C. Auguste Dupin
Created by: Edgar Allan Poe
Before the Holmes, Poirots, and Blancs, there was C. Auguste Dupin, the precursor
to the modern gentleman detective archetype
that everyone loves. I was shocked too when I read that one of the most influential
horror writers, Edgar Allan Poe
(who famously defeated Stephen King in a rap battle) essentially started the
genre i'm obsessed with. Dupin is a frenchman
from an aristocratic family (though he is mostly broke due to some undisclosed
circumstances) who has a penchant for solving puzzles and
mysteries. He's very observant and analytical, even being able to deduce what someone is
thinking just by analyzing their expressions.
He and the unnamed narrator of his stories live together in an abandoned mansion that
was said to be haunted, spending
their time reading and writing books as it is their common passion. They have a
Holmes-Watson dynamic even before Holmes and Watson,
with the narrator serving as the audience's surrogate as Dupin explains his line of
reasoning.
Books
Note: This time the list is in chronological order, and the order of when I read them. :)
Edgar Allan Poe has only written 3 short stories starring C. Auguste Dupin.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Introduces the character of Dupin and then presents a mystery of two women
who
are mysteriously killed in their own room. This is apparently the first
locked room mystery in fiction.
Read this one a couple years ago so this is due for a re-read.
But it's a decent mystery and you can see how it influenced the genre of
detective stories since the core elements and tropes
are already there amidst Poe's wordy prose.
The Mystery of Marie Roget
Based on a real-life crime, Dupin solves the mystery of a woman's dead body
found in a river.
This one was personally, a tough read...
It's based on a real-life crime but the story itself was more of Dupin
criticizing the sensationalism of the media...
or at least that's where I got to before dropping it. I tried multiple times
to continue
but have found myself falling asleep while reading it. The wordiness and the
very technical writing of Poe worked against
the story here.
Maybe someday i'll be able to get through it...
The Purloined Letter
Dupin is consulted to help find a letter cleverly stolen from the princess
by a minister.
A short and simple story.
The story ended a bit bluntly though and I ended up reading some of the
interpretations about it
especially regarding the identity of the culprit and his relation to Dupin
which was emphasized in
the closing lines of the story. Reading the interpretations seemed more fun
than the story itself actually...
but I don't think it's a detriment to the book. Most of Edgar Allan Poe's
work actually feels like this for me
where it doesn't seem much on a surface level until you read the
interpretations of the themes behind the story
and see how well thought out it is.
