Edgar Allan Poe was broke, grieving, and drinking way too much in Philadelphia when he sat down to write a story that would basically change how we think about crime forever. It was 1841. Before this, there wasn't really a "detective" genre. Sure, you had spooky gothic mysteries and trials, but the idea of a brilliant guy sitting in a library and solving a crime just by thinking really hard? That didn't exist yet. When The Murder in the Rue Morgue hit the pages of Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, it didn't just entertain people; it created a blueprint.
Every time you watch Sherlock, Knives Out, or even True Detective, you're looking at Poe’s DNA.
The story is weird. It’s brutal. Honestly, it’s kind of gross if you really think about the physics of what happens to the victims. But the core of it—the "locked-room mystery"—is what keeps people coming back nearly two centuries later. You’ve got a mother and daughter, Madame L’Espanaye and Mademoiselle Camille, found dead in a fourth-story room that is locked from the inside. The daughter is shoved up a chimney. The mother is outside in a courtyard with her throat cut so deep her head is barely attached. It’s total chaos.
What Actually Happens in The Murder in the Rue Morgue
Poe introduces us to C. Auguste Dupin. He’s not a cop. He’s just a very smart, very broke aristocrat who likes to hang out in darkened rooms and analyze things. He and the unnamed narrator are living in a "time-eaten and grotesque mansion" in Paris. When they read about the Rue Morgue killings in the newspaper, Dupin gets bored and decides he can do a better job than the Prefect of Police, G—.
The witnesses are a mess. Everyone heard two voices. One was a Frenchman saying "mon Dieu." The other voice was "shrill" and "harsh." Here’s the catch: every witness thought the second voice was a different nationality. The Italian thought it was German. The Englishman thought it was French. The Spaniard thought it was English.
Dupin realizes something everyone else missed. If nobody can recognize the language, maybe it’s not a language at all.
He looks at the window. The police think it's locked from the inside, which makes the crime impossible. Dupin finds a hidden spring and a broken nail. It’s a classic trope now, but back then? This was mind-blowing stuff. He eventually figures out that the killer wasn't a person. It was an Ourang-Outang (an Orangutan) that had escaped from a sailor. The animal climbed a lightning rod, swung into the window, and panicked.
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It’s a bit of a "wait, what?" ending for modern readers. Some people hate it. They feel like the "animal did it" reveal is a cop-out. But Poe wasn't trying to write a police procedural; he was trying to showcase "ratiocination." That’s his fancy word for the process of using logic to solve a puzzle.
Why Dupin is the Blueprint for Sherlock Holmes
If you’ve read Arthur Conan Doyle, you know Sherlock. But Sherlock is basically Dupin with a bigger budget and a chemical dependency.
- The Sidekick: The narrator in The Murder in the Rue Morgue is the original Dr. Watson. He’s there to be amazed and to ask the questions the reader is thinking.
- The Police are Clueless: Poe established the trope of the bumbling police force. Prefect G— represents the "official" way of doing things, which Poe argues is too rigid.
- The "Armchair" Method: Dupin solves a huge chunk of the mystery just by reading the newspaper and thinking.
Doyle actually admitted this. He once said that Poe was the father of the detective tale and that every detective story written since was just a variation on Poe’s themes. Even the way Dupin "reads" the narrator's mind at the start of the story—tracing a series of silent thoughts based on a few small gestures—is exactly what Sherlock does in A Study in Scarlet.
The Darker Side of the Story
We need to talk about the violence. It’s extreme. Poe describes the daughter’s body being pulled from the chimney, "head downward," with the flesh torn off from the sheer force of being crammed in there.
There’s a lot of scholarly debate about what Poe was actually getting at. Some critics, like J. Gerald Kennedy, argue that the story is about the fear of the "irrational." The Orangutan represents a lack of motive. Humans kill for money, love, or revenge. An animal kills because it’s scared or acting on instinct. That’s what makes it so terrifying for the characters in the story—there is no why, only how.
Others look at the racial undertones. In the 1840s, the "wild animal from a foreign land" was a common, albeit problematic, metaphor in literature. Poe was writing in a time of intense social anxiety, and those subtexts are definitely there if you look for them.
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Common Misconceptions About the Rue Morgue
People get a few things wrong about this story.
First, they think Dupin is a professional. He isn't. He does this for fun and to help a guy named Adolphe de Le Bon, who was wrongly arrested. He doesn't take a fee. He just wants to prove he's the smartest guy in the room.
Second, people often misremember the "locked room." It wasn't actually a supernatural event. Poe spent a lot of time explaining the mechanics of the window sash. He wanted the reader to know that even the most "impossible" things have a physical, logical explanation.
Lastly, the location. The Rue Morgue isn't a real street in Paris. Poe had never even been to Paris when he wrote the story. He just thought the name sounded cool. "Morgue" implies death, and "Rue" is street. It worked.
How Poe Changed the Way We Read
Before The Murder in the Rue Morgue, most crime stories were told from the perspective of the criminal. You’d read a "Newgate Calendar" story about a thief's life and his eventual execution. Poe flipped the script. He made the process of solving the crime the main event.
He also introduced the idea of the "clue." Not just a piece of evidence, but a detail that seems unimportant to everyone else but is the key to everything for the detective. The non-human hair Dupin finds? The fact that the gold wasn't stolen? These are the breadcrumbs that define the genre.
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The story is also incredibly dense. Poe spends the first few pages just lecturing the reader about the nature of the mind and the difference between "analysis" and "ingenuity." It’s a bit of a slog if you’re looking for a fast-paced thriller, but it’s essential for understanding why Dupin does what he does. He compares the mind to a game of Whist (an old card game). A good player doesn't just know the rules; they observe the other players’ faces and how they throw down their cards.
Actionable Insights for Mystery Fans and Writers
If you're a writer or just someone who loves a good mystery, there is so much to learn from Poe's 1841 masterpiece.
Look for the "Third Option"
In the story, the police were stuck. Either the door was locked from the inside (impossible) or someone vanished (supernatural). Dupin looked for the third option: a window that looked locked but wasn't. When you're stuck on a problem, stop looking at the two obvious paths.
Study the Mechanics of the Clue
Poe doesn't hide the clues from the reader. He tells you about the hair. He tells you about the voices. He gives you the same information the detective has. That’s the "fair play" rule that makes mysteries satisfying. If the detective finds a piece of evidence in the last two pages that the reader never heard of, it feels like a cheat.
Understand "Ratiocination"
Poe believed that any problem created by a human (or an animal in a human environment) could be solved by a human. It’s about breaking a big, scary mess into tiny, manageable pieces of data.
To really appreciate the impact of this story, you should read it alongside a modern procedural. You'll see the echoes everywhere. You'll see why Poe is still the king of the macabre, even when he's trying to be the king of logic.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Knowledge:
- Read the sequel: Poe wrote two more Dupin stories, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt and The Purloined Letter. The latter is actually considered by many to be a better "pure" detective story because it relies on psychology rather than a freak animal accident.
- Compare with the 1932 film: Check out the Bela Lugosi film adaptation. It takes massive liberties with the plot—turning it into a "mad scientist" movie—but it shows how Hollywood has always struggled to adapt Poe's more cerebral style.
- Visit the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum: If you're ever in Baltimore or Philadelphia, visiting the places where Poe lived provides incredible context for the cramped, dark settings he favored in his writing.
- Analyze the "Inverted Detective Story": Research how Poe's structure led to the "Howcatchem" style (like Columbo), where the focus is on the detective's process rather than the identity of the killer.