Edgar Allan Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Slobodan Sucur (University of Alberta)

Ed. by Stephen E. Meats, Pittsburg State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1841

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Gothic & Ghosts
Story

Resources

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“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, first published in the April 1841 issue of

Graham’s Magazine

in Philadelphia, and later reprinted in Poe’s tale collections

Prose Romances

(1843) and

Tales

(1845), is described by Poe scholar T.O. Mabbott as “a great literary monument” and as the “ancestor of a vast number of [detective] works” (

Poe

2:521). The tale was written “hastily”, since the manuscript shows more editorial changes than is typical of many of Poe’s works (

Poe

2:525). Poe himself was modest when explaining the story’s creation in an 1846 letter to Philip Pendleton Cooke, suggesting that there is no mystery or “ingenuity” in “unravelling a web” that you as the author have woven for that “express purpose” (

Poe

2:521). Mabbott suggests that the main…

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4391 words

Citation: Sucur, Slobodan. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 August 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=107, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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Edgar Allan Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue

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