Poe writes: "Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyze. A chess-player, for example, does the one without effort of the other.... [The] ingenuous are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic."

What skills and talents are being called on for this game as a challenge to the reader? Will Poe play fair to the end?

I think of Griswold as having the chess-player's calculation while Poe, the whist player, eventually wins the game with history.

The first chess move was made the day Poe was buried, when this obituary notice appeared in The New York Tribune news:

Of course, Griswold was Ludwig as he admitted in a letter and that "I was not his friend nor was he mine."

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I've searched a lot of websites, as well as my own bookshelves, and one of the best online account I've found about Poe -- well researched and unbiased -- is The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore website:

From the above link, after he published the obituary Griswold now makes his next move: "Griswold, having now assumed the mantle of a true villan, then began his not ingenuous plot. Through some less-than ethical arrangements with Maria Clemm, Poe's mother-in-law, he secured the rights to publish a posthumous collection of Poe's works .... The initial two volumes appeared towards the end of 1849 with a brief preface pronouncing the edition as a charitable act to benefit Mrs. Clemm. In actuality, instead of the promised money, Mrs. Clemm received six sets of the two volumes to sell it whatever she could get. Griswold even kept all the manuscript material Mrs. Clemm had sent to him, all worth far more than one-hundred sets would have been...."

"Initially the volumes contained only Poe's writings, reprinting brief and somewhat modified notices by James Russell Lowell and N.P. Willis, but Griswold was not done yet."

"In October of 1850, Griswold published an enlarged and even more vituperative account of Poe's life in the International Monthly Magazine. Almost siultaneously, this article appeared as a "Memoir of the Author" in a third volume of Poe's works. In this "Memoir" Griswold cleverly manipulated and invented details of Poe's life for the least favorable account he could create. He even forged letters from Poe to exaggerate his own role as Poe's benefactor and to alienate Poe's friends .... "

"No lie was too great for Griswold, no slander too outrageous. Poe's choice not to return to the University of Virginia became expulsion for wild and reckless behavior. Poe's honorable discharge from the army became desertion. The 1827 publication of Tamerlane and Other Poems was dismissed as a lie. He even accused Poe of engaging in some dark secret with the second Mrs. Allan and invented a scheme by which Poe was supposedly blackmailed by an 'unidentified literary woman of South Carolina' (Mrs. Eliet)."

"By praising Poe's writings, attacking Poe's character, Griswold managed to make himself appear to be a sincere admirer and to attain a false sense of fairness in his general approach to Poe. In short, it was a brilliant piece of character assassination. Poe's literary executor had become his literary executioner."

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Poe's talent was opposed by Griswold's mediocrity. A major cause for division between the two was Griswold's book project of Poets and Their Poetry, an omnibus of American poets he selected, many third-rate, and for whom Griswold penned biographies. Poe wrote to a friend "He (Graham/publisher) is not expecially pleased with Griswold -- nor is anyone else, with the exception of the Reverend gentleman himself, who has gotten into quite a hornet's nest by his Poets and Poetry. He is a pretty fellow to set himself up as an honest judge, or even a capable one." -- Poe letter to F.W. Thomas, September 12, 1842

I think I've figured out the discussion schedule. We read and discuss the first half of the story through the Oct 1st and then the second half of the story from Oct 2 - 5. The new link Bill provided -- in post 7 -- has the story on two webpages. Page one is the first half of the story; the continuation onto page 2 is the second half. For anyone who's reading the story from an actual book, the first half ends with

When I was reading the first webpage for the story, I kept thinking of Holmes and Watson. There are many similarities including the relationship between detective and narrator/recorder. And Dupin's rather an egoist like Holmes. (Loved the part about the narrator paying the bills!) Even Dupin's 'excited state' when making seemingly wild deductions can match Holmes drug-induced states.

I agree with Babi that the informed deduction that Dupin made with his friend over the short cobbler is rather shaky as deductions go. Although, Dupin knows the narrator well enough to make educated guesses he doesn't posit them as deduction until his friend confirms the guess with an action (such as looking up at the sky).

What I'm getting from this first part as far as Dupin's theory of deduction is that behind any detection method 'of the moment', painstaking search, guesses... behind any of this must be 'educated thought' or 'reflective intellect' or analysis. I think that Dupin/Poe suggests that one must not bore into a topic with tunnel vision that rejects any other possibility (staring straight into a star's brilliance) but from a glancing look (ie an unexpected perspective that looks fresh onto a topic). From one of the early paragraphs of the story:

I think this is saying, to use a hackneyed modern expression, 'think outside the box; reject no idea out of hand'. Later writers have refined and polished Poe's framework for a detective story and the clues are more sophisticated; but Poe was the first.

Of course Arthur Conan Doyle is incomparable as the master detective writer. He used Poe's origination of the private detective as a jumping off point. ACD is brilliant and I give high marks to his being inspired by Poe while at the same time taking the detecive story to another level entirely. Both authors are masters in the detective field, each in their own individual and imaginative way. (Horselover, I don't think there was any 'typical' locked room mystery at the time Poe wrote "Rue Morgue." While now it's a standard.) Both Poe and ACD were/are originals.

I think Sherlock Holmes pretty well meshes with the Dupin character although he's more fleshed out; but the Narrator is more withdrawn than Dr. Watson who I always have seen as sociable and Watson is also characterized in more detail. One similarity it that the Narrator is the recorder of Dupin's work just as Watson is of Sherlock. Also Dupin/Sherlock are eager to deduce anything at the drop of a hat; they need that stimulation.

Should we assemble clues to the "Rue Morgue" or is the point moot since we're so familiar with the story?

What I'm enjoying is recognizing the evolution of the detective and the detective story from Poe to Conan Doyle and onward. I found a 1928 list by author S.S Van Dine, creator of Philo Vance, private detective. The list sets down what should be included/excluded from a mystery story:

(The Van Dine article is now in public domain.) The 20 rules pretty well matches the story structures of Poe and Conan Doyle while more modern detective stories have fudged on some of the rules, such as the infamous story by Agatha Christie and the occasional addition of romance in today's stories. Yet, in most cases the romances play a minor role in the story; secondary to the puzzle.

Another clue is the Confusing Language of one of the suspects. Each witness attributed a different nationality to that suspect, unable to agree on what language s/he was speaking.

The Locked Room as a clue: The police aren't well thought of by Dupin because of their lack of analysis. Yet we have only the police report to go by, so far, as regards the locked room.

With the gold coins scattered about, can we discount robbery as a motive? If so, the why were these two women killed?

Bill, the 20 Rules interested me to see how detective writing followed from Poe's first stories. There were some rules there that I hadn't thought of either that I now see are in most detective stories.

Another link with information also includes photos such as a close-up comparison of human-to-orangutan hands, arm span of the orangutan etc:

There are lots of interesting sites about this endangered species but I thought these and Babi's link related well to Poe's story.

I agree Babi about the orangutan. There are other misconceptions about the story, centering around its author. People think EAP must have been demented or temporarily 'excited' to write such stories; but some writers of the time, and even today, feel the need to shake readers from their common ways of thinking (much like Buddhist teachers)so that they can see clearly.

Poe also had a theory called the 'unity of effect', meaning that he pre-determined what effect a story or poem should produce in readers and then everything is written for that intended effect. That's one strong reason why in "Rue Morgue" Dupin and the narrator live in a run-down house in perpetual night with the windows shuttered and draped against sunlight. These two men are destined by Poe for a macabre mystery right from the start.

The Griswold-influenced myth of Poe's excited state when writing is just that, a myth. Poe himself debunked that idea during his lifetime. He also wrote in his essay "Philosophy of Composition" :

Poe isn't talking here necessarily about an outline so much as a general overview of the effect he intends in a work and always keeping that in mind as he writes. Most writers will do that and some do outline their stories. In Poe's case, what we do know is that he didn't write 'in a fine frenzy'; rather, he wrote with deliberation.

I generally don't indulge in personal stories, but thought this following one appropriate. When a young and adventurous woman, in order to live overseas, and be able to travel, I found work with various companies. Having to stay in one country for a few years gave me the opportunity to learn the culture but I did get itchy feet after a bit. I was dining at a friend's place in Saigon -- a second story apartment with shuttered windows all around, no glass; the overhead fan stirred the air and the shutters were open to catch any breeze -- and we were talking when we heard this shriek and looked up to see a chimp on the rooftops, staring back at us. Sometimes animals were driven in from the jungle either by disease or hunger (rare) or human distrubance. My friends two Siamese cats started bawling and the chimp made purposefully for us over the rooftops. While the chimp skittered across the tiled roofs, we -- friend and self -- ran around to all the windows, slamming and locking the shutters. It was close near the end. The last shutters were locked just as the chimp tried them out. Now this chimp had huge teeth and a strong body, and even if it was frightened or sickt it was still dangerous given the situation. A chimp is smaller than an orangutan (which is 2/3 the size of a gorilla) but is certainly formidable when compared to humans (or Siamese cats)!

So I understand that the orangutan, normally peaceful, would be dangerous when frightened. And the women would be terrified and rightly so.

The feeling I got as I snuggled up in my comforter was of being in the Baker Street parlor with Holmes and Watson as Inspector Lestrade makes a house call for help. I can now really see Poe as ACD's inspiration. Dupin is interested in the puzzle and in proving himself right and he likes to poke fun at G.-- the Prefect of the Parisian Police with his dogged, unthinking approach to crime-solving. This is like Holmes and yes, it really isn't true to most policemen-private detectives but it's still fun to be a part of the Dupin or Holmes team.

Poe can never resist humor. In "The Purloined Letter", Dupin states that a mathematician cannot reason whereas, if a man is a poet, then of course he's equipped to reason! Love that and anyone who's a poet -- exclusively or almost exclusively a poet -- will laugh out loud at Poe's riff on the reasoning abilities of poet versus mathematician. Most poets are fond of crossword puzzles and anything needing a solution such as mystery stories. There is a good deal in truth about poets and reason as Poe defines reason; also, a lot of tongue-in-check humor about poets.

"Rue Morgue" was the first story with Dupin the private detective, then there was "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and then the third and last Dupin in "The Purloined Letter." Too bad he didn't have time to write more of them; but we do have ACD carrying the banner forward with his stories.

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Clues. I don't know if Poe played fair with the clues in "Rue Morgue" (although being a 'first' there wasn't any tacit agreement between reader and author about rules for detective stories). We learn most of the clues just when Dupin reveals their meanings. We aren't given time to solve the mystery ourselves. Or are we?

Is that still the way in many stories ... even "The Tenth Clew" by Dashiell Hammett? Don't remember about that last Hammett story. The next mysteries I read I'll be looking to see if the reader is given any 'lead' time to think about clues and solve the puzzle.

The two sailors combined resources to buy the orangutan, expecting a profit. This wasn't unusual. This is small scale capitalism; the greater profits belonging to the bankers and companies that owned the vessels and were basically doing the same thing as the sailors but on a larger scale.

As far as I can tell about the fireplace, Poe was accurate there too when he described the "narrow aperature". The house on the Rue Morgue was considered in the 1840s to be an older style. The 18th and 19th century fireplaces had wide hearths for cooking and, according to what I could find, the typical chimney was a narrow, single flue designed to try to eliminate backdrafts and turbulence.

Maybe Dupin could find for me an exotic Cocker Spaniel?