Audiobook · read by volunteers
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
Read by Reynard T. Fox · 3 chapters · 1 h 34
About the book
A brutal double murder in a locked apartment on the Rue Morgue baffles the police of Paris. The windows are fastened, the door was bolted from inside, and the voices heard by the neighbours cannot even be agreed upon. Into the puzzle steps C. Auguste Dupin, a reclusive gentleman with a gift for reasoning, who takes up the case out of curiosity. Edgar Allan Poe called it a tale of ratiocination, and in it he gave the world one of the first detective stories. The story first appeared in Graham’s Magazine in 1841, and it is short enough to enjoy in a single sitting. Follow the clues with Dupin and his friend, and see whether you can reach the answer before he does. Read by one LibriVox volunteer in three chapters, the story lasts about an hour and a half.
Introduction
Edgar Allan Poe, who lived from 1809 to 1849, was an American writer of poems, tales and criticism, best remembered for his stories of mystery and horror. The Murders in the Rue Morgue, published in Graham’s Magazine in 1841, is a short and influential story that Poe himself described as a tale of ratiocination, meaning a tale of reasoning.
It is widely regarded as one of the first detective stories. In it Poe introduced the figure of C. Auguste Dupin, a brilliant amateur who solves a crime that has defeated the official police by careful observation and logical deduction. Many of the conventions of the genre can be traced here: the baffling crime in a closed room, the slower and less imaginative police, the friend who narrates and the final explanation in which the detective lays out his reasoning. Poe would use Dupin again in two later stories, and later writers developed these ideas in their own ways.
The story is also a work of atmosphere. Its opening passages reflect on analysis and the workings of the mind, and its descriptions of Paris give the crime a dark and cosmopolitan setting. The violence at the centre is described in disturbing terms, which suits readers who enjoy classic horror and mystery.
The recording is read by a single LibriVox volunteer in three parts, and it lasts about an hour and a half. Today it is worth hearing as a founding text of crime fiction, and as a reminder that the pleasures of a good puzzle have changed little in nearly two centuries.
Public domain
Edgar Allan Poe died in 1849: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text