The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl

Believe it or not, a recent best-selling novel features C. August Dupin, the Rue Morgue, and the doppelganger motif. It's called The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl (author of The Dante Club and The Last Dickens).

You can read an excerpt here, or read the promotional description:

The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, even Poe's own family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. But none of this deters a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark.

Quentin, an ardent admirer, discovers that Poe's last days are riddled with vital unanswered questions - that the police may be covering up. Just when Poe's death seems destined to remain a mystery, inspiration strikes - in the form of Poe's own stories. Quentin realizes he must find the one person who can solve the strange case of Poe's death: the real-life model for Poe's brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of Poe's tales of crime and detection.

In short order, Quentin finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving international political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade and the lost secrets of Poe's final hours. With his own future hanging in the balance, Quentin Clark must turn master investigator himself to unchain his now imperiled fate from that of Poe.

Following his phenomenal New York Times bestselling debut novel, The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl has once again crossed pitch-perfect literary history with innovative mystery to create a beautifully detailed, ingeniously plotted tale of suspense that The Globe and Mail calls "a masterpiece," with which New York Times literary critic Janet Maslin says Pearl "has now created a two-book franchise on the cusp of mystery, literature and historical fiction." The Poe Shadow's groundbreaking research opens a new window on the truth behind Poe's demise, literary history's most persistent enigma, with documented material never published before. The resulting novel is a publishing event that "would make Poe himself proud" (Bookpage).

Setting: 19th Century Paris

Many American writers have set their stories -- mystery or otherwise -- in the French capital, perhaps due to its beauty and mystery, but also because it has been long recognized, along with London, as a world capital of the literary and visual arts. So, what did 19th century Paris look like? It's easy to find out since much of 19th century Paris is still with us today.

Here are some places mentioned in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (remember: rue means road or street in French; quartier means neighborhood; faubourg means suburb)

hotel in Faubourg St. Germain

Faubourg St. Germain
Located near the École des Beaux-Arts, this quarter is known for its artistry in general, and has many galleries along its rue Bonaparte and rue de Seine. In all, Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an upper-class bourgeois residential district, and its quality clothing and gastronomical street-side commerce is a direct reflection of this.

cafe on the Rue St. Denis

Rue St. Denis
One of the oldest streets in Paris, its route was first laid out in the 1st century by the Romans, and then extended to the north in the Middle Ages. From the Middle Ages to the present day, the street has become notorious as a place of prostitution. Its name derives from it being the historic route to Saint-Denis.


Rue de Richelieu
One of the longest streets in Paris, and for the first half of the nineteenth century, before Baron Hausmann redefined Paris with grand boulevards, it was one of the most fashionable streets of Paris. Today it is most notable for scattered coin dealers and currency changers, being near the stock market.

The First Modern Detective Story

fictional detectives -- how many can you name?

In addition to being a sly humorist, tomahawk literary critic, and master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe is also notably credited with inventing the modern detective story. The first fictional private detective is recognized as Poe's C. Auguste Dupin, introduced in 1841 with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."

Poe shifted the focus of the mystery story from the description of shocking crimes and eerie setting to what Poe calls "ratiocination" -- using the powers of human observation, logic, and creative imagination, even putting himself in the mind of the criminal, in order to solve the mystery. Critic Brander Matthews wrote: "The true detective story as Poe conceived it is not in the mystery itself, but rather in the successive steps whereby the analytic observer is enabled to solve the problem that might be dismissed as beyond human elucidation."

Dupin was the prototype for the more famous male detectives who would capture the imagination of generations of readers. Each had his own set of personal eccentricities, but all shared in using a process of ratiocination. A partial list:

Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
Hercule Poirot, by Agatha Christie
Lord Peter Wimsey, by Dorothy Sayers
Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton
Inspector Maigret, by Georges Simenon


"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is also the most famous example of the mystery subgenre known as the locked room mystery, in which a murder victim is found inside an apparently sealed enclosure and the detective's challenge is to discover the murderer's modus operandi. Other famous locked room mysteries include Sherlock Holmes' "The Adventure of the Crooked Man," which bears many similarities to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Others include:

"The Oracle of the Dog" by G.K. Chesterton
"The King Is Dead" by Ellery Queen
The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux
The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Other Poe Stories You May Enjoy

Those who attended Giles Davies's one-man Poe show seemed to particularly enjoy the renditions of two of Poe's more humorous works: "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" (featuring Toby Dammit) and "The Angel of the Odd." These two stories are available online as follows:

Never Bet the Devil Your Head [ link to full text ]
A spoof of a morality tale: The narrator, presented as the author himself, is dismayed by literary critics saying that he has never written a moral tale. The narrator then begins telling the story of his friend Toby Dammit. Dammit is described as a man of many vices, presumably at least in part due to his left-handed mother flogging him with her left hand, considered improper. Dammit often made rhetorical bets, becoming fond of the expression "I'll bet the devil my head." Though the narrator tries to break Dammit of bad habits, he fails. Nevertheless, the two remain friends until they reach a covered bridge.

Now if you would prefer to watch the 20-minute movie from 2007, which looks either like an excellent production by high school students or a very cheap production from professionals.

Angel of the Odd [ link to full text ]
The story follows an unnamed narrator who reads a story about a man who died after accidentally sucking a needle down his throat. He rages at the gullibility of humanity for believing a hoax. He vows to never fall for such odd stories. Just then, a strange-looking creature made of a keg and wine bottles appears. The creature announces in a heavy accent that he is the Angel of the Odd - and that he is responsible for causing such strange events.

Tips to Understand Poe's Work

Reenactment of Poe's funeral on October 11, 2009

Here are some tips on understanding the themes, motifs, and style of Edgar Allan Poe. This should be a valuable resource for you when reading and writing about Poe. This may also provide some food-for-thought when it comes to writing your Poe essay, which will be fully assigned tomorrow.

Poe's depiction of death:

• Death is not only inevitable, but it also can be beautiful, especially as it is portrayed in the poems.
• Death can be horrific when someone realizes it is imminent.
• Guilt, hatred, or revenge are appropriate justifications for murder.
• Impending death can be postponed, but not always.
• Death may actually enhance a loved one's beauty.

Poe's portrayal of love and beauty, especially in the poems:

• Love is chosen by the individual, not determined merely by fate.
• Love has historical, sometimes mythological, references.
• Love has no boundaries, not even in death.
• Beauty is only an idea, one that even death cannot weaken.
• Beauty in its ideal form cannot be attained.

Poe's innovative and unusual use of words in both genres:

• Words are frequently used for the way they sound, as well as for their meanings.
• Poe's rhythm and internal rhyme becomes almost hypnotic in many poems.
• The difficult vocabulary reflects the style of Poe's time period.
• Every important word is intended to evoke a mood or atmosphere in the reader, and Poe aimed for the same effect regardless of whether the work was prose or poetry.

Poe's ability to instill fear in the reader, primarily in the short stories:

• Poe builds suspense throughout the stories, revealing some facts while withholding others.
• Because the element of danger is usually present, the reader can feel the intensity of the emotions.
• The narration is frequently first person, which makes the reader's connection to the story more intimate.
• Poe's descriptions are usually minutely detailed to give a sense of verisimilitude to the stories, despite their supernatural atmosphere.
• The use of irony and black humor is common.
• Gothic elements are usually prominent in his writing: the supernatural, evil animals, and dark, gloomy settings
• Poe's depictions of how the human mind works heighten a reader's connection to the story.
• The surprise endings provide a reason to go back through the work to look for clues missed on the first reading.