Edgar Allan Poe is a man of amazing fate. Being a great writer and poet, among his contemporaries he was better known as a literary critic. In addition, he also became the founder of the detective genre. After all, it was with the “Murder on Morgue Street” written by Poe that the story of the detective began.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar was born into the family of Elizabeth and David Poe in 1809. When the father left the family, the mother gave the children to relatives and acquaintances for education. So Edgar Poe got into the family with John Allan.
When the boy grew up, he was sent to study at the University of Virginia. Here, Po became addicted to alcohol, because of which the adoptive father deprived the young man of financial support.
Trying to earn a living, Poe published two collections of poems, but they did not bring him popularity. Then the young man signed a military contract for 5 years. But later he ripped it ahead of schedule and after a series of setbacks he concentrated on literary activity.
The third collection of poems by Edgar Allan Poe did not bring him fame either, and he tried to create prose. After writing stories for the literary contest, Poe lost it. But two years later, the story "Manuscript Found in a Bottle" was recognized as the best in another literary contest, and its author received the main prize.
Despite this success, Poe continued to beggar. The writer survived with the help of wealthy friend John P. Kennedy. Also thanks to him, the writer got a place in Southern Literary Messenger magazine. Soon, financial condition allowed Poe to marry a cousin of Virginia, and they moved to New York.
Here were printed the stories of Po "The Fall of the House of Ashers", "Damn the Belfry." In search of work, the writer tried several projects, even wanted to publish his own magazine, but later became the editor of Graham's Magazine. Here the world saw his detective work “Murder on Morgue Street” (a summary of it will be presented below), and after his success, other stories by Edgar Allan Poe.
Having turned into a sought-after writer, Poe became a co-owner of the Broadway Journal, but due to his editorial policy, this publication soon closed, and the writer began a “black” streak. His beloved wife died of tuberculosis, and Poe himself did not write anything because of depression.
However, gathering his strength, a little later he again took up the pen. In addition, the writer even planned to remarry. But these plans were not destined to come true, since in October 1849, when Edgar Allan Poe was only forty years old, he died under obscure circumstances.
The story "Murder on the Morgue Street": the story of the appearance
At the time of publication of this story, there were already several works in which the main characters unraveled unusual incidents. But they still could not be considered full-fledged detectives. Edgar Allan Poe read most of them, as he tried to keep abreast of audience preferences, and soon realized that, in addition to bewitching and chilling stories, people like to read about crime investigations. In this regard, he began work on a new work.
It is believed that inspired by the memoirs of the French detective Widoc. Therefore, the effect of the work of Po was transferred to Paris. In addition, having visited a summer performance with the participation of a live orangutan, the author decided to make this animal the main character of his story.
In April 1841, the story of The Murders in the Rue Morgue was first published and gained phenomenal success.
Murder on Morgue Street: Summary
The protagonist of the story is a descendant of the noble but impoverished clan Auguste Dupin. Due to financial difficulties, he is forced to rent a house with a storyteller, who admires Dupin's ability to analyze what is happening.
Once Auguste read in one of the evening newspapers about the brutal murder of the widow L'Espana and her daughter Camilla, who rented an apartment on the fifth floor in a house on Morgue Street. Dupin was interested in what had happened, and, having agreed with the prefect of the police, he himself got to the scene of the crime.
Both murders were committed on the 5th floor of a house in a locked room where women lived. The widow had her throat cut with a razor, which was found right there in the room, and after that her body was thrown out of the window. Camille was strangled, after which her lifeless body was stuffed by a killer into a chimney. As for the witnesses, the neighbors heard two voices outside the door: one murderer spoke French, and the other in some unknown dialect.
Soon, Adolf Lebon was arrested. It was he who, on the day of the murder, brought from the bank a widow of 4,000 francs in gold. However, with a thorough examination at the crime scene, all the widow's money that Adolf allegedly stole with the accomplice was in place.
After examining the room where the murder took place, Dupin found in the widow's hand several hairs that she pulled out from the attacker. Next, Dupin shared his findings with the narrator, explaining that the killer could be an orangutan, not a person. This was evidenced by such facts. Firstly, the voice of the second criminal was not human. Secondly, they were surprised at the incredible dexterity of the killer, who easily climbed the pipe to the fifth floor, as well as his monstrous power, with the help of which he put Camilla's body into the pipe. Thirdly, the killer was not flattered by the gold of the victims, although there was a decent amount.
In addition, Dupin studied the prints on the neck of strangled Camille, which in size and shape did not resemble human ones, as well as the hairs in her mother's hand. After he showed the storyteller an article about the anatomy of orangutans to convince him of his innocence.
To confirm his guesses, Dupin advertised to the newspaper that he allegedly caught an orangutan and was looking for its owner. Soon a sailor came to him, and Dupin forced him to tell the truth.
The sailor brought an orangutan from Borneo and dreamed of selling it in Paris. But once this creature broke its cage and, grabbing the owner’s razor, fled. The sailor tried to catch up with the pet, but did not have time, and he, having made his way to the first house he got, killed the unfortunate women. The owner of the orangutan witnessed the tragedy. Frightened, he fled.
Upon learning the truth, Dupin let go of the sailor and reported everything to the police who had liberated Lebon.
The Mystery of Marie Roger and The Stolen Letter
In the wake of incredible success, Poe wrote two more sequels to the story “Murder on Morgue Street”. A summary of them will also be presented to your attention.
In The Secret of Marie Roger, Dupin reflects on the recent high-profile murder of Marie Roger, a beautiful perfume shop employee in Paris. Auguste manages to prove that the crime was committed not by a group of people, but by one person, and he was a sailor.
The Stolen Letter is the only story in the series where Dupin does not investigate the murder, but the abduction. An unnamed lady was stolen from a letter compromising her. The kidnapper is blackmailing a woman. The prefect of the police, whom she turned to, carried out several secret searches, but could not find the stolen one. Then Dupin found and returned the letter for a reward of 50,000 francs, after which he told the storyteller how he had succeeded.
Screen adaptations of the story
The short story “Murder on the Morgue Street” remained popular even after the appearance of numerous works of this genre by other authors. So, as many as five films were shot on it and one video game was created.
The first film based on the story was released in 1914. Eighteen years later, the eponymous film adaptation of the story “Murder on Morgue Street” appeared. The summary of the tape allows us to judge that it had little in common with the original work. Bela Lugosi played in her a crazy professor, obsessed with the idea of crossing a gorilla and a person.
In 1954, the film The Phantom of the Morgue Street was shot, and seventeen years later, Murder on the Morgue Street. Both films were also very vaguely reminiscent of the original work of Poe.
In 1986, the last adaptation of this story was released, which retained most of the elements of the plot of the original.
Oddly enough, being the first author of a detective work, Poe did not actively develop this genre, although a little later his fellow writers became rich and famous thanks to him. So there were Sherlock Holmes, Arsene Lupine, Hercule Poirot and many other characters. Despite this, it was Edgar Poe who would forever remain the father of the detective.