French by Isabelle Meunier ; nonetheless, the actual translations that french readers can find are made by the french poet Charles Baudelaire.


The text hereby is one of his most famous and successful tales, called "Murders in the rue Morgue". It was first edited in a newspaper in 1841, and got collected in 1845. Here is its synopsis : the text begins with a theorical thought about the importance of analysis in the human mind, which allows to introduce the main character, M.Dupin. Then begins the story. It takes place in Paris, in 18.. (Poe doesn't give more details about the date). The narrator tells how he met Dupin, a taciturn and bizarre French living outside the society, who has astonishing analysis and thought skills. In order to prove it, the narrator tells how Dupin, just by looking at how he walked, guesses what his friend is thinking about with an incredible precision. After this surprising paragraph, the narrator explains that as they were walking down the street, they notified the newspapers headlines, reporting a really strange murder in the rue Morgue*. Indeed, two women were killed in their own house, alerting their neighbours with their screams. But as the neighbours broke down their door to rescue them, there's no signs neither of break-in, nor of robbery, nor of killer. Also decides Dupin to solve the enigma...

*The rue Morgue, such as all the streets, places or boulevards that are mentioned in the text, doesn't exist. Baudelaire, in his translation, explains that Poe had actually never been in Paris.

Of course I won't tell the end or give too much details, in order not to spoil the pleasure for anyone who would like to read this text after he read this commentary. E.A.Poe signs here an original text : indeed, before this short story, there wasn't any texts that were based on the resolution of a crime. So is Poe considered as one of the "inventors" of the detective story. We can find here all the ingredients that are necessary for a good story of this kind : a murder of course, but also a strange crime scene, a lack of apparent motive and an "out-of-bounds" detective.

Let's develop about this detective. Dupin is an intriguing person. He is French - which yet brings some clichés in the readers minds - and lives most of the time in the dark ; he only goes out by night, and during the day, he closes his curtains and lights up only a few candles, so he can read handily. Several times in the text, Dupin proclaims his disrespect towards the forces of law and order : though he recognizes their abilities in hints and evidences collecting, he reproaches them for their lack of imagination and analysis when the crime is kind of unordinary. Whereas Dupin - even though he's neither detective nor policeman -, with the same hints, finds the solution straight away. In other ways, we can see that Dupin sets up bases that have been since often reused.

Because, with a little thought, the likeness between Dupin and other famous detectives become obvious : let's take Mr. Arthur Conan Doyle's character, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. If Holmes is actually really a detective, there's a lot of similarities. They are both taciturn, have an incredible observation ability, and are kind of scornful towards the rest of the world, especially the "usual" forces of the law and order. There's also the same acquaintance between Dupin and the narrator that between Holmes and Dr. Watson. I didn't say, however, that Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is a plagiarism. It's a full-fledged character, that lives totally different adventures. It would be better to say that Dupin and Holmes have been cut out with the same chisel. Actually, Holmes himself denies this filiation : Mr.Doyle makes Watson say in "A Study in Scarlet" : "You remind me of Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories", but Holmes answers "Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends' thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour's silence is really very showy and superficial". No need to say that Poe actually influenced a lot Doyle ; so it's more of a tribute made to one of his favourite authors.


I took Holmes as an example, but I had plenty of other people I could take as much : Hercule Poirot, Rouletabille, Miss Marple, Maigret, Dirk Gently... This example only confirms a reasoning that is more or less acknowledged by those who thought about the question : by creating Dupin, Mr.Poe creates a model, a character pattern, of a intelligent, taciturn detective, sometimes declined as a private.

In order to introduce Dupin, Poe writes a long introduction to make the reader think about thought itself, especially about analysis. He deplores the importance given to analysis whereas nobody can really define it ; as an example takes he chess game, which is usually considered as a game totally based on analysis. Poe tends to demonstrate the contrary, and says that a good chess player is foremost watchful : according to him, nine times out of ten, the winner is the one who got the less distracted. That's why he recommends a "measuring" of analysis capacity via an other game : draughts. Effectively, draughts have simpler rules and uses only one type of pawn. So, if someone wins by playing draughts, it's only due to his real capacities. This theory is partly based on Edmond Hoyle's theories, who wrote several books about games and gambling.
Afterwards, Dupin's capacities are neutrally related, which enforces this feeling of might of Dupin's analysis : he sees the narrator stumble, stare at the sky and slow, and so deducts in which train of thoughts his friend got boarded, and what he is thinking about, despite they haven't talked in a quarter of an hour.
This paragraph, which seems of second importance - as it doesn't take part to the story itself - is actually significant : it defines at the same time Dupin's capacities and ways, on which is hinged the whole tale.

An other important point : the strangeness of the crime itself. The two victims got killed with no witnesses, and during the time the potential witnesses arrive, there's no killer anymore - whereas the only exit was used by witnesses at this time ! This idea of "killer that vanishes into thin air" is always effective and has been used a lot of times : the famous "Mystery of the yellow room" by Leroux, or "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Doyle, for instance. So did Poe write a fondamental rule in thriller : the crime has to be bizarre. If this axiom is implicit nowadays, it wasn't in the XIXth century.

In the end, this text can be considered as a "Founding Father" of detective novels : it settles bases, ways for mise-en-scene which will lead most of successful thriller authors, Doyle, Christie, Cornwell, Cook... It also contributed to Poe's celebrity, maybe because it was nearer of a wide readership ; his other tales, usually based on strange phenomenons (magnetism, witchcraft...), may have sometimes frightened the average reader.
With "Murders in the Rue Morgue", Edgar Allen Poe has written an impressive tale, as much for its quality as its influence and durability it engendered as time goes by.