Edgar Poe's story "Murder in the Morgue Street": a brief summary and the history of the creation. Other cycle stories about Auguste Dupin

Edgar Po is a man of amazing destiny. Being a great writer and poet, among contemporaries he was better known as a literary critic. In addition, he also became the ancestor of the detective genre. After all, it was with the "Murder on Morg Street" written by Po, the story of the detective began.

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar was born in the family of Elizabeth and David Poe in 1809. When the father left the family, the mother gave the children to relatives and friends for upbringing. So Edgar Poe was in the family to John Allan.

When the boy grew up, he was sent to study at the University of Virginia. Here, Po addicted to alcohol, because of which the adoptive father deprived the youth of financial support.

Trying to make a living, Po 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 prematurely tore it up and after a series of failures focused on literary activity.

The third collection of poems by Edgar Poe also did not bring him fame, and he tried to create prose. After writing stories for a literary contest, Po lost it. But two years later the story "A Manuscript Found in a Bottle" was recognized as the best in another literary contest, and its author received the main prize.

Despite this success, Po continued to beg. Surviving the writer allowed the help of wealthy friend John P. Kennedy. Also, thanks to him, the writer got a place in the journal Southern Literary Messenger. Soon the financial condition allowed Poe to marry Virginia's cousin, and they moved to New York.

Here stories were printed On "The Fall of the House of Asher", "The Devil on the Belltower". 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 he saw the world of his detective work "Murder on Morgue Street" (a short summary of it will be presented below), and after his success, other stories by Edgar Poe.

Turned into a popular writer, Po became a co-owner of Broadway Journal, but because of his editorial policy, this publication was soon closed, and the writer began a "black" band. His beloved wife died of tuberculosis, and Poe himself did not write anything because of the depression.

However, gathering strength, a little later, he again took up his pen. In addition, the writer even planned to marry again. But these plans did not come true, because in October 1849, when Edgar Poe was only forty years old, he died under unclear circumstances.

The story "Murder in the street Morgue": the history of the appearance

At the time of publication of this story, there have already been several works in which the main characters unraveled unusual occurrences. But they still could not be considered full-fledged detectives. Edgar Allan Poe read most of them, as he tried to keep abreast of the audience's preferences, and soon realized that, aside from the bewitching and chilling stories, people like reading about investigating crimes. In this regard, he began work on a new work.

It is believed that inspired by the memoirs of the French detective Vidoc. Therefore, the work of Po is transferred to Paris. In addition, after visiting the 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 in the Morgue Street": a summary

The main character of the story is the descendant of the noble but impoverished genus Auguste Dupin. Due to financial difficulties, he is forced to rent a house along with the narrator, who admires Dupin's ability to analyze what is happening.

One day, Auguste read in one of the evening papers about the brutal murder of the widow L'Espana and her daughter Camille, who rented an apartment on the fifth floor in a house on Morgue Street. Dupin became interested in what had happened, and he, having reached an agreement with the police prefect, himself got to the scene of the crime.

Both murders were committed on the 5th floor of the house in a locked room where women lived. The widow was cut with a razor, which was found right there in the room, and after her body was thrown out of the window. Camilla was strangled, after which her lifeless body was slammed into the chimney. As for the witnesses, the neighbors heard behind the door two voices: one murderer spoke French and the other in some unknown language.

Adolf Lebon was soon 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 scene of the crime, all the money of the widow, who allegedly stole Adolf with the accomplice, was in place.

After examining the room where the murder occurred, Dupin found several widows in the widow's hand, which she snatched from the attacker. Further, Dupin shared his findings with the narrator, explaining that the killer could be an orang-utan, and not a man. This was evidenced by such facts. First, the voice of the second offender did not resemble the human. Secondly, the incredible dexterity of the killer, who climbed the pipe to the fifth floor without difficulty, as well as his monstrous power, with which he put Camilla's body into the pipe, surprised him. Thirdly, the murderer did not fall for the gold of the victims, although there was a decent amount.

In addition, Dupin studied the prints on the neck of Camille strangled, which in size and shape did not resemble human hair, as well as hairs in her mother's hand. Then he showed the narrator an article about the anatomy of orang-utans to convince him of his rightness.

To confirm his guesses, Dupin filed an ad with the newspaper stating that he had 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 Orangutan from Borneo and dreamed of selling it in Paris. But one day this creature broke its cage and, taking the master'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 that fell, killed the unfortunate women. The orangutan master witnessed the tragedy. Frightened, he escaped.

Learning the truth, Dupin dismissed the sailor and informed the police about all that had freed Lebon.

"The Mystery of Marie Roger" and "The Stolen Letter"

On the wave of incredible success Po wrote two more extensions of the story "Murder in the street Morgue." A brief summary of them will also be presented to your attention.

In "The Mystery of Marie Roger," Dupin reflects on the recent loud murder of a beautiful worker in the perfume shop in Paris, Marie Roger. Auguste manages to prove that the crime was committed not by a group of people, but by one person, and he is a sailor.

"The Stolen Letter" is the only story in the series where Dupin is investigating not kidnapping but kidnapping. An unnamed lady kidnapped a compromising letter. The kidnapper blackmails the woman. The prefect of police, to which she applied, carried out several secret searches, but could not find the stolen goods. Then Dupin, for a reward of 50,000 francs, found and returned the letter, and then told the storyteller the story of how he did it.

The screen version of the story

The story of "Murder on Morgue Street" remained popular even after the appearance of numerous works of this genre by other authors. So, it took five films and created one video game.

The first film based on the story was published in 1914. Eighteen years later, the same film adaptation of the story "Murder on Morgue Street" appeared. The brief content of the tape makes it possible to judge that it had little in common with the original work. Bela Lugosi played in her a mad professor, obsessed with the idea of crossing a gorilla and a man.

In 1954, the film "Ghost of Morgue Street" was filmed, and seventeen years later - "Murder on Morgue Street". Both films also very remotely resembled the original work of Po.

In 1986, the last screen version of this story was released, which retained most of the elements of the original plot.

Strangely enough, being the first author of a detective work, Poe did not actively develop this genre, although a little later his peers were enriched and famous for it. So there were Sherlock Holmes, Arsene Lupine, Hercule Poirot and many other characters. Despite this, it is Edgar Poe who will forever remain the father of the detective.