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A Study Guide for Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
A Study Guide for Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
A Study Guide for Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
Ebook42 pages27 minutes

A Study Guide for Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"

By Gale and Cengage

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A Study Guide for Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 1, 2016
ISBN9781535822404
A Study Guide for Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"

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    A Study Guide for Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" - Gale

    11

    The Murders in the Rue Morgue

    Edgar Allan Poe

    1841

    Introduction

    Well-known for both his poetry and his suspenseful short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories featuring the amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin. These stories, including The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), highlight Dupin's intellect and rationality by depicting crimes solved through his logical deductions. In The Murders in the Rue Morgue, often regarded as the first detective story, Dupin and his companion, the narrator, gain access to the scene of a recent gruesome double murder via Dupin's prominent connections. Through his examinations of the witness statements, as reported in the local newspapers, and his analysis of the crime scene, Dupin is able to identify the murderer as an orangutan. He subsequently detains the man responsible for the animal and explains to the narrator, and to the reader, the steps he took to reveal the truth. In this story, Poe uses Dupin to explore the notion of ratiocination—the process of logical analysis Dupin employs—as well as to craft a structure he would later follow in subsequent stories of murder and detection. Critics have pointed out that, through Dupin and the narrator, Poe also examines the relationship between the intellect and the imagination. In the details of the crime scene, and in the complicity of the gentleman from whose care the orangutan escaped, Poe also examines themes of violence and moral responsibility.

    The Murders in the Rue Morgue, originally published in Graham's Magazine in 1841, is available in such collections as the Modern Library's Selected Poetry and Prose of Poe (1951), edited by T. O. Mabbott, and more recently the Modern Library's The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales (2006), edited by Matthew Pearl.

    Author Biography

    Not long after his birth on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe was orphaned. His father, David Poe, abandoned the family in 1810 and is believed to have died shortly after; and his mother, Elizabeth Poe, died in 1811. The Poe children were then separated. Poe's brother was raised by his paternal grandparents, while his sister Rosalie was taken in by foster parents. Poe was sent to live with John and Frances Allan. From 1815 to 1820, the young Poe traveled with his caregivers to Scotland and later to London, where Allan pursued his business interests as a tobacco merchant. The remainder of Poe's youth was spent in Richmond, Virginia, where he attended private academies. For a

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