Book #31

A Modern Detective by Edgar Allan Poe

In these two stories gentleman sleuth C. Auguste Dupin, the first fictional detective, investigates the death of a young girl and the grisly murders in the Rue Morgue.

I had read both of these short stories towards the end of last year, so I’ll keep this review short and simply regurgitate what I said in my review of The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Poe’s mastery is best displayed in macabre tales of the supernatural, such as The Tell-Tale Heart. His detective tales are arduous, wordy, and entirely soul-destroying to me. Dupin, as a famous sleuth, has nothing of the same charm and draw as other fictional detectives I could mention. Both of these stories are solved for the reader through Dupin’s lengthy monologues, and it’s just incredibly tiring. 

Pick up a weird Poe, not a crime-solving Poe.