Philadelphia

April 1841

the harsh critical reviews

The Murders in the Rue Morgue – A true detective story Poe himself stated in a letter that the theme of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is the exercise of ingenuity when solving a murder. The man who investigates the murder is not a real detective and instead studies the crime for his own amusement.

Dupin’s

The murderer in this chilling story, that actually turns out to be rather ridiculous by the end, is the ourang-outang that belongs to the sailor that appears in the apartment of Monsieur Dupin in response to the advert that he placed in the newspaper.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue, short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in Graham’s magazine in 1841. It is considered one of the first detective stories. The story opens with the discovery of the violent murder of an old woman and her daughter.

And the fictional Rue Morgue is placed in a real section of Paris, the Quartier St. Roch (source).

The exposition of “Murders in the Rue Morgue” is when the narrator and Dupin read of the deaths of Madame L’Espanaye and Camille L’Espanaye in the newspaper. The climax occurs when Dupin places an “Ourang-Outang Found” ad in a local paper popular with sailors.

The average reader will spend 0 hours and 44 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute). “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham’s Magazine in 1841.

Detective novel

In January 1845, Poe’s poem, “The Raven” was published by the New York Evening Mirror and became an overnight sensation. What evidence was given to show that Poe enjoyed his fame? Poe was paid $14 for The Raven which would be about $440 in today’s dollars.

Richmond

On January 28, 1831, a court-martial tried a young cadet at the U.S. Military Academy on charges of gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders. Sergeant Major Edgar Allan Poe was found guilty of both charges and discharged from the service of the United States only six months after he had arrived at the academy.

The miserly Allan had sent Poe to college with less than a third of the funds he needed, and Poe soon took up gambling to raise money to pay his expenses. By the end of his first term Poe was so desperately poor that he burned his furniture to keep warm.

Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. Edgar Allan Poe (/poʊ/; born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.