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The Murders In The Rue Morgue (Crime Masterworks)
  
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The Murders In The Rue Morgue (Crime Masterworks) (Hardcover)

by Edgar Allan Poe (Author)
2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Orion; New edition edition (21 Mar 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0752847848
  • ISBN-13: 978-0752847849
  • Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,772,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

`Famed for his macabre tales of Gothic suspense.'
--Daily Mail --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

`If you love thrillers, you have to read these stories.'
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Pioneering work, 7 Oct 2002
This review is from: The Murders In The Rue Morgue (Crime Masterworks) (Paperback)
Edgar Allan Poe is rightly acknowledged as the granddaddy of detective fiction and collected here is the proof. In these stories he gave us the basic devices of an entire genre: the genius detective and his sidekick, the locked-room mystery, cyphers, royal spies, and the rigorous logic of arm-chair detection. However, the problem with pioneering an entire genre is that, for ever after, your pioneering efforts are going to look rather amateurish. And this, unfortunately, is the case with Poe: the Auguste Dupin stories may well have given birth to the modern detective story but today, when compared to the works they inspired, they are little more than historically interesting artefacts - and ultimately rather dull. It is simply not possible for us to experience these stories today with anything like the striking freshness they would have had for their original readers. So if you're looking for truly great detective stories, look elsewhere. But if you're seeking the historical origins of detective fiction, this book is just the ticket.
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1.0 out of 5 stars Poe detects a genre but kills the plot, 6 Jan 2010
By S. Taylor "Simon Taylor" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Murders In The Rue Morgue (Crime Masterworks) (Paperback)
The much-hyped, greatly-revered "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" were a bitter disappointment.

The first and titular of the five short stories began with a long discussion of everything you never wanted to know about chess, simply to allow Poe to make clear the difference between observing and analysing. The case is outlined in the past tense, and solved immediately. There is no investigation, and none of the characters referred to actually appear. In fact, the long, repetitive and frankly monotonous character summaries are all but useless when it comes to the solution, which is bad play on Poe's part and humiliating to the modern writer.

His next story begins with a spiel on calculus before using a similar style to recount the case. Poe's writing style is difficult to follow. He censors names, places and dates for no real reason, and in the second story is at great pains to explain the fiction is based on a true story. Thus, he jumps in and out of character, telling the tale in first-person as the detective's friend, and as an omniponent narrator, and seems confused about his role in the whole escapade.

Long newspaper "clippings" are written in the same flowery prose, or staccato; annotations pop up to explain the parallels to real cases to the reader akin to watching a DVD commentary while watching the feature film; and the author tells the reader that he declines to pass on information because he feels like it.

That being said, one must recognise and praise Poe for inventing the gengre of detective fiction and a great deal of literary devices - locked room murder, 'detective and friend' narration, and more. Having the first ever murder mystery on your shelf is a coup. Reading it, however, is more like a punishment.
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