Short Story "THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE"

Judul Asli : THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

Copyright © by Edgar Allan Poe

From “The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales”

This edition published in the Penguin English Library 2012 | 330 p

Front cover illustration : Coralie Bickford-Smith

Inside front cover : Edgar Allan Poe (photograph © The Granger collection / TopFoto)

ISBN : 978-0-141-19897-2

Chapter 7 | p. 100 – 138

“What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, although puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjucture.” – Sir Thomas Browne

How we define something as a crime ? When something terrible happens on someone else or until someone got kill in the action ? If you a mystery lovers, you’ll know about Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes as the unique character who solve any crime, any puzzle and mystery especially surrounding in human’s life, but have you ever hear about Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, who live before Hercule Poirot or even Sherlock Holmes ?

‘He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, hieroglyphics, and love exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension præternatural’ (p. 100)

Dupin was a great detective in the first era when there’s not yet a story about solving mystery using method and technique as well the preliminary observations on the subject. His passion and meticulas on every detail combine with thinking ‘outside the box’ brought him to the answers on solving several unanswers mystery. And here is one of the puzzle mystery he have to solve. The horrible and mysterious tragedy just happens at the house in thr Rue Morgue, who occupancy by Madame L’Espanaye and her daughter, Madamoiselle Camille L’Espanaye. About three o’clock in the morning, neighbournhood at the Quartier St. Roch awaken by a succession of terrific shrieks, who apparently coming from the fourth story of the house. 

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After delay by unsuccessful to enter the gate by normal ways, they all, about eight or ten people, manage to breaking into and rushing to the fourth story, accompanied by two police officer. When they enter, the screaming suddenly stops, but there’s another weird sound coming from behind the lock door. The strange is, no one living things can be found inside those house, and the room where all the witness hearing very weird and unique sound, are locked from inside. When they search the whole premisses, the body of Madamoiselle Camille L’Espanaye finally found being stuffed inside the chimney with head first down. And in the back of the house, the remains of Madame L’Espanaye looks so horrible with almost the capitated head ‘suffer from a single-sharp slitt to the throat, and many wound all over her body. 

The mystery remains unsolve, the suspect never capture, everyone seems have their own opinion about the case, every newspapers also published their own version of the tragedy, until there’s another victim appears, and with amazingly the policeman found several clues in somewhere else, lead them to this case. If this is really the first story created by the author who inventing the first genre of detective and mystery stories, the readers will follow how to seek and find evidence that will reveal the mystery and the truth lies beneath all the evidence and witnesses. Through Dupin’s character, who not only unique with his detail on each aspect, always looking on something different and pursue the other path that did not follow by the policeman, we will learn how to think objective and maintain only at the evidence, the battle between logical and rumors surrounding this event.

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As a mystery’s fan, I found this story a little-bit obvious and easily quest where its gonna be, might be because I’m already used to by reading all the mystery and crime stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, so this kind of story are quite simpler than I often read. But remembering that this is the first story of its kind, it is really remarkable and surprising from start to end. The author not only gave us direction on how to think nor how to learn about people’s mind, but also introduce the readers on every aspect that after many centuries as if today, we know about forensics, anthropologys, studies on human and psycological terms involving criminal minds, that remains us that logical thinking and evidence have to sees in both ways, specially influence from the environment both the victim and the suspect (or we know as unsub – unknow suspect).

The only thing I feels quite disturbing, seems the author focus on Dupin’s character to ‘explain’ all the tehnique and what inside his mind, with the journey to the master of crime solving, but often he (seems) forgotten about the mystery its self – so after this story end, I still got several unanswers questions on my mind. There’s no clear answers, we have to search and ‘quest’ which one the right path and who is the most possible suspect of the crime, what is the reason behind those action, and how the re-enactment of the crimescenes. All in the name of the truth and nothing but the truth, even sometimes is much more simpler than all the popular version. And another thing, in this stories also mention that the suspect finally reveal as closely to human, but all the description are not enterely true, seems the author like many of classical authors did not study well on the subject of the stories (remind me when I read Swiss Family Robinson, so many things regarding the subject he use are wrong and not true at all). It just gave us affirmation that on that era, almost all authors think everyone else who live outside their country are barbaric or describe as a monsters. Overall, I’m looking forward to read another Dupin’s stories, where I can know his character a lot better. 

[ more about the author, books and related adaptations, check on here : Edgar Allan Poe | C. Auguste Dupin | The Murders in the Rue Morgue | All Adaptations ]

Best Regards,