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

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

(1843) and

(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” (

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

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” (

2:521). Mabbott suggests that the main…

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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 26 November 2024.]